New ideas for knowledge management in product development projects

Due to their high complexity, product development processes should be expected to be a highly rewarding field for the application of knowledge management systems. Nonetheless, such systems are rarely used in practice. One important reason is that the extra effort of writing down knowledge is widely perceived as slowing down the actual design work without offering visible benefits. Also, writing documents is typically not a favourite pastime of technicians and engineers. There is a high inhibition threshold due to the expectation that the text within a document is well structured and formulated. Furthermore, documents as knowledge carriers require additional effort to retrieve the knowledge: Often the user has to screen several complete documents to find the piece of information he/she is looking for. Full text searches can help, but quite frequently lead to irrelevant information or miss out an important passages because different words were used. So, economically speaking, knowledge management does not yield sufficient return on investment. The authors claim that this can be changed when • knowledge capturing is not a separate activity, but is integrated in the daily design work, • knowledge is integrated into a comprehensive representation of the design and the ongoing design process, • knowledge capturing can be done with very low effort, • knowledge retrieval is very efficient, i.e. the user finds relevant information quickly and reliably, • the captured knowledge can be automatically processed in order to extract different views and to create reports for different purposes. It will be shown that a system that handles a large number of small notes is able to fulfil these requirements. Writing a small note on an adhesive paper is surely the easiest and most popular way of putting down knowledge. The rising popularity of Blogs and Wiki systems for documentation purposes, even in business, shows that people are willing to put down and to share knowledge if they can do it in small portions

Managing customer knowledge during the concept development stage of the new food product development process

New product development (NPD) is a knowledge intensive process where the generation of new ideas and concepts requires detailed knowledge of both products and customers. The high reported failure rates for innovative functional beverages suggest an inability to manage customer knowledge effectively, as well as a lack of knowledge management between functional disciplines involved in the NPD process. This research explored the concept of managing customer knowledge at the early stages of the NPD process, through the use of advanced concept optimisation methods, and applied it to the development of a range of functional beverages. A conjoint - based survey was administered to four hundred customers in Ireland. This research identified two hypothetical functional beverage concepts with high levels of customer acceptance. Managing customer knowledge during the concept development stage of the NPD process can assist firms overcome customer acceptance issues associated with innovative products. Methodologies that advance both a firm's understanding of customers' choice motives and value systems, and its knowledge management process, can increase the chances of new product success in international food and beverage markets.Knowledge Management, New Product Development, Functional Beverages, Marketing,

Why New Business Development Projects Fail: Coping with the Differences of Technological versus Market Knowledge

Managing through projects has become important for generating new knowledge to cope with technological and market discontinuities. This paper examines how the fit between the creation of technological and market knowledge and important project management characteristics, i.e. project autonomy and completion criteria, influences the success of new business development (NBD) projects. In-depth longitudinal case research on NBD-projects commercialised during the period 1993-2003 in the consumer electronics industry highlights that project management characteristics focusing only on the creation of technological knowledge contributed to the failure of those NBD-projects that required new market knowledge as well. The findings indicate that senior management support and engaging in an alliance with partners possessing complementary market knowledge can offset this misalignment of the organisation of NBD-projects.new product development;project management;strategic alliances;knowledge;new business development;exploitation-exploration;sales force

An assembly oriented design framework for product structure engineering and assembly sequence planning

The paper describes a novel framework for an assembly-oriented design (AOD) approach as a new functional product lifecycle management (PLM) strategy, by considering product design and assembly sequence planning phases concurrently. Integration issues of product life cycle into the product development process have received much attention over the last two decades, especially at the detailed design stage. The main objective of the research is to define assembly sequence into preliminary design stages by introducing and applying assembly process knowledge in order to provide an assembly context knowledge to support life-oriented product development process, particularly for product structuring. The proposed framework highlights a novel algorithm based on a mathematical model integrating boundary conditions related to DFA rules, engineering decisions for assembly sequence and the product structure definition. This framework has been implemented in a new system called PEGASUS considered as an AOD module for a PLM system. A case study of applying the framework to a catalytic-converter and diesel particulate filter sub-system, belonging to an exhaust system from an industrial automotive supplier, is introduced to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed AOD methodology

Data-driven through-life costing to support product lifecycle management solutions in innovative product development

Innovative product usually refers to product that comprises of creativity and new ideas. In the development of such a new product, there is often a lack of historical knowledge and data available to be used to perform cost estimation accurately. This is due to the fact that traditional cost estimation methods are used to predict costs only after a product model has been built, and not at an early design stage when there is little data and information available. In light of this, original equipment manufacturers are also facing critical challenges of becoming globally competitive and increasing demands from customer for continuous innovation. To alleviate these situations this research has identified a new approach to cost modelling with the inclusion of product lifecycle management solutions to address innovative product development.The aim of this paper, therefore, is to discuss methods of developing an extended-enterprise data-driven through-life cost estimating method for innovative product development

The Conditions for Repository Knowledge Management System Success in New Product Development

To address the challenges of knowledge sharing in new product development (NPD) processes, many companies implement knowledge management systems (KMSs). KMS projects are, however, often not successful, and the literature disagrees on which factors affect their success. To advance this knowledge, the present study investigates the conditions for KMS success in NPD processes through a series of interviews with NPD professionals. This process identifies 43 concepts, organized under 17 dimensions, influencing the success of repository KMSs. Through the identification of relationships between these dimensions, a conceptual model describing the conditions for KMS success is developed. The study hereby provides two main overall contributions. First, as compared to existing models, the present model provides a more detailed and complete account of the factors that influence KMS success. Second, the study identifies four main characteristics that set KMS projects apart from other enterprise information system projects

An Approach to Conceptual and Embodiment Design within a New Product Development Lifecycle Framework

[EN] The design of new innovative products is the result of an accurate and precise management of knowledge sources all over its life cycle, such as technology, market, competitors and suppliers. The work contributes with a framework that shows how the knowledge sources influence in the state-of-the-art and market needs so that they become opportunities for innovating products addressing the whole product life cycle. It provides a systematic path from the early generation of ideas to the production of a new product proposal. Through a deep analysis of previous research works of new product innovation life cycle development frameworks and linking it with knowledge management, strategic planning and scorecards, we came out with a structured contribution. The result considers the concurrent activities and its relationships all the way through the product life cycle that can help in creativity and innovation, combined with a process management proposal. Managing the sources of knowledge in highly dynamic markets and technologies is one of the major difficulties involved in innovative products design and development. The emerging knowledge from external sources is confronted with organisation internal knowledge and experience in order to achieve the first product correct.This work was supported by the Spanish Government and the Universitat Jaume I of Castellon (Spain) through research [project number P11B2009-37], entitled 'Methodologies for Implementing Product lifecycle management tools for mechanical Small and Medium Enterprises'.Vila, C.; Albinana, JC. (2016). An Approach to Conceptual and Embodiment Design within a New Product Development Lifecycle Framework. International Journal of Production Research. 54(10):2856-2874. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2015.1110632S28562874541

Knowledge-sharing Strategies in Distributed Collaborative Product Development

Knowledge-sharing strategies are used across the industry as open innovation and distributed collaboration are becoming more popular to achieve technological competencies, faster time-to-market, competitiveness and growth. Sharing of knowledge can provide benefits to manufacturing and new product development (NPD) companies in improving their product quality and enhancing business potential. This paper examines the implementation of knowledge-sharing strategies in New Zealand aimed at bridging the physical locational issues to achieve collaborative benefits in NPD firms through an in-depth case study. The analysis of this only one, but interesting, case extends a holistic multi-mediation model by Pateli and Lioukas for the effect of functional involvement in a distributed collaborative product development environment. This study explores the external and internal knowledge transfer and how it affects early-stage, late-stage, and the overall product development process. Findings present a knowledge-sharing toolset that enhances innovation in all stages of product development overcoming the environmental factors to improve early and late-stage development through a two-way knowledge-transfer loop with distributed stakeholders. An encouraging management culture is found as key for transparent knowledge transfer across cross-functional teams. The organizational structure and management style play an important role for both external and internal distribution of knowledge.fals

A Study on Knowledge Management Capabilities towards New Product Innovation Type and Development Performance of Chinese Businesses

A business needs to constantly innovate and reinforce the competitiveness for the survival development and sustainable management. Focus on new product development has become the key factor in modern manufacturers maintaining the competitiveness. The process and the results depend on the effective application and management of organizational knowledge that it is necessary to reinforce the capabilities in order to promote the new product development performance. With random sampling, the employees and the managers in top ten businesses of 1,000 Chinese industrial businesses are distributed 1,000 copies of questionnaire. Total 568 effective copies are retrieved, with the retrieval rate 57%. The results show 1. the significantly positive correlation between knowledge acquisition capabilities in knowledge management capabilities and new product development performance, 2. the remarkably positive correlation between knowledge transformation and application capabilities in knowledge management capabilities and new product development performance, 3. the notably positive correlation between knowledge protection capabilities in knowledge management capabilities and new product development performance, and 4. the signifi- cant moderating effects of product innovation type on the correlation between knowledge management capabilities and new product development performance. The research results are expected to provide essential contributions and suggestions for the knowledge management capabilities and the new product development of Chinese businesses