Driving Knowledge Management and Innovation at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
- Paper number
IAC-08.D5.2.4
- Author
Dr. Kiho Sohn, The Boeing Company, United States
- Year
2008
- Abstract
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) is the global leader in the design, manufacture, and service of space propulsion engines. These engines were used to launch the first U.S. satellite, the first U.S. human flight, NASA’s Mercury and Apollo programs, and the Space Shuttle. These space vehicles have placed numerous military, government and commercial satellites into orbit, including nearly 700 humans, and powered space missions to every planet in the solar system. Around late 1990’s, PWR was faced with new challenges for developing more powerful engines with an order of magnitude less cost. Benchmarking several innovation techniques, PWR developed an innovation workshop utilizing a methodology called TRIZ. A few years later, the company was challenged with an issue of aging workforce and had to develop knowledge retention program. PWR soon learned the connection between innovation and knowledge management (KM), and has developed a very comprehensive Innovation and KM program. This connection relies on utilization of knowledge bases to generate innovative ideas and well organized knowledge bases created from KM program. Included in this presentation are an overview of PWR’s KM program and its connection to Innovation, some of their key techniques and tools, and company’s system thinking approach to deal with transformation of employee’s culture.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)