Developing New Products with Suitable KM Forms of Organization in Manufacturing Networks

In knowledge intensive industries, a firm needs to develop new products as a participant inside a manufacturing network since knowledge has become a critical factor affecting industry dynamics. Suitable forms of organization for knowledge management (KM) related to the above issue have not been comprehensively addressed in existing research literature. This paper first determines critical success criteria, and then recommends suitable forms of organization for KM by using a fuzzy analytic network process (ANP). A central KM function is recommended for the highest hierarchical level of the organization, a project-decentralized KM task force should be arranged for the cascaded region, and functionally located KM cells should be applied inside each NPD phase.