A collaborative knowledge management tool for product innovation

Abstract

In order to create and deliver innovative new products and services at an ever increasing rate, manufacturing enterprises must adopt a deliberate and systematic approach to managing the drivers of innovation. Managing the enterprise's knowledge base and converting intellectual capital into useful products and services is fast becoming the critical executive skill of the age. With this in mind, our research focuses on adopting a knowledge management approach to product innovation management. This papers introduces the concept of knowledge management for product innovation and presents a collaborative knowledge management tool specifically designed to enable product innovation management in a distributed manufacturing environment