Knowledge Transfer in International Manufacturing Networks: - An Empirical Study of European, Mexican and Chinese Sites

This paper is built around eight longitudinal case studies of knowledge transfer in manufacturing relocation. The paper introduces a model designed to identify knowledge in relation to four task situations on the shop floor in a manufacturing environment. Explicit and tacit knowledge are introduced and the paper suggests how the transfer of tacit knowledge, in particular, can be improved. The paper discusses two dramatic shifts in organizational settings, i.e. from operations management to project management in the sending unit before a transfer and the reverse in the receiving unit after relocation. Finally, the paper discusses how “dispatching capacity” and “absorptive capacity” can improve the process.