Concurrent Knowledge Sharing and its Importance in Product Development

Concurrent engineering and knowledge sharing are both competitive practices that help sustain cross-functional communication for improved product development performance. Concurrent engineering enables structured integrated design while knowledge sharing enables the ability of an organization to access knowledge. However, little is known about how these two approaches support each other in the product development process. This study aims to investigate the importance of concurrent knowledge sharing in product development with an emphasis on Malaysian electronics organizations. A total of 150 survey responses are collected and analyzed using reliability, correlations and multiple linear regression analyses. The results show that product development is significantly affected by concurrent knowledge sharing. A total of 53.3% of the variance in product development can be explained by the concurrent knowledge sharing variables. The correlation between concurrent product realization and product development is significantly higher than the other correlations (R = 0.637, p<0.001) since concurrent product realization enables rapid product quality development through design time and lead time reduction. When all the variables were compositely tested against product development, the overall correlation increased (R = 0.732). These findings show that the support of knowledge sharing initiatives alongside concurrent engineering approaches can significantly affect product development performance. This study improves the understanding on the importance of concurrent knowledge sharing in product development which can help uncover strategies on how it can improve the electronics industry and support Malaysia's economy.