Knowledge Reuse during New Product Development: A Study of a Swedish Manufacturer

Abstract As organisations grow, consequences of poor knowledge management are evident for new employees in product developing companies. The problem of leveraging existing knowledge between development projects and departments is still relevant. This paper presents an industrial case study of a traditional manufacturing company and extends prior research addressing the reuse of organisational knowledge in new product development. The paper outlines barriers that hinder effective reuse of codified engineering knowledge and suggest means to overcome those barriers by using A3-reports in the PLM-system.