Initial stage of an industrial investigation of the knowledge management practices in a large-scale multinational automotive company

Automotive systems engineering design, and high-quality manufacturing, are highly reliant on the valuable knowledge and experience embedded within corporate processes, guides, rules, and practitioners. However, current Knowledge Management (KM) strategies are not entirely well suited to effectively capture all the new Systems Engineering (SE) knowledge generated during continuous innovation so that it is readily accessible throughout the complete vehicle product lifecycle. This paper reports on an investigation into KM practices within the Product Development (PD) environment of a large-scale multinational automotive manufacturer. An initial exploratory industrial investigation, involving automotive PD practitioners, was conducted with the central focus on the real-world implications of creating, sharing, storing and accessing SE knowledge. This paper presents an appraisal of the KM practices and reveals the types of SE knowledge utilised and the KM taxonomies employed throughout the SE lifecycle on multigenerational vehicle programs. The research conclusions in this paper form the foundation for further work.