Int. J. Knowledge Management Studies, Vol. 8, Nos. 3/4, 2017 351 Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Externalising and reusing of tacit knowledge in manufacturing task Mawloud Titah*, Samia Aitouche, Mohamed Djamel Mouss and Abdelkrim Soussa Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Batna 2, 05000 Batna, Algeria Email: titah_m@yahoo.fr Email: samiaaitouche@yahoo.fr Email: d_mouss@yahoo.fr Email: s.Abdelkrim@yahoo.fr *Corresponding author Abstract: In this paper, we present the application of knowledge engineering and externalisation of tacit knowledge in manufacturing industry, in order to improve the performance of a production system and save the knowledge capital of the company. The main aim of this study is to propose a knowledge model for manufacturing task combining common knowledge acquisition and design support (CommonKADS) and methodology for acquisition of tacit knowledge (MACTAK) methodologies, using two different knowledge base modelling based on two categories: (i) ontology and (ii) expert knowledge base. In that purpose, we suggest a process dedicated to industrial manufacturing, allowing to capitalise knowledge by: (1) Externalisation of tacit knowledge by MACTAK-methodology in industrial processes, (2) using knowledge engineering method; CommonKADS methodology, (3) Formalizing and modelling the domain knowledge using ontology and inference model, (4) presenting the implementation tool to support the knowledge model and (5) reusing the manufacturing knowledge model in decision support systems. The three pillars of methodology are: the externalisation process, Knowledge representation technique and quality tools. The proposed model is applied in manufacturing monitoring systems. Keywords: CommonKADS; expert knowledge base; MACTAK; manufacturing industry; ontology; tacit knowledge. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Titah, M., Aitouche, S., Mouss, M.D. and Soussa, A. (2017) ‘Externalising and reusing of tacit knowledge in manufacturing task’, Int. J. Knowledge Management Studies, Vol. 8, Nos. 3/4, pp.351–374. Biographical notes: Mawloud Titah graduated from Industrial Engineering Department, Batna University, Algeria in 2009, and he obtained his MSc in 2013. He is working towards a PhD in capitalisation and sharing of knowledge in Laboratory of Automatics and Manufacturing. His research interests include monitoring of manufacturing system, knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing and knowledge-based system. Samia Aitouche graduated from the National Institute of Informatics (INI) Algiers, in 1994. She received her MSc from the Industrial Engineering Department, University of Batna in 2009. Her research interests include