Management of technical knowledge in a company intranet

There is evidence to suggest that sharing of best practice and experience across projects will result in continued improvements in quality and reduced cost. An approach to building and managing Webs on technical topics has been developed and tried which enables the communication of best practice and experience. This approach is influenced by research in which engineers' behaviour was closely observed. Results from the research and the approach evolved is described. A Web based capability and lessons learnt support tools was set-up to provide better guidance on how key activities should be completed and on technical capability. This guidance is replacing existing technical manuals. A means for any engineer using the Web to record lessons learnt (problems and experience) is provided as part of a continuous improvement feedback loop. The Web tool is to provide this guidance across all projects throughout Rolls-Royce and including, eventually, collaborative projects. The Web tool is also to enable the lessons to be collected from and shared across all projects.