چالش تدوین دانش ضمنی در طراحی و ساخت : مطالعه موردی سیستم های CAD در صنعت طلا و جواهر هنگ کنگ

Using the separation of designing and making activities in quantity-production systems of the Hong Kong jewellery industry as a case, this paper will show that codifying the tacit knowledge into the CAD systems is becoming deliberately feasible when the tacit knowledge are converted into accessible and applicable formats without losing its distinctive properties. The contextual analysis of the conventional jewellery production systems indicates that the separation of knowledge leads the consequence and the problems of partial representation. In order to study how the tacit-format attributes, which were separately contributed by the jewellery designers and goldsmith, can be extracted, recaptured, recorded, integrated and finally coded into CAD database, a project of scanning a hand-crafted 3D object was initiated and implemented. The successful result of the tested project not only demonstrates the feasibility of codification of tacit knowledge in design representation, but also gives a strong theoretical foundation of the extendibility of both tacit and coded knowledge in a design perspective.

In order to deal with the rapid growth of mass demand in the global markets, the Hong Kong jewellery manufacturing industry has shifted since the 1970s from craft-based small batch-making to quantity-production. This transition has brought about the development of a localized conventional jewellery factory production system. Based on intensive exploitation of low-cost technology and the separation of designing and production processes within the technical division of labor, the industry has effected a translation of a craft-process into a mechanized industrial process. This system, whilst relatively successful in the past, now comes under increasing pressure from Hong Kong's competitors, since they are undermining Hong Kong's competitiveness on both the cost and technology sides.1 Computer technology, particularly CAD/CAM and RP tools, now provide more efficient means, in the sense of time-compression, in product design, development and production. However, for the craft-based products like jewellery which are embodied with rich intrinsic socio-cultural value of craft, such new technology, although providing clear benefits in production and development, also gives rise to serious philosophical and practical challenges, particularly in terms of the translation or encoding of handcrafted sensibilities, skills and embodied features into computer-based design representations.