Towards pragmatic approaches for knowledge management in engineering - theory and industrial applications

摘要

Corporate knowledge is nowadays well accepted as a decisive asset in most European enterprises. The know-how and expertise of the work-force is an important factor for the success of companies and strongly influences the effectiveness and efficiency of the business processes and their outcome. The concept of Knowledge Management (KM) receives high strategic attention across multiple sectors. In the engineering area, KM is specifically relevant due to the knowledge intensive character of the domain. The new product development process, which is an innovative and a non-repetitive process par se, is especially interested in learning from the lessons of the past. However, today's practice in KM still lacks from significant drawbacks and the existing knowledge is captured and capitalised only to a small degree. The reasons for this are manifold, and one of the most critical factors is time. Though many employees are willing to document and utilise existing knowledge, they do not have the time to do this in the pressure of day-to-day business life. Consequently, there is a strong need for methods and tools with utmost user friendliness for rapid Knowledge Management. This paper aims to contribute to this need by discussing the relevance of pragmatic approaches for KM in engineering. Three cases will serve as an example for presenting benefits and drawbacks.