KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN THE FUNCTION OF ENSURING COMPETITIVENESS OF SLAVONIAN ECONOMY

The classical mass production of producers from the Republic of Croatia can hardly cope with products coming from or from countries where labor prices are significantly lower or from countries where labor is replaced by automated and robotized production systems. Domestic mass production products can be competitive on the foreign market only if they are of adequate quality, competitive prices and can be produced in the required quantities. When it comes to appearance on the foreign market, the quantities are usually a limiting factor because the industrial potentials of the producers from the Republic of Croatia are small and insufficient for a more serious appearance on the world market. When it comes to Slavonia, which connected a good part of its mass industrial production with the processing of agricultural products of mass production, then the situation is significantly harder because the domestic raw material base for such production is significantly more expensive than the one that can be obtained on the foreign market. Therefore, Slavonia should not seek its development perspective within mass production but through highquality small-scale production or production for a well-known consumer, in line with the new digital era. The competitiveness of this type of production comes from the added value produced by the built-in knowledge of the product as well as knowledge about the customer. Accordingly, the aim of the research is to define the conceptual model of the knowledge base that would be used by the economy of Slavonia in the function of implementing the transformation from Industry 1.0 in Industry 4.0. Such a model integrates different types of information and knowledge that will help business entities, both in finding consumers and experts required to realize production on the principles of Industry 4.0. The primary research method used is the method of descriptive logical modelling.