A collaborative framework to minimise knowledge loss in new product development

Abstract

In today's consumer era, of rapidly shortened product life cycles, new product development has become essential for both growth and survival of organisations. The agility of new product development is governed by the effectiveness and efficiency of an organisation's intelligence and knowledge-management skills. In this rapidly changing dynamic and multi-layered environment, recognising, managing and preventing Knowledge Loss can be a key determinant of success of an organisation. In this paper, we argue for a collaborative network structure within the organisation to prevent knowledge loss in new product development. Based on our first-hand observations via an in-depth case study of six Indian auto-component manufacturing companies, we identify the sources of K-loss. We recommend ways to create collaboration pools that increase flow of information and communication and help mitigate knowledge loss throughout the value chain. We summarise our finding as usable rules-of-thumb for helping senior and middle-level managers develop and leverage collaborative networks for effectively managing knowledge loss for their organisations.