“…However, the above application systems do not consider support for collaborative design activities and processes in the true knowledge management context, making it impossible to apply them to design knowledge. Furthermore, most conventional information and knowledge management systems can only be used to help in document management, engineering data management or workflow management [3,4,5,6,13,15,17,19]. For example, Chen and Jan, 2000 and Chen et al, 2002 indicated systems such as engineering data management (EDM), product data management (PDM), product information management (PIM), technical document management (TDM), technical information management (TIM) and others are commercially available for the practice of concurrent engineering.…”