Transferring cognitive apprenticeship to manufacturing process knowledge management system: A case study of small- and medium-sized coating industry

This study aims to develop a manufacturing process management system which aims to benefit the excavation, collection and search of the mentors’ experience and knowledge. The coating painting industry is a typical small and medium-sized traditional industry and usually depends on master's experience to solve the manufacturing problem.

Based on the characteristics and manufacturing process of the architectural coating industry, this study develops a practical knowledge management system (KMS) with two stages. The first stage collects and analyzes manufacturing process data, and the second stage constructs the KMS of the manufacturing process.

This manufacturing process KMS can accumulate and share the operators’ experience and knowledge systematically; this KMS not only improves the apprentices’ skill and problem-solving abilities but also enhances the enterprise’s overall product quality, undoubtedly.

This manufacturing process KMS was designed to be implemented in architectural coating industry which is defined as a “3K” industry. Such a specific manufacturing process KMS is not a generalized principles system which is hard to apply to other industries because the different industries own different explicit and tacit knowledge which cannot be captured in this study simultaneously. Further research will try to design a more complete and integrated KMS for industry and combine it with other approaches such as TRIZ (Russian acronym for the theory of inventive problem solving), patent database and problem-solving tools.

The developments of this manufacturing process KMS software was based on systematic analysis and design. Using the architectural coating industry as an example, this system externalized the cognitive apprenticeship and developed a KMS based on the characteristics of the manufacturing process to preserve and share the valuable manufacturing process knowledge.

The paper extends knowledge management’s contribution to externalize the cognitive apprenticeship and develop a KMS. The adoption of this manufacturing process KMS enables employees to improve their techniques, skills and problem-solving abilities and enables companies to enhance the overall product quality.