“KnowCoat” - A Knowledge Management project focussed specifically on the coatings industry supply chain

Background

The 'Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development' (OECD) define the ICT (Information, Communication and Technology) sector as a combination of manufacturing service industries that capture, transmit and display data and information electronically. ICT is a rapidly growing sector with a major impact on GDP. Under the auspices of the Fifth Framework Programme the IST (Information Society Technologies) initiated a number of major information initiatives in this sector to serve European competitiveness while meeting socio-economic needs and EU policies. Key actions include the development of essential IT and IS technologies and infrastructures across all industries. KnowCoat is one of the projects from this initiative which focusses specifically on the coatings industry. However ther project is generic and the principles can be applied in other sectors of the chemical industry. Applications from the coatings industry are used to demonstrate the capability of the platform.

The KnowCoat project aims to produce an integrated ICT platform for knowledge management. Integrated parts will include an XML solution to knowledge capture and its distribution, which will be combined with expert rules and the capability for personalised functionality through the interface. XML is a markup language for documents containing structured information which has capabilities beyond HTML as currently used by the WWW community. XML will allow distribution of 'richly' structured documents over the web.

Knowcoat has a project budget of €4.0 million of which €2.0 million is provided by EU funding. The project will be managed and delivered by a consortium of 11 partners representing specific ICT skills and knowledge of the coatings industry. The project comprises ten work packages each with specific deliverable.

At the inaugural meeting which was held in Amsterdam on 18th January 2002, it was agreed that PRA would lead the first work package which addressed the definition of user information and interfacing needs.

For the project is to meet its ambitious objectives it was essential that industry is fully involved with the requirements analysis. To this end a number Industrial Reference Groups (IRG) have been formed from suppliers, producers, applicators and end-users. PRA Council and Board members have formed an IRG groups with regular meetings. The final meeting is sceduled for 27th July. Other PRA, or Industry, members interested in finding further information on any aspect of the project are invited to contact Jon Graystone .