How to differ Know Why from Know How
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Kungliga tekniska högskolan - Institutionen för industriell produktion |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 500 000 |
| Project duration | October 2012 - November 2013 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | FFI - Sustainable Production |
| Call | 2012-02182-en |
| End-of-project report | 2012-02500sv.pdf(pdf, 170 kB) (In Swedish) |
Important results from the project
The project aimed at, in a global business environment, ensure controlled access to manufacturing data (the product `know-how´), without disclosing the product IP (`know-why´). The original hypotheses: it is generally possible to distinguish between `know-how´ and `know-why´, was too simple. Instead we developed a model, K3P, which takes the company business drivers and product types, as well as processes and IT-systems into account. A demonstrator has shown the feasibility of the K3P approach.
Expected long term effects
The K3P model enables controlled access to data at an arbitrary level of detail, e.g., to an individual tolerance on a drawing and not just to the drawing as a whole. It is also possible to achieve full traceability of who has had access to which information at which point in time. The K3P model has been well received by our industrial partners. Here the demonstrator illustrating the usage of the model played an important role. There is on ongoing discussion about a continuation of this project.
Approach and implementation
Workshops with the participating companies were used as the main working method. Initially these workshops were fruitful for everyone, but eventually the lack of concrete material was becoming evident. We then took the decision to develop a demonstrator to illustrate the ideas behind the K3P model. This turned out to be vital for the understanding and acceptance of the model. Henceforth there will be no project without a demonstrator!