Knowledge Management Tools Integration within DLR's Concurrent Engineering Facility

The complexity of space endeavors has increased the need of Knowledge Management (KM) tools. Establishing a KM concept within the Concurrent Engineering Facility (CEF) has been a research topic of the German Aerospace Centre (DLR). The current KM tools of the CEF are presented: the Software Platform for Organizing and Capturing Knowledge (S.P.O.C.K.), the data model Virtual Satellite (VirSat), and the Simulation Models Library (SimMoLib), and how their usage improved the CE-process. This work also exposes the lessons learned from the introduction of KM practices into the CEF and elaborates a roadmap for the further development of KM in CE activities at DLR. The results of the application of the Knowledge Management tools have shown the potential of merging the three software platforms with its functionalities, as the next step towards the fully integration of KM practices into the CE-process. VirSat will stay as the main software platform used within a CE-study, and S.P.O.C.K. and SimMoLib will be integrated into VirSat. These tools will support the data model as a reference and documentation source, and as an access to simulation and calculation models. The use of KM tools in the CEF aims to become a basic practice during the CE-process. The settlement of this practice will result in a much more extended knowledge and experience exchange within the Concurrent Engineering environment and, consequently, the outcome of the studies will comprise higher quality in the design of space systems