To be published in: e2000 Conference Proceedings. Inter- and Intra-Organisational Barriers to Sharing Knowledge in the Extended Supply-Chain Richard J BARSON 1 , Gillian FOSTER 1 , Thomas STRUCK 1 , Svetan RATCHEV 1 , Kulwant PAWAR 1 , Frithjof WEBER 2 , and Michael WUNRAM 2 1 School of Mechanical, Materials, Manufacturing Engineering and Management The University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK Tel: +44 (0) 115 9514065; Email: Richard.Barson@nottingham.ac.uk 2 Department of Computer-Aided Design, Planning and Production PO-Box 33 05 60, D-28335 Bremen, Germany 2 Tel: +49 (421) 218 5536; Email: web@biba.uni-bremen.de Abstract. This paper aims to describe the main barriers to knowledge sharing in the extended enterprise. The barriers were identified through a literature review and work with industrial companies. The barriers have been categorised according to the TOP (Technology, Organisation, People) classification. The main finding is that the majority of barriers are concerned with people issues. 1. Introduction The development and improvement of the extended enterprise is an imperative issue for many organisations. For the extended enterprise to operate effectively it is necessary to share knowledge in terms of procedures, processes and working practices. This paper identifies some of the difficulties and barriers to knowledge sharing and proposes methods for overcoming them. This paper is based upon the work carried out for two European Commission funded projects. KARE (K nowledge A cquisition and Sharing in R equirements E ngineering) tackles the sharing of knowledge in the aerospace extended supply chain. CORMA (Practical Methods and Tools for Cor porate Knowledge Ma nagement) investigates knowledge management in the product introduction process, from concept through to manufacture, in the telecommunications sector. The results from KARE have been used to help identify barriers to knowledge management that the ongoing CORMA project will endeavour to overcome. Many companies engage in joint product development projects with their customers and suppliers, need to transfer information to suppliers enabling them to prepare for manufacture, or need to keep their customers informed of progress. Barriers to knowledge sharing can result in a failure to capture and translate requirements into meaningful specifications, delays in product introduction, increased cost and ultimately customer dissatisfaction. It is therefore important that organisations firstly become aware of barriers to knowledge sharing and, secondly, take steps to overcome them. Although recent research has emphasised the problem of knowledge sharing [1] it is still difficult for companies to systematically integrate their day to day business with customers