Abstract
In multi-domain product development organizations, there is a continuous need to transfer captured knowledge between engineers to enable better design decisions in the future. The objective of this paper is to evaluate how engineering knowledge can be captured, disseminated and (re)used by applying a knowledge reuse tool entitled Engineering Checksheet (ECS). The tool was introduced in 2012 and this evaluation has been performed over the 2017–2018 period. This case study focused on codified knowledge in incremental product development with a high reuse potential both in and over time. The evaluation draws conclusions from the perspectives of the knowledge workers (the engineers), knowledge owners and knowledge managers. The study concludes that the ECS has been found to be valuable in enabling a timely understanding of technological concepts related to low level engineering tasks in the product development process. Hence, this enables knowledge flow and, in particular, reuse among inexperienced engineers, as well as providing quick and accurate quality control for experienced engineers. The findings regarding knowledge ownership and management relate to the need for clearly defining a knowledge owner structure in which communities of practice take responsibility for empowering engineers to use ECS and as knowledge evolves managing updates to the ECS.
Highlights
Introduction and motivationKnowledge is regularly seen as a valuable asset in modern product development as most products are developed in generations and as new product generations are based on existing products (Grant 1996; Alavi & Leidner 2001; Albers, Bursac & Wintergerst 2015)
The roles are divided into knowledge manager, knowledge owner and knowledge worker who all contributed to increasing the efficiency of product development initiatives by viewing knowledge as a valuable asset
‘Best practices are equivalent to standards for how to design at the moment’ and ‘standard is state-of-the-art and when you deviate from the standard you should ask for permission’ create a good perspective on the rationale for Knowledge Management (KM)
Summary
Introduction and motivationKnowledge is regularly seen as a valuable asset in modern product development as most products are developed in generations and as new product generations are based on existing products (Grant 1996; Alavi & Leidner 2001; Albers, Bursac & Wintergerst 2015). The new product or its sub-systems are either adapted to new product generation by means of carryover or are newly developed based on shape or principal variation This situation needs to be considered when uncovering development methods and processes to make existing knowledge reusable to achieve increased efficiency. Most studies investigating knowledge reuse and codification put emphasis on KM systems, driven by the goal to make knowledge available to team members through the systematic storage of knowledge, and assuming it is correctly performed, the knowledge will be automatically reused (Alavi & Leidner 2001; Markus 2001; Watson & Hewett 2006) This does not seem to be true and points out the need to focus on a more balanced approach between personalization and codification while highlighting the reuse capabilities (Schacht & Maedche 2016). Rather they are pure storage bins that are used only sporadically in practice
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