Science and Technology 2017, 7(3): 61-71 DOI: 10.5923/j.scit.20170703.01 Knowledge Management Practices on Product Improvement for Dire Dawa National and Ture Cement Factories in Ethiopia 2015; Cross-Sectional Survey Method Yeshiareg Temtime, Worku Jimma * , Mniyichel Belay Department of Information Science, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia Abstract This study identified knowledge management practices that exercise in Dire Dawa national and Ture cement factories by examines the relationship between knowledge management practices and organizational productivity. Qualitative and quantitative approach was used to investigate the existing gaps. To carry out this investigation a descriptive research method was used. Purposive and simple random sampling was used for selected 143 employees. Questionnaire, interviews and observation check list were used as data collection instrument. From the present study knowledge creation, knowledge capture, knowledge share and knowledge application are knowledge management practices that exercise in the selected cement factories and the study area used knowledge management practices for business process achievement. The relationship between productivity and available knowledge depends on people, ICT facility and organizational existing policy available in the factories. The limited functionality of ICT facility, the non functionality of knowledge management policy and the limited capacity of knowledge expert are problems that hinder implementation of knowledge management practices in the factories. Keywords Knowledge Management Practices, Organizational Productivity, Productivity and available Knowledge 1. Introduction Most companies like banks, cement industry, health center and university library have knowledge management (KM) inside their organizations. However, KM in organizations reflects the identification and use of collective knowledge (Churchill, 1999). KM also a trans disciplinary field aimed at doing what was needed to get the most out of knowledge resources (DeVaus, 2001). According to Smith and Mills, managing knowledge resources effectively is vital for individual and the organizations that want to utilize their knowledge assets for competitive advantage in an organization with knowledge management. Various authors argued that nowadays, knowledge management practices (KMP) provide companies with a competitive advantage as a result of their impact on the organization’s ability to act in more efficient, sustain able and innovative ways. Through the practices of knowledge management, an organization focuses on the systematic exploitation and reuse of knowledge. * Corresponding author: worku.jimma@yahoo.com (Worku Jimma) Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/scit Copyright © 2017 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved Jennex (2008), also studied about measures of KMP outcomes in terms of organizational performance as enhancement of product and service quality; productivity; competitive capacity and position in the market; and customer satisfaction; employee satisfaction; knowledge sharing; transparency and its retention. Addicott and Ferlie, stated that many large companies and non - profit organizations have resources dedicated to internal KMP efforts, often as a part of their business strategy, information technology, or human resource management departments. According to Meron, in Ethiopia cement factories the production capacity utilization rate in the country is below 50%, so this level of capacity utilization is substantially low compared to global average of 60 – 70% or recommended acceptable optimum production capacity utilization rate that range between 80 – 85%. Problem Statement In Ethiopia, there is a recognizable competition among the existing cement factories by improving productivity and quality of the products through the application of KMP. However, Dire Dawa national and Ture cement factories are affected by the problem of lack of implementations of KMP, shortage of information about organizational knowledge source, skill gap on KM expert, Un understandable KMP