Knowledge Transfer between Service and Design Phases in the Oil Industry
Year: 2009
Editor: Norell Bergendahl, M.; Grimheden, M.; Leifer, L.; Skogstad, P.; Lindemann, U.
Author: Vianello, Giovanna; Ahmed, Saeema
Series: ICED
Section: Design Information and Knowledge
Page(s): 159-170
Abstract
The communication between a company's departments involved in the different phases of product lifecycle is crucial in order to correct faults from previous products. This paper illustrates a case study from the oil industry where knowledge transfer across departments is analysed. Interviews with engineering designers and service engineers were carried out. An investigation of knowledge arising from the operation of drilling machineries was conducted and related to the knowledge relevant for the designers; furthermore the mechanisms involved in the transfer of knowledge between service and design were investigated. Differences in knowledge needs were observed in the two departments: designers were more orientated towards knowledge of machinery at a component level while service engineers were interested in obtaining an overview of the systems. The communication between departments consisted prevalently upon information pushed by service engineers to designers and when information flew from design to operation this was likely to be pulled by service engineers. These observations have implications on the structuring and capturing of knowledge for the different user groups.
Keywords: Knowledge management, experience transfer, service, product lifecycle