Abstract:

This paper presents design issues and factors that need to be considered in the development of an intranet based Knowledge Management System (KMS). The discussion put forward is based on the findings of a literature review and a case study research where one of the issues investigated within the research was to identify the reasons why implementation of knowledge management systems have only demonstrated limited success. From the result of the investigation, an intranet based Manufacturing Knowledge Management System (MKMS) was developed to specifically manage manufacturing knowledge in a manner that will contribute to the organisation’s competitiveness. The methodology used to develop the MKMS takes into account and avoids the factors that could cause unsuccessful KMS implementations. A prototype of the system was tested and is presented within this paper.