Competence management by informatics in R&D: the corporate level

Resources of deep competence available in all fields required by the new product development process (NPD) demanded monodisciplinary groups of specialists acting as living systems. Group members, being in an everyday face-to-face contact and using the same terminology in an atmosphere of common problem solving, can create the core competence necessary for corporate success. The usual ways to assign specialists of different professions in interdisciplinary project teams endanger this by removing the individual from the source of competence. Use of the resource box model for information structuring with full-media communication enables establishment of virtual teams for project work. Then the team members can provide the total knowledge of the competence group without leaving it. The structure of operative resource boxes as a basis combined with supporting resource boxes and decision boxes can build a network organization. It relies on a communication system in three levels providing valuable information of high quality. This organization concept is based on deep studies for several years of a high-tech Swedish product development organization.