Communicating design knowledge to support technology management in the manufacturing industry:

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to the advance pragmatic constructivist understanding about communication in the productdevelopment context. In particular, the paper provides new understanding about how proactive truth about designknowledge can be constructed and communicated within product development actors. The paper shows how companyrepresentatives in the manufacturing environment, e.g., managers and engineers can together understand the customervalue-creation mechanisms of a specific product and integrate their expert knowledge into visual form. Building thecollective understanding requires communication between these actors. Ultimately, the actors may be able to construct auseful proactive truth about related business potentials and thereby support technology management in the productdevelopment context.