IT-Supported Knowledge Management in Global Engineering

As a consequence of globalized markets product development and engineering functions increasingly work in globally distributed teams. To overcome challenges of global engineering processes, leading companies employ IT applications for storing knowledge centrally and accessing it locally. Typical IT applications however are not sufficient for engineer-to-order products, i.e. products that are engineered and built to the particular specifications of a customer. This paper explores on the example of a large elevator manufacturer how knowledge-intensive tasks can be coordinated and executed globally, efficiently combining the distinct capabilities of distributed engineering sites.