Current Knowledge Management Activities in a Manufacturing Company in Malaysia: A Case Study

Abstract

The findings of a preliminary study conducted in a manufacturing company based in Selangor, Malaysia, are presented in this paper. There has been many instances where knowledge in an organization was lost, due to the knowledge not properly managed. One method of managing knowledge is by implementing a Knowledge Management System (KMS). The preliminary study was conducted in order to determine the current Knowledge Management (KM) activities in the company, and also to find out whether a KMS is needed in the organization. The study was conducted via formal and informal interviews, observations, and also sharing sessions. The study involved employees from various engineering departments in the company, as they are the target users for a KMS to be developed for the company. A survey is planned to be distributed among employees to further cement the findings in the near future. Based on the results obtained, it was found that KM is not yet a norm in the organization, but efforts to facilitate KM have been recently started. Hence, it can be concluded that a KMS is needed in the company, in order to maintain their intellectual assets.