Mejora del desarrollo de productos Mejora del desarrollo de productos desde una perspectiva de gestión del desde una perspectiva de gestión del conocimiento. conocimiento. El caso de Navantia

Abstract

Introduction:

To achieve competitive advantage, a company must permanently innovate and

change its products, process and management systems faster than competitors.

In manufacturing companies, as new products become the focus in competition,

the new product development (NPD) process become increasingly important to

these businesses. NPD process can be improved by boosting product lifecycle

knowledge management. In this paper, how to carry out this improvement is

described through a case study of a naval shipbuilding fi rm, Navantia.

Methods:

In the detailed case study, the improvement needs are identifi ed from a

knowledge management based approach and the solutions developed are

described. These solutions are provided by a Product Lifecycle Management

(PLM) system by means of its tools and its integration with other management

systems used in Navantia.

Results:

The integration of knowledge in the company has lead to access and

sharing information time reduction; errors reduction; improvements in the

communication among employees and with partners, customers and suppliers;

and design time and product costs reduction.

Discussion:

This case provides several keys to a successful implementation of a PLM

system, such as making a reasoned analysis of the needs of the company from

a strategic knowledge management based approach, the gradual integration

of existing tools with the system PLM and the involvement of different actors

in the company, both at organizational and interorganizational level.