Examining the Quality of Knowledge Transfers – The Draft of an Empirical Research

Abstract

Already successfully used products or designs, past projects or our own experiences can be the basis for the development of new products. As reference products or existing knowledge, it is reused in the development process and across generations of products. Since further, products are developed in cooperation, the development of new product generations is characterized by knowledge-intensive processes in which information and knowledge are exchanged between different kinds of knowledge carriers. The particular knowledge transfer here describes the identification of knowledge, its transmission from the knowledge carrier to the knowledge receiver, and its application by the knowledge receiver, which includes embodied knowledge of physical products. Initial empirical findings of the quantitative effects regarding the speed of knowledge transfers already have been examined. However, the factors influencing the quality of knowledge transfer to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge transfer in product development have not yet been examined empirically. Therefore, this paper prepares an experimental setting for the empirical investigation of the quality of knowledge transfers.

A Method to Support the Improvement of Knowledge Transfers in Product and Production Engineering

“…Also, presented the Knowledge Transfer Velocity Model (KTVM) to improve the speed of knowledge transfers. Grum et al (2021a) are assessing the quality of knowledge transfer regarding the correctness, relevance, clarity, systematic structure, and comparability. They introduce a morphological box to support the identification of reference situations and to describe knowledge transfer situations regarding eight dimensions and their characteristics.…”

“…They provide a comprehensive list of influencing factors with an evaluation of their relevance as well as findings regarding specific knowledge transfer situations. Further Grum et al (2019) address the speed of knowledge transfers. They propose to realize a more detailed and holistic description of knowledge transfer situations by characterizing them regarding each influencing factor's value and utilizing interventions to enhance the speed of the transfer.…”

IMPROVING KNOWLEDGE TRANSFERS AT PROTEKTORWERK FLORENZ MAISCH GMBH & CO. KG THROUGH THE APPLICATION OF THE INKTI – INTERDEPARTMENTAL KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER IMPROVEMENT METHOD

“…They describe factors that influence the speed or quality of knowledge transfers and how knowledge transfer situations need to be analyzed to identify and select interventions so that their situational characteristics are met best. Grum et al (2021) introduce eight dimensions and their characteristics to describe a knowledge transfer situation (e.g., number of participants and duration). In addition, they conceptualize knowledge transfers for experimentation, providing a basis for how knowledge transfers can be examined.…”

“…Hence, it is necessary to know, that the design of PPE processes is influenced by several factors. Those influencing factors can be clustered in organization (e.g., leadership and project management), human (e.g., qualification and soft skills), and tools (e.g., for optimization and validation) as well as knowledge (e.g., expertise and knowledge transfer) (Albers and Gausemeier, 2012;Albers et al, 2018, Grum et al 2021Klippert et al, 2022). This paper focuses on knowledge transfer as one of the main influencing factors in PPE.…”

“…Knowledge transfer is defined as the "identification of knowledge, its transmission from knowledge carrier to knowledge receiver, and its utilization by the knowledge receiver" (Grum et al, 2021). It is based on the transfer of tacit to explicit knowledge (externalization) and vice versa (internalization).…”