Practical Knowledge and Collaboration in Engineering

• Published in: Integrating Human Aspects in Production Management pp. 203 - 215
• Main Authors: Pöyry, Päivi, Mäkelä, Markus, Meriluoto, Jouni, Luoma, Marju
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, MA Springer US 2005
• Series: IFIP International Conference for Information Processing
• Subjects: Collaboration; Distributed product development; Knowledge creation; Knowledge management in engineering; Knowledge sharing
• ISBN: 0387230653; 9780387230658
• ISSN: 1571-5736
• DOI: 10.1007/0-387-23078-5_16

This paper presents the results of a case study conducted in networked product development organisations. In this study, the emphasis is on various dimensions of collaboration and knowledge sharing. The results indicate that knowledge is shared quite fluently in this network of collaborating partners. However, the tacit dimension of knowledge is not yet given enough attention. The information systems and other tools supporting knowledge management are focused on document management and other explicit knowledge, whilst the tactical knowledge is still shared in immediate communication or face-to-face meetings in an unstructured manner. The support for sharing tacit knowledge should be improved for example by encouraging the creation of communities of practice and by providing technological platforms for them.