KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOR PRODUCT AND PROCESS DESIGN

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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOR PRODUCT AND PROCESS
DESIGN

• Gülru F. Özkan, Cheryl Gaimon, Stylianos Kavadias
• College of Management
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• POMS 2007

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MOTIVATION

• Knowledge ? source of competitive advantage
• We focus on knowledge management of the product
  and process design teams
• Teams embed knowledge ?
• product attributes and process capabilities
• Interface between knowledge management and new
  product development

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Knowledge Management Literature

• Learning-by-doing
• Lapre and Van Wassenhove (2000, 2001), Ittner et
  al. (2001), Biskup and Simons (2004).
• Knowledge Acquisition
• Mukherjee et al. (1998), Hatch and Mowery
  (1998), Goldstein (2003), Carrillo Gaimon
  (2000), (2004).
• Knowledge transfer
• Argote Ingram (2000), Darr, Argote and Epple
  (1995), Emery (2002), Szulanski (1996),
  Zellmer-Bruhn (2003)

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New Product Development Literature

• Concurrent Engineering
• Chakravarty (2001), Krishnan et al. (1997),
  Smith Eppinger (1997), Eppinger (2001),
  MacCormack Iansiti (2001)
• Knowledge transfer
• Loch Terwiesch (1996), Ha and Porteus (1995),
  Loch Terwiesch (1998), Terwiesch et al. (2002)
• Simultaneous knowledge transfer
• Lado et al. (1997), Luo et al. (2006), Mihm
  et al. (2003)

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CONTRIBUTIONS

• Holistic view of knowledge management throughout
  NPD project
• Knowledge transfer in both directions
• No dependency structure between teams
• Capture complex and dynamic relationships between
  knowledge levels of teams
• Synergistic/conflicting impact of simultaneous
  knowledge transfer
• Capture tradeoff between launching inferior
  product early and superior product late

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RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• What drives the managers strategies for
  knowledge transfer and knowledge acquisition of
  the product and process design teams?
• What is the effect of learning-by-doing?
• What is the effect of uncertainty resolution?
• When should the manager delay her pursuit of
  knowledge transfer and why?
• How does time to market pressure affect the
  development of team knowledge?

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KNOWLEDGE DYNAMICS
Knowledge acquisition
Knowledge acquisition
Knowledge transfer
Process Design M(t)
Product Design D(t)
Knowledge transfer
Learning-by-doing
Learning-by-doing
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LEARNING-BY-DOING
Process Design
Product Design
M(t)
D(t)
aM(t)r1
aD(t)?1
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KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION
d2g(t)D(t)?4
m2g(t)M(t)r4
Process Design M(t)
Product Design D(t)
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KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
m1b(t)D(t)r2M(t)r3
Process Design M(t)
Product Design D(t)
d1?(t)M(t)?2D(t)?3
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NET REVENUE V(X(T),Y(T),T)

• ? knowledge embedded by product process design
  teams over development project.
• Cumulative effective product team efforts
• X(T) d1(t)D(t)dt
• Cumulative effective process team efforts
• Y(T) d2(t)M(t)
• and T is the product release time (decision var.)

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OBJECTIVE Maximize

• VX(T),Y(T),T
• - C1?(t)C2b(t)C3?(t),b(t)C4?(t)C5
  g(t)dt
• (1) (2) (3) (4)
  (5)
• Net revenue earned at the product release
• costs of pursuing
• (1)-(3) knowledge transfer including synergy vs.
  conflict
• and (4) (5) knowledge acquisition.

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Rates of Knowledge Transfer and Acquisition
 
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CASE 1 Knowledge Transfer and Acquisition for
Product Design Team
?(t)
?(t)
 
time
0
time
0
T
T
t?
t?
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CASE 2 Knowledge Transfer and Acquisition for
Product Design Team
 
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CASE 34 Knowledge Transfer and Acquisition for
Product Design Team
?(t) or ?(t)
 
time
0
T
t? or t?
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Optimal Launch Time (T)
VX(T)?1(T)D(T)VY(T)?2(T)M(T) -VT
RHS
 
LHS
T
time
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Optimal Launch Time (T)
 
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Optimal Launch Time (T)
RHS
 
LHS
T
T2
time
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INSIGHTS

• Rates of knowledge transfer acquisition for
  product design team are larger if
• Either teams rate of learning-by-doing is
  larger
• Returns of knowledge transfer in either direction
  are larger
• Returns of knowledge acquisition for the product
  design team is larger
• Marginal revenue earned from more product OR
  process design team knowledge is larger
• Uncertainty is resolved faster.

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CONCLUSIONS

• Insights on KM of the product and process design
  teams during an NPD project due to
• Learning-by-doing.
• Drivers of revenue
• Rate of uncertainty resolution
• Disruption from knowledge acquisition or
  transfer.
• Initial level of product (process) design
  knowledge.
• Extent of time-based competition.
• Impact of conflict or synergy for simultaneous
  knowledge transfer between teams.

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FUTURE DIRECTIONS

• Analysis of different representations of
  knowledge transfer effectiveness
• Various net revenue functions at the product
  release times reflecting different industries.
• Numerical examples based on different industry
  characteristics.
• Consider forgetting, or knowledge depreciation.
• Imperfect knowledge transfer processes.