A Knowledge Management System Architecture for Clusters: a Thai ceramic cluster case study

International audienceKnowledge-based economy forces Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the same industry to group together as the industry cluster in order to maintain their competitiveness in the global competition. These companies gain advantages, knowledge and opportunities from being a member of cluster. However, many industry clusters have failed to achieve their goal in developing phase. The two internal key success factors for the industry cluster to maintain their competitiveness are collaboration and knowledge sharing among the members. Thus, this study is aimed at assisting the industry cluster to improve collaboration and knowledge sharing by adopting the concept of knowledge management. Knowledge Management System (KMS) architecture was implemented for improving the knowledge exchange activities in the cluster. In order to design the knowledge system to suit our case study, the CommonKADS methodology was used as the knowledge elicitation and modeling technique. Then, the main knowledge activities i.e. knowledge creation, sharing and reuse which are considered as the core of the system architecture were depicted. The application of the knowledge system to Thai ceramic cluster proved that the knowledge system is able to improve the competitiveness of the industry cluster.l'économie basée sur la connaissance oblige les entreprises, situées à l'intersection de différentes chaînes logistiques, à se regrouper en « clusters » (groupement d'entreprises) pour maintenir leur compétitivité dans un contexte économique de plus en plus concurrentiel. Dans le cadre de ces travaux de recherche, nous allons proposer un système de gestion des connaissances pour soutenir les activités collaboratives dans le cadre de ces groupements d'entreprises. Les principaux facteurs clés de succès de ces types d'organisation sont le partage d'information et de connaissances et la collaboration entre les acteurs. L'objectif principal de cet article est donc de présenter une méthodologie pour l'analyse des principaux processus du cluster, l'extraction et la formalisation des connaissances liées à ces processus, ainsi que la définition de l'architecture du système de gestion de ces connaissances (KMS) associée. L'approche proposée a été validée sur le cas d'un cluster industriel en Thaïlande, cluster qui regroupe un certain nombre de PME artisanales du secteur de la production céramique. Abstract-Knowledge-based economy forces Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the same industry to group together as the industry cluster in order to maintain their competitiveness in the global competition. These companies gain advantages, knowledge and opportunities from being a member of cluster. However, many industry clusters have failed to achieve their goal in developing phase. The two internal key success factors for the industry cluster to maintain their competitiveness are collaboration and knowledge sharing among the members. Thus, this study is aimed at assisting the industry cluster to improve collaboration and knowledge sharing by adopting the concept of knowledge management. Knowledge Management System (KMS) architecture was implemented for improving the knowledge exchange activities in the cluster. In order to design the knowledge system to suit our case study, the CommonKADS methodology was used as the knowledge elicitation and modeling technique. Then, the main knowledge activities i.e. knowledge creation, sharing and reuse which are considered as the core of the system architecture were depicted. The application of the knowledge system to Thai ceramic cluster proved that the knowledge system is able to improve the competitiveness of the industry cluster. Mots clés-Gestion des connaissances, cluster et réseaux d'entreprises, architecture d'échange de connaissance