Knowledge Management for Product Development: A Review

Engineering product development is becoming increasingly collaborative and knowledge-intensive in today's industry. On one hand, the product development process comprises various tasks that involve extensive knowledge exchange and communication among geographically distributed teams. On the other hand, the product development teams usually reuse engineering knowledge from a vast well of previous design experience when solving new design problems. Hence, there is a strong need to capture, store and reuse the knowledge for product development. In this paper, the different understanding and classifications of engineering knowledge are presented. Two aims of knowledge management for product development are analyzed. Furthermore, the researches of engineering knowledge management are summarized based on critical phases of knowledge management process. Finally, future research directions of knowledge management in engineering are discussed.