In a commercial environment that is ever changing, organisations have to constantly adapt to remain competitive. To ensure the benefits of change are achieved a coherent and structured approach to implementing change is essential, as disconnected initiatives often fail. This thesis presents a series of eight continuous improvement projects undertaken by a leading engineering design consultancy. The projects use a range of process management and knowledge management techniques to improve specific aspects of the sponsor's business, in particular how it manages its organisational knowledge, business processes and management systems. To better understand the strengths and weakness of process and knowledge management techniques, in order to see how they can be combined, the techniques are first applied separately on six projects. Based on the lessons learnt from these projects, key aspects of the process and knowledge management techniques used are then combined to create two robust business solutions that have the potential to significantly benefit the sponsor's business. In developing and implementing the solutions, to the eight specific business issues covered in this thesis, a number of key issues relating to the architecture of successful systems and the organisational change management process involved with implementing these systems are captured. These key points are summarised into recommendations focused at both academic and commercial organisations.

<p>Background: The modern world is frequently referred to as a world of knowledge. In today’s business the role of knowledge is gradually increasing. The problem of how to manage knowledge to gain efficiency and competitive advantage forced modern companies to think about Knowledge Management and its applications. However, many companies, and SMEs in particular, seem to be not so common to this process. </p><p>Purpose: Since SMEs experience various problems in their daily activities this research aims to make them aware about the potential obstacles in Knowledge Management process. Therefore, this study tries to identify the cultural patterns in Knowledge Management, by considering it as a process. </p><p>Delimitations: Considering the triangle in which corner stones are SMEs, national culture and Knowledge Management this research provides a limited scope on studied area. </p><p>Realization: This study reviews its theoretical assumptions and tests them on the example of two case companies. The empirical findings gathered in those companies enlighten the assumptions of the authors and provide a ground for the analysis. </p><p>Results: Focusing on the case of Turkish SMEs in Sweden the authors of this research were capable to confirm the theoretically driven assumption and to show the relation between the concepts of national culture, SMEs and Knowledge Management.</p>

Background: The modern world is frequently referred to as a world of knowledge. In today’s business the role of knowledge is gradually increasing. The problem of how to manage knowledge to gain efficiency and competitive advantage forced modern companies to think about Knowledge Management and its applications. However, many companies, and SMEs in particular, seem to be not so common to this process. Purpose: Since SMEs experience various problems in their daily activities this research aims to make them aware about the potential obstacles in Knowledge Management process. Therefore, this study tries to identify the cultural patterns in Knowledge Management, by considering it as a process. Delimitations: Considering the triangle in which corner stones are SMEs, national culture and Knowledge Management this research provides a limited scope on studied area. Realization: This study reviews its theoretical assumptions and tests them on the example of two case companies. The empirical findings gathered in those companies enlighten the assumptions of the authors and provide a ground for the analysis. Results: Focusing on the case of Turkish SMEs in Sweden the authors of this research were capable to confirm the theoretically driven assumption and to show the relation between the concepts of national culture, SMEs and Knowledge Management.

Engineering Consultants is a kind of knowledge-intensive services, needed to establish knowledge management mechanism in order to pile personal and company¡¦s property, increase employee¡¦s knowledge development and lift up everyone¡¦s ability to use knowledge property. Finally, providing the owner satisfy service and reach company¡¦s goal. At present, only a few of projects need foreign engineering consultants to guide the planning in Taiwan. Engineering consultancy services can be seen in the past few decades of human resource and technology training, and indeed hard work over the years. This study used depth-interview method, through observation and interviewed staff¡¦s experience, to explore the case company¡¦s current knowledge management structure, and we could understood knowledge acquisition, creation, accumulation and diffusion of the actual situation. List the following five recommendations for improvement, including 1.Organizational culture of mutual trust: implementation of knowledge-sharing needs the guidance of enterprise culture. 2.Emphasis on leadership: the establishment of a specialized management positions is very necessary, This position is called CKO in the West. 3.Perfect information systems: establish a sound information network is to achieve knowledge sharing knowledge management platform. 4.Human resource development: enterprises are to achieve knowledge sharing, must establish a contract similar to the market economy mechanism. 5.The right strategy: knowledge sharing is the premise and foundation of knowledge management.

Knowledge management has roots in a variety of disciplines, such as philosophy, psychology, social sciences, management sciences and computing. As a result, a wide variety of theories and definitions of knowledge and knowledge management is used in the literature. Irrespective of the theory or definition used, is it recognised that expert knowledge and insight are gained through experience and practice and that it is a key differentiator as an organisational asset. This shift to knowledge as the primary source of value results in the new economy being led by those who manage knowledge effectively. Today’s organisations are creating and leveraging knowledge, data and information at an unprecedented pace – a phenomenon that makes the use of technology not an option, but a necessity. It enables employees to deal with multifaceted environments and problems and make it possible for organisations to expand their knowledge creation capacity. Software tools in knowledge management are a collection of technologies and are not necessarily acquired as a single software solution. Furthermore, these knowledge management software tools have the advantage of using the organisation’s existing information technology infrastructure. Organisations and business decision makers spend a great deal of resources and make significant investments in the latest technology, systems and infrastructure to support knowledge management. It is imperative that these investments are validated properly, made wisely and that the most appropriate technologies and software tools are selected or combined to facilitate knowledge management. The purpose of this interpretive case study is to consider these issues and to focus on an understanding of the key characteristics of a knowledge management system architecture by exploring and describing the nature of knowledge management. Based on the findings of this study, a list of key characteristics that a knowledge management solution must comply with was collated, which expanded the existing knowledge management model towards describing a knowledge management system architecture. / Computing / M.Sc. (Information Systems)

我國電機電子中心廠企業透過快速的供貨彈性、具競爭力的生產成本、與深厚的製造能力，以OEM/ODM或OBM的方式將產品銷售於全球，在產業供應鏈上扮演舉足輕重的地位，更成為國際大廠不可或缺的合作伙伴。當產品功能不斷推陳出新與創新式樣的同時，各國政府開始注意到產品所含的有害物質對人體與環境皆產生了威脅；生產端和產品廢棄端也產出大量的廢棄物而影響了生態環境，因此，環境保護和永續發展成了各國所重視的議題。例如，歐盟看準供應鏈間環環相扣的利益關係，積極將環保訴求跳脫以往道德勸說的層面而開始立法，希望以歐盟龐大的商業市場為後盾，讓製造商在研發、生產到回收的產品生命週期中，能夠有效降低有害物質的使用量，並建立方便使用者的回收的機制。 在市場瞬息萬變與激烈競爭的壓力下，企業已習慣以專案管理來滿足各時期不同的任務與市場之需求，因此，跨部門合作的專案團隊運作日益頻繁。我國電機電子中心廠企業接受到歐盟和國際大廠對於綠色產品之要求的環保規範與壓力，紛紛成立跨部門的專案團隊，進行供應商管理、研發和製程變革、及成本控管等任務。以往的文獻對於企業環保議題之研究與討論，大部分著重於企業綠色供應鏈管理之建置與環保法規的因應方式，本研究除了涵蓋這方面的探討，更著重於企業因應環保壓力而成立的綠色專案團隊之運作。。因此，本研究以多重個案的研究方式，針對我國電機電子中心廠企業之綠色專案團隊的組織方式與其知識管理程序進行研究，希望能進一步瞭解企業所面對的主要環保壓力來源為何？以及驅動成立綠色專案團隊的因素、團隊結構、與團隊運作之過程為何？ 本研究所得到的研究結論包括：1.不同事業模式的企業，對同一外部環保壓力來源有不同壓力強度的感受；2. 企業內部環保壓力的自發性改變往往是發生在外部環保壓力的推動之後；3. 專案特性為產品或製程的延伸變動、改良、或品質改進，如綠色產品專案，適合以輕量級團隊進行專案之運作；4. 輕量級專案經理在團隊知識管理程序裡的知識吸收、創造、蓄積與擴散之運作中，扮演主要的角色；5. 由中立的高階主管擔任跨部門專案團隊之專案贊助者（The Executive Sponsor），可避免發生決策偏頗之情形。從本研究對於實務上所提出的建議包括：1. 中心廠企業應有專責人員持續負責綠色產品的推動；2. 企業應創造內部人員成立跨部門專案團隊的機制；3. 由中立的高階主管擔任跨部門專案團隊的專案贊助者。 / When properties and designs of electrical and electronics equipments are renewed more and more quickly, many countries noticed that the waste produce during product life-cycle process by manufacturers, junk by end users, and hazardous substances of products are threatening human healthy and living environment increasingly. Therefore, European Union announced and entered into force of EU environmental directives that induced the industries to pay close attention on the surrounding environment impacts and the healthy & safety risk of people. Thus, we would expect that the electrical and electronics companies in our country faced challenges of Green-Product production. The Taiwanese core factories built up a cross-divisional Green Project Team which coordinated each function to team up with conformed the Green-product regulations by government and customers. However, most of the past studies in the Green-Product issue were focused on how to manage green supply chain efficiently, and how to reply to the Green-product regulations rightfully. Thus, we focus on the organization and knowledge management process of the Green Project team, this issue is rarely touched by researchers. For that reason, this research is more an “Exploratory Research” essentially. This research adopts “Case-Study Method”, looks into the K.M. process of a project team by interviewing with personnel of case companies and reading second-hand materials about the case companies. The study aims to investigate the questions: 1.What is the Green Environmental Pressure a company mainly received? 2. What are the motives of a core factory to build up a Green Project Team? 3. What is the structure of the Green Project Team, and how does the team work together? The preliminary research conclutions include: 1.Companies with different business models face different Green Environmental Pressure. 2. External Green Environmental Pressure influences a company first and then comes the Internal Green Environmental Pressure. 3. Operations of a Lightweight Project Team are suitable for the task of product or processing extension, and quality improvement, just like Green Project. 4. The key person in the knowledge management process is project manager in the Lightweight Project Team. 5. Biased-decision can be avoided by giving the position of cross-divisional executive sponsor to a neutral senior manager.

Knowledge management has roots in a variety of disciplines, such as philosophy, psychology, social sciences, management sciences and computing. As a result, a wide variety of theories and definitions of knowledge and knowledge management is used in the literature. Irrespective of the theory or definition used, is it recognised that expert knowledge and insight are gained through experience and practice and that it is a key differentiator as an organisational asset. This shift to knowledge as the primary source of value results in the new economy being led by those who manage knowledge effectively. Today’s organisations are creating and leveraging knowledge, data and information at an unprecedented pace – a phenomenon that makes the use of technology not an option, but a necessity. It enables employees to deal with multifaceted environments and problems and make it possible for organisations to expand their knowledge creation capacity. Software tools in knowledge management are a collection of technologies and are not necessarily acquired as a single software solution. Furthermore, these knowledge management software tools have the advantage of using the organisation’s existing information technology infrastructure. Organisations and business decision makers spend a great deal of resources and make significant investments in the latest technology, systems and infrastructure to support knowledge management. It is imperative that these investments are validated properly, made wisely and that the most appropriate technologies and software tools are selected or combined to facilitate knowledge management. The purpose of this interpretive case study is to consider these issues and to focus on an understanding of the key characteristics of a knowledge management system architecture by exploring and describing the nature of knowledge management. Based on the findings of this study, a list of key characteristics that a knowledge management solution must comply with was collated, which expanded the existing knowledge management model towards describing a knowledge management system architecture. / Computing / M.Sc. (Information Systems)