Knowledge sharing and creation in the semiconductor equipment industry

The sharing of tacit knowledge is difficult. Even among engineers, the sharing of key knowledge during product development can be an extremely arduous and time-consuming, if not impossible, task. This issue becomes even more complex in situations involving more than a single organization. However, inter-organizational collaboration is essential in today´s competitive market, and semiconductor chip and equipment manufacturers must actively create the appropriate ‘Ba’ for sharing tacit knowledge across organizational boundaries. This research proposes the use of an algorism to convert tacit engineering knowledge to explicit knowledge, which is more readily shared.