Barriers impeding knowledge management for hardware integration and engineering teams

The paper identifies and ranks barriers to the four pillars of knowledge management (KM) that affect the ability of hardware integration and engineering (HIE) teams from achieving KM benefits. A literature review of knowledge management and hardware engineering identified 15 expected benefits of a KM system; these benefits were analysed for their sensitivities to barriers from leadership, organisation, technology, and learning. A survey questionnaire was deployed and collected data from 20 subject matter experts (SMEs) in hardware integration, engineering, and engineering management. The responses were statistically analysed using non-parametric methods to assess the ranks of each KM barrier with respect to the expected KM benefits. The findings of this research provides a quantitative assessment of KM barrier ranking and identifies practical implications for HIE teams who intend to optimize the benefits from KM within their organisations or teams.