Management of Different Types of Configuration Knowledge with the K- & V-Matrix and Wiki

Although knowledge management (KM) is currently a buzzword, it is not a big topic in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The need for KM in SMEs is not as big as in large organisations. Small size and good working conditions provide a lot of the basic requirements for good KM without having to care about it [Radermacher 2001]. However, some of the tools associated with KM would still be useful for SMEs. But unfortunately, most of the KM-tools are conceived for large organizations and hard to implement in SMEs, where lightweight, "plug-and-play " solutions are needed. An area with a lot of potential for KM is Product Design [Beitz et al. 1997]. Product design knowledge is bound to people and thus staff fluctuation mostly leads to a dramatic loss of knowledge, especially in SMEs, where the product design departments often consist of only few people. Before presenting our approach to improve this situation, we will introduce a classification of knowledge ressources in product design (see figure 1). 2. Classification of the Knowledge in Product Design As indicated in figure 1, the knowledge ressources are stored in the Digital Product (see [Leonhardt 2001]) and can be classified in three groups. The two groups Product Documentation and Desig