A collaborative approach to knowledge management - Application to SMEs in the mechanical engineering sector

This research concerns the definition of knowledge management approach that fits mechanical engineering SMEs requirements. The aim to formalise simple contextual knowledge descriptors associated with the technical objects handled by actors instead of formalising specific technical job know-how. Thus, we propose a collaborative knowledge management approach relying on a simple formalisation process and the creation of a knowledge-sharing culture. A prototype software tool, called KALIS (Knowledge about Activities as a Link to Information Sharing), has been developed to share and identify useful information handled during projects thanks to a maturity assessment framework. This collaborative knowledge management approach has been deployed iteratively (proposal for a solution, experience feedback, improvement) and takes place within an industrial partner's calculation office. A long industrial implementation period give positive feedbacks and lead to conclude that such a collaborative knowledge management approach impacts positively the company's reactivity and the engineering analysis results' reliability. The key points of this research can be summarised as: the definition of Support Data as means to support knowledge management within SMEs, shared workspaces and a showroom concept to foster knowledge sharing, the proposal of a maturity assessment framework concept, the implementation of a research action and feedbacks from an industrial implementation.

PhD Student: Cyril BEYLIER
Grenoble University, 2004
Directors: François VILLENEUVE et Franck POURROY

Link to the manuscript