Set-up and maintenance of ontologies for innovation support in extended enterprises

The effective generation, sharing and re-use of innovation knowledge play an increasingly crucial role in the competitiveness of industrial enterprises allowing the companies to offer new solutions based on rapidly exploited innovations. As the innovation knowledge is by its nature very unstructured and manifold in its definition, solutions for effective exchange and sharing of such knowledge within collaboration networks of extended enterprises are still missing. This paper presents a set of new methods and IT tools to support efficient and smooth exchange of innovation knowledge in extended and networked enterprises. The methods and tools are based on so-called hybrid approach in definition of ontologies needed as a basis for knowledge sharing within a network of companies. The developed tools enable efficient set-up, harmonisation and maintenance of generic, shared ontologies. The solutions are tested within a large manufacturing enterprise involving several subsidiaries.