This research builds on three projects that aim to investigate how knowledge transfer takesplace in new product development in the automotive industry. The study seeks to picture howproduct development teams frame and shape new product knowledge, how they interpret suchknowledge, and how they apply knowledge to the product development process.From that perspective, product development activities can be seen as transactions that areintegrated into an overall system of identifying, assessing, collecting and combiningknowledge.Results of my research so far reveal that there are many factors that affect the successfulmanagement of knowledge transfer in new product development projects. Based on my firsttwo projects, using the case study approach, it is evident that for successful knowledgetransfer to occur, there is a need to distinguish between design knowledge that is embedded inthe tacit knowledge domain and that embedded in the or explicit design knowledge domain.The results of project three, using a survey questionnaire approach, provide a powerfuldemonstration, that knowledge integration, combination and creation in product developmentneed intensive interaction and collaboration.The enormous importance of interaction and collaboration to integrate and combineknowledge has its origin in the nature of design knowledge. For example engineers producedin the survey a 82 % rate of agreement with the statement that they use mainly knowledge thatcomes from their past work experience as product developers, in order to solve complexdesign tasks. The underlying assumption of this finding is, that engineers are therefore mostlyforced to transfer tacit design knowledge to solve complex design tasks.The research showed that a remarkable under-performance exists in knowledgeidentification and knowledge articulation in new product development in the automotiveindustry. In vehicle development, non-routine tasks are highly complex. This requires teammembers to have an understanding of the complete product system architecture.To create such an understanding, engineers need to identify and articulate knowledge.These activities can be seen as a pre-knowledge creation. The result is a shared product knowledge base, which makes it possible for people engaged in the vehicle developmentprocess to use different kinds of knowledge to capture and link new technologies intoinnovative products. This may require a cultural shift by vehicle manufacturers in terms ofhow they steer and allocate resources to future vehicle development programmes.Building on four years engagement with knowledge transfer research, I conclude thatorganisations in the automotive sector still rely on methods and processes that weresuccessful in the past and strictly directed at exploiting tangible assets. To integrate preknowledgecreation, as a new found discipline in product development projects creates anenormous potential to integrate and combine knowledge in an efficient way for future productdevelopment projects.
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