KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOR RAMP-UP Approach for Knowledge Management for Ramp-up in the Automotive Industry

Enterprises in the automotive industry are facing new challenges from increasing product diversification, decreasing product life cycle times and permanent need for cost reduction. The ramp-up as linking phase between development phase and production phase has a crucial role for the success of a project. The performance of a ramp-up depends on the maturity of the product and manufacturing process. Knowledge management is an extraordinary driver for maturity of both. The existing solutions for knowledge management show insufficient results. The new approach bases on the cycle of organizational learning. The cycle consists of four phases: socialization, externalization, combination and internalization. It provides opportunities to improve ramp-up performance in the automotive industry. Part of the new approach is a sophisticated concept for a solution using Information Technology as enabler for Knowledge management.