3 . A suitable application to support knowledge engineering is PCPACK 4 . A practical application is chosen to demonstrate the use of KE techniques in a real-life situation. The example that is chosen is the design of Fibre Metal Laminate (FML) fuselage skin panels for the Airbus A380 aircraft at Stork Fokker AESP, Papendrecht, The Netherlands. Within the FML engineering process, various opportunities for KBE applications are identified. The most beneficial KBE application is the automation of the sub-division process of the prepreg plies. The sub-division process of the prepreg plies accounts for approximately 20% of the total production preparation time. The produced informal model of the design process is used to produce a KBE application. With respect to the traditional prepreg sub-division process, a lead-time reduction of 75% can be gained using this KBE application. In contrast to the theoretical development time, the development time for the KBE system is equal to approximately six design cycles of the traditional prepreg ply sub-division process. The results of the KBE application in relation to the design made by the design engineer are highly accurate. The prepreg cutting waste can be reduced by 50% for the basic laminate of the panels.
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