Reducing variation in the build of a vehicle body is a critical element in improving its quality.Assembly plants have "dimensional-management teams," who monitor variation, respond to "variation crises," and continually reduce variation when there are no crises.These teams have, in the past, not kept archival records and have not shared solutions with other teams.This paper describes our project to develop an ontology, design a case structure, define similarity, and develop a user interface for case reporting and case-based retrieval.This work is in its early stages, but we have learned enough to make a preliminary report. 

Keywords: Lessons Learned, Case-Based Retrieval, Ontological Engineering, Knowledge Management, Automotive Manufacturing, Variation Reduction, Quality 

Submitted for the Special Track on CBR at the 14^th International FLAIRS 2001 Conference.