Y. Luo (Ed.): CDVE 2006, LNCS 4101, pp. 65 – 74, 2006. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006 Use of Patterns for Knowledge Management in the Ceramic Tile Design Chain María Jesús Agost 1 , Fernando Romero 1 , Carlos Vila 1 , and Pedro Company 2 CINEI (Industrial Enterprise Innovation Center). Universitat Jaume I. Campus del Riu Sec. E12071 Castellón. Spain 1 Industrial Systems Engineering and Design Department magost@guest.uji.es, {fromero, vila}@esid.uji.es 2 Mechanical Engineering and Construction Department pcompany@.uji.es Abstract. Knowledge Management (KM) is a complex objective, especially in the instance of extended enterprises consisting of SMEs, and critical in new product design and development (NPD). The use of patterns is essential to get KM in collaborative NPD processes. This paper presents the use of patterns adopted in the CE-TILE project to standardize information and knowledge in collaborative work. The different types of patterns and models established for the knowledge capture, formalization and configuration are also described. Keywords: Collaborative Knowledge Management, Reference Model, Patterns, Design Process, Project Methodology, Collaborative Cluster, Product Lifecycle Management. 1 Introduction In recent years, tools for integrated information management are aimed at increasing performance in collaborative environments. Specifically, tools like PDM (Product Data Management), cPDm (collaborative Product Definition management) and PLM (Product Lifecycle Management), which allow simplifying and unifying the flows of product information, operating with data from all departments of the company [1]. The fact that the most modern of those tools are Web-compatible also facilitates the inter-enterprise communication, allowing the consideration of the extended enterprise concept. Nevertheless, the implementation of design environments based on these tools is not a trivial question: it requires the introduction of cultural and organizational changes in the enterprise. In this paper we want to emphasize the changes that affect knowledge management (KM), which is defined by Ergazakis et al. [2] as the process of creating value from the intangible assets of an enterprise; it can be related to the internal knowledge of the enterprise, and also to customers and stakeholders. In general, capture, classification, storage and continued update of the knowledge are fundamental actions in every continuous renovation process. In particular, the need to acquire knowledge is critical in new product development [3].