Knowledge and manufacturing strategy–how different manufacturing paradigms have different requirements to knowledge. Examples from the automotive industry

In this paper we aim to give insight to how manufacturing strategies, represented by manufacturing paradigms are linked to different approaches to knowledge. Strategies are closely related to the development of core competence and how to deal with knowledge in general. In this paper we focus on how the different manufacturing strategies represent different challenges when it comes to knowledge creation and knowledge transfer. Our discussion has references to suppliers in the automotive industry, represented by a Scandinavian case. In this case the focus is on lean principles, which in contrast to mass manufacturing, represents attention to the synthetic knowledge base and tacit knowledge. Mass manufacturing, which is also still relevant in the automotive industry, is more centralised in its approach to knowledge and is focusing more on the analytical knowledge base and explicit knowledge. Knowledge should be a central part of companies’ strategies, also functional such as within manufacturing, and should cover issues such as: what is crucial knowledge, how do we create it, and how to transfer it to meet our overall company goals?

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