An Investigation into Collaboration and Knowledge

Managementduring Product Development in the Aerospace and

Defence Industry

Richard David Evans

, James Xiaoyu Gao

, Steve Woodhead

, Nick Martin

and Clive Simmonds

School of Engineering, University of Greenwich, Central Avenue, Chatham Maritime, Kent, ME4 4TB, U.K.

Electronic Systems, BAE Systems, Rochester, Kent, ME1 2XX, U.K.

Keywords: Knowledge Management, Collaboration, Product Development, Information Sharing, Aerospace

Manufacturing, Web 2.0, Social Media.

Abstract: Organisations need to overcome a number of challenges, including improving knowledge management, to

ensure competitiveness in today’s global business environment. Product development and engineering

design decisions are typically based on the knowledge available within enterprises. An ability to quickly

discover and capture this knowledge and communicate with colleagues is required to enable effective

outputs. An in-depth industry investigation, conducted within a leading manufacturing organisation in the

Aerospace and Defence Industry (ADI), confirmed that knowledge management is only average.

Employees would welcome the introduction of new technology to improve knowledge sharing and feel

competent to use Web 2.0 and social media technologies. Based on the investigation, an interactive

groupware prototype employing collaborative Web 2.0 technologies has been proposed. The prototype will

be introduced as a case study to engineers within the collaborating company during product development

projects with benefits in productivity and collaborative practices being assessed.

1 INTRODUCTION

The last two decades have been characterised by

major developments in enterprise globalisation and

technological advancement. This has resulted in

many opportunities being created for businesses, but

also many problems.

In an increasingly competitive global

marketplace, organisations in the 21

century have

to overcome challenges presented on a number of

fronts which include:

 Meeting the complex requirements of customers

who demand lower cost, higher quality solutions

and;

 Establishing effective communication channels

between employees and external partners anywhere

in the world (Shehab, Bouin-Portet, Hole and

Fowler, 2009).

The Aerospace and Defence Industry (ADI) is an

industrial sector, which has a record of product

innovation and where the UK enjoys a global

reputation as a world leader (Harrington and

Blagden, 1999). The sector employs highly skilled

and competent work forces and is commited to

promoting high performance work practices

(Richardson, Danford, Stewart and Pulignano,

2010). The ADI is also an industrial environment

where significicant development of collaborative

work practices has already taken place, but where

further major opportunities exist for improved

Knowledge Management (KM) and the utilisation of

technology.

2 PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

AND COLLABORATION

In today’s global business environment,

manufacturing companies are becoming increasingly

aware of the need for on-going product innovations

and efficient product development (PD) in order to

ensure their commercial survival (Rebolledo and

Nollet, 2011). Managers recognise that the

traditional process of New Product Development

(NPD) is no longer sufficient and that successful PD

113

Evans R., Xiaoyu Gao J., Woodhead S., Martin N. and Simmonds C..

An Investigation into Collaboration and Knowledge Managementduring Product Development in the Aerospace and Defence Industry.

DOI: 10.5220/0004111001130118

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing (KMIS-2012), pages 113-118

ISBN: 978-989-8565-31-0

 2012 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

now relies upon a far greater corporate team effort

than in the past.

A significant challenge facing companies is to

facilitate the collaboration of all employees within

geographically dispersed teams in order to meet

common goals while sharing, developing and

retaining knowledge and ideas during on-going PD

processes. The use of collaborative web-based

technologies is seen as providing the potential to

address this challenge by allowing project review

teams to access data, records of knowledge

contributions and social interactions, all of which

would benefit subsequent PD activities (McAdam,

O’Hare and Moffett, 2008).

It has also been suggested that companies must

“create initiatives to dismantle organisational silos

and foster collaboration” (McAdam, O’Hare and

Moffett, 2008). Such initiatives are necessary

because collaboration is dependent upon the

voluntary exercise of discretionary time by

employees (CSC, 2006). Effective enterprise

collaboration may again be facilitated by the

integration of people, processes, information and

knowledge through technologies.

In the past, collaboration would often have taken

place by phone, fax or in face to face meetings, at

significant financial and time costs to organisations.

With the rapid growth in the popularity and use of

the internet today, however, members of PD teams

can now be located thousands of miles apart and still

retain the ability to share and address issues with

minimal loss of time and cost. The World Wide Web

(WWW) can provide an interoperable means for

collaboration, utilising software applications on a

variety of platforms and frameworks.

3 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

AND WEB 2.0

Businesses recognise that organisational knowledge

has an essential role to play in responding to

competitive pressures and, for an increasing number

of companies, opportunities to establish competitive

advantage lie in their ability to enhance ideas and

intellectual know-how. By making more effective

use of their knowledge assets, organisations can

benefit from product development breakthroughs

and improved processes and practices.

Information and Communication Technology

(ICT) tools and, in particular, the internet have a key

role to play in supporting KM as they can facilitate

“efficient transfer, storage and integration of

knowledge” (Rebolledo and Nollet, 2011, Carlsson,

2003). Their role cannot be ignored as they impact

directly on the quantity, speed and efficiency of data

flow across both geographical and organisational

boundaries (Scott, 2000).

While it is recognised that businesses often

cannot identify what is known within their

organisations and as a result, best practices,

expertise and knowledge and skills cannot easily be

applied and transferred (Lockwood, 2008), digital

technologies offer the prospect of transferring both

tacit as well as explicit knowledge (Rebolledo and

Nollet, 2011); (Carlsson, 2003).

Web 2.0 technologies and the relatively new

phenomenon of social media with its emphasis on

user-generated content, can help eradicate such

barriers encouraging open communication and

information sharing. Expertise and solutions to

problems need no longer remain “hidden” as they

can be actively sought out and exploited within a

Web 2.0 collaborative environment. Web 2.0 tools,

which commonly incorporate semantic web

techniques such as meta-tagging, allow for more

meaningful information sharing and improved

searchability and encourage greater interaction with

content by employees during the collaborative

process.

4 INDUSTRIAL INVESTIGATION

BAE Systems is a multi-national organisation

employing approximately 100,000 people worldwide

across its range of businesses. The organisation is

the second largest aerospace, defence and security

company in the world, and, in 2010, reported sales

of over £22bn ($34.6bn). The organisation is

involved in the design, manufacture and provision of

advanced products and services for worldwide

military forces (BAE Systems, 2011).

An independent bench marking study,

commissioned by BAE Systems in 2008, showed

that practices in relation to learning and knowledge

management were judged to be “average” when

compared to similar types of organisations (Milton,

2008). The study concluded that BAE Systems’ KM

performance, as a world-leading development and

manufacturing enterprise, could be raised to “best in

class” by following forty-nine recommended

actions. The actions identified included the creation

of a common collaborative platform for engineering

and product development across the company and

the embedding of KM activities into various

corporate processes including Performance and

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Development Review (PDR) and Product Lifecycle

Management (PLM).

The last ten years has seen significant growth in

the volume of information being generated within

the organisation and document management has

proven to be an issue for the company (Jackson, et

al., 2008). At the end of the last decade, the volume

of data being generated was growing at an estimated

rate of 41% per annum and the scale of the problem

was doubling in size every two years. In the UK

business alone, over 1000 different file types were

being managed, as illustrated in Figure 1 (Jackson et

al., 2008).

Figure 1: BAE Systems – File Types (adapted from

Jackson et al., 2008).

Electronic communications and increased global

requirements for compliance with information and

knowledge legislation have impacted on the quantity

of data in existence and the company recognises that

the problem must be addressed. The problem is

exacerbated by the number of dispersed teams found

within the organisation who find it difficult to

arrange face to face meetings. Furthermore, the

various business units within the company have

different approaches to information management and

this has created isolated solutions, a range of

different tool sets and a lack of interoperability

between business units.

Technological improvements in terms of

information search and retrieval, knowledge sharing,

document storage and team collaboration are seen to

offer significant benefits, including increased agility

when reacting to business change, improved

collaboration and increased availability of good

information to aid decision making.

In late 2011, an in-depth survey of over 100

senior managers and engineers was conducted

within the collaborating company. The survey,

which was hosted on surveymonkey.com, produced

an encouraging 46% response rate and provided a

very good insight into knowledge management and

the process of collaboration within the organisation.

In commenting below on the results of the

survey, the qualitative categories found on the x-

axes are based on: 1 - Poor; 2 - Below Average; 3 -

Average; 4 - Good; 5 - Very Good; and 6 –

Excellent, while the figures given on the y-axes

show the number of responses per category.

With regard to how effectively knowledge is

managed within BAE Systems during product

development processes, the previously drawn

conclusion of “average” was confirmed. A third of

all responses expressed this view, while 26.7% of

respondents thought the effectiveness was good,

although 23.3% stated that it was below average.

Only two respondents believed that the organisation

was very good, while the same number viewed KM

as poor (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Effectiveness of knowledge management during

product development.

On the other hand, as might be anticipated given

the security consciousness of the industrial field in

which BAE Systems operates, the security of

corporate knowledge was seen to be good or better

by nearly 72% of respondents. Indeed, the most

common view expressed was that security is very

good (38.3%) and only 5% believed it to be below

average or poor (See Figure 3).

When asked what concerns may exist in relation

to security of corporate knowledge, if online

knowledge sharing were to become a standard

collaborative practice, there was clear evidence of

employees recognising that the commercial success

of BAE Systems was founded upon its Intellectual

Property (IP); furthermore that the company is

bound to comply with a range of national and

international laws and regulations.

It was apparent that the requirement to operate

within national security and export control

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guidelines often resulted in information and

knowledge only being shared on a need-to-know

basis; it was suggested, furthermore, that

technological innovations in relation to KM should

be introduced only behind the corporate firewall.

Figure 3: Security of corporate knowledge.

When the investigation focussed upon the

specific process of collaboration and how employees

interacted and shared knowledge and ideas within

project teams, there was clear evidence that

traditional methods of communication were still

being used routinely, with little reference being

made to more recently introduced Web 2.0 tools.

Over 50% of all respondents stated that face to

face meetings were the main method of

communication, while 47.2% confirmed the

significant role played by e-mails in communication;

this reinforced the findings of Jackson, et al., (2008)

who reported that in July of that year 15 million e-

mails had been sent internally.

Video or teleconferencing is seen to play an

important role within the organisation and shared

document servers are seen as important by 32%.

In terms of more technology-based solutions,

Microsoft Sharepoint sites are seen as important by

22.6% of respondents and these rank more highly

than the telephone, which accounted for only 20.8%

of responses.

Instant messaging and Web 2.0 tools, such as

wiki’s, blogs and social networking sites including

Yammer and LinkedIn, were identified as being

important by only 13.2% or less of respondents.

A detailed breakdown of the different methods of

communication of knowledge is given in Table 1.

When the effectiveness of collaboration during

PD processes was considered (see Figure 4), the

most common view expressed was good in 37.3% of

cases. A further 20.3% thought that they were very

good or excellent, although 32% suggested that the

effectiveness of collaboration was only average or

lower. This divergence of opinion is again illustrated

in Figure 4.

Table 1: Knowledge sharing methods within project

teams.

Method % of Responses

Face to Face Meetings 54.7

E-mails 47.2

Video/Tele/Web Conferencing 45.3

Shared Document Servers 32.0

Microsoft Sharepoint Sites 22.6

Telephone 20.8

Instant Messaging 13.2

Other Web 2.0 tools inc. Wikis and Blogs 13.2

Social Networking Sites, inc. Yammer and

11.3

Informal communication 7.5

Workshops 5.7

Figure 4: Effectiveness of collaboration during product

development.

When asked what barriers may prevent more

effective collaboration within the organisation, a

limited number of factors were given, although these

could be significant. Firstly, the need for security

and the legislative background to operations within

the aerospace and defence industry could represent a

major inhibitor of collaboration and knowledge

sharing. Secondly, while operating very much in a

technology-driven and innovative environment,

there is claimed to be a lack of tools employed to

facilitate the collaborative process. Furthermore,

geographical dispersement of employees is

perceived as a real constraint on collaboration,

which impacts negatively on a collaborative ethos.

When asked to identify how collaborative

practices could be improved within the organisation,

it was interesting to note that repeated references

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were made to barriers which hinder collaboration

and it was suggested that cultural change is required

in order to make a real difference. A number of

specific ideas were nevertheless suggested to realise

improvements and these included:

 Development of a bespoke project collaboration

tool;

 Creation of a centralised information repository;

 Company-wide adoption of Web 2.0 and social

media tools.

Finally, the importance of the need for improved

collaboration tools within the organisation’s global

operations was confirmed when it was revealed that

all respondents have a need to contact colleagues at

other locations during PD activities. Over one-third

of these contacts take place on a daily basis, while

over 60% take place weekly or more frequently.

Similarly, nearly 95% of respondents confirmed that

they have regular contact with colleagues overseas.

Although this contact takes place less frequently

than the figures reported for other sites, 20% still

have daily contact while a further 25% report either

weekly or monthly contact.

5 THE PROPOSED

INTERACTIVE GROUPWARE

PROTOTYPE

Based on the results of the industrial investigation, it

is proposed to develop an interactive collaborative

groupware solution, which will incorporate a

bespoke user interface (see Figure 5).

The groupware will be made accessible using a

variety of devices, which will include, but are not

limited to:

 An interactive capacitive touch screen all-in-one

unit with integrated web camera;

 Personal computers;

 Handheld portable devices, including smart

phones and internet tablets.

It is proposed to design a high impact user friendly

and accessible front end with easy-to-use navigation

and functionality, which complies with the W3C’s

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

The groupware will be designed using HTML5,

CSS3 and JavaScript programming languages to

maintain accessibility and usability on a variety of

devices. The associated database will be coded in

PHP and content will reside on a MySQL database.

The collaborative prototype will include:

 Fast and easy access to uploaded user-generated

content;

 Instant messaging;

 Project discussion board;

 Timeline file management tool.

Figure 5: Wireframe of the Front End of the proposed

Interactive Groupware Prototype.

During PD activities new concepts and lessons

learned will be recorded and uploaded to the

groupware site from a variety of file types including

video, images, documents and presentations. These

will be immediately available to view by project

team members anywhere in the world who will then

be able to add further comments and ideas to

enhance the collaborative new product development

process in real-time. Additionally, users will able to

collaborate one-to-one using the embedded instant

messaging facility or one-to-many using the on-

screen discussion board.

6 CONCLUSIONS

The investigation showed that an increased usage of

online collaboration and data exchange methods

would be welcomed by respondents.

It was recognised that Microsoft Sharepoint,

which has been introduced at various business units

over the past few years, had impacted positively on

practices within the organisation and there was

recognition that the internet could provide

employees with more dynamic interactivity, rather

than them having to merely rely on more passive

methods of communication, such as e-mails.

It was suggested that interactive functionality

could allow for formal record keeping, logging of

decisions, sharing of information and discussion of

ideas. It was proposed that increased use could be

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made of Web 2.0 tools, such as wiki’s and blogs to

improve collaboration and inform work practices.

Social media applications, such as chat rooms

and forums could be utilised in order to seek out

information and answers to problems, while a

central repository of corporate files could be

established to improve access to data.

A corporate groupware designed to enhance the

sharing of information, beyond simple exchange of

data, would be received positively by respondents

and, ultimately, knowledge management and

collaboration could be enhanced within the

organisation. It was recognised that social media

tools, which are growing in use significantly in

personal lives, have potential for use in corporate

KM and provide “even technically illiterate people

(with) an accessible way of sharing knowledge”

(Anon., 2011).

The investigation confirmed that the internet is

seen as allowing BAE Systems the opportunity to

overcome barriers to collaboration and KM, which

exist within the organisation. It offers the whole of

industry the prospect of revealing concealed

expertise and exposing employee knowledge and

skills; ultimately, it allows dispersed teams to

collaborate effectively and more efficiently on a

global scale.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This document is based on work funded by the

EPSRC through BAE Systems’ Electronic Systems’

operation in Rochester, Kent, UK. The authors

would like to thank all at BAE Systems for their

support with this project and their input to the

Industrial Investigation. Any opinions, findings and

conclusions expressed in this document are those of

the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of

the EPSRC or BAE Systems PLC.

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