Barriers to reuse of codified engineering knowledge in product development - a literature review

Abstract

Organisations have for a long time been applying a codification strategy, to build and reuse engineering knowledge throughout product development and the product lifecycle. Billions of dollars have been invested in systems to support knowledge capture, including investments in IT systems and upgrades to PDM/PLM systems to support knowledge codification (documentation) and reuse. Nonetheless, research has shown that knowledge documentation is not used to the extent possible and quality issues within products that should be avoided still occur. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to review barriers that hinder valuable and effective codified knowledge reuse inside high technology product development companies. The study resulted in the identification of 18 barriers mapped into the typology of people, organisation and technology. The study contributes by providing insights for the design and implementation of knowledge management systems (KMS) allowing practitioners to develop strategies to overcome identified potential barriers and improve the engineering knowledge reuse strategy. The paper is also rounded up with a discussion regarding the KMS relation and potential integration with a PDM or PLM system.