The Lean Product Development Organization Knowledge Management

Abstract

Organizational learning is one of Toyota’s core competitive advantages, as a consequence Toyota’s organizational structure makes it a true leaning organization. This chapter discusses the main aspects related to knowledge management in the lean organization context. Once the lean product development process (as any process that embeds the lean philosophy) shall support knowledge management, here we present some techniques related to knowledge identification, creation, dissemination and use. The LPDO not only learns from itself, but from the customers, the suppliers and the competitors. Useful knowledge, both from the product and from the process, is represented in a way to facilitate not only its future use and dissemination, but also the knowledge management and evolution. Remember that more important than the concepts themselves is the reason and value behind them.