Title: Evolutionary knowledge management: a case of system development within the manufacturing industry

Authors: Amit Mitra, Mildred Brown, Ray Hackney

Addresses: Information Systems Institute, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK. ' Bolton Institute, Bolton Business School, Deane Road, Bolton, BL3 5AB, UK. ' Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, Aytoun Building, Aytoun Street, Manchester M1 3GH, UK

Abstract: Significant volatility within the manufacturing industry has meant that managers are expected to maximise advantages out of available resources. A large part of these available resources have over time become intangible, resident in the skills and knowledge of the workforce. Competitive advantages have been gained by inter alia, reducing lead times in production, shortening of product lifecycles and enlarging the diversity of product ranges. Such initiatives are linked to flexibility and adaptability of the knowledge systems in place. Evidently for these organisations to succeed, it is necessary for them to have formal knowledge systems that could sufficiently facilitate production processes. The first objective of the present paper is to evaluate current practices in developing knowledge management systems. The second objective is to relate obtained evidence within a particular manufacturing organisation which produces components for the electronics industry. For the purpose of this paper the organisation is referred to as Sarison.

Keywords: knowledge management; manufacturing organisation; electronics industry; components manufacturing; business models; workshop; leadership site; knowledge representation; communication; culture.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2005.006625

International Journal of Technology Management, 2005 Vol.31 No.1/2, pp.98 - 115

Published online: 30 Mar 2005 *

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