Classification of Knowledge Areas/Hierarchies and Its Implications in Mass Customisation: An Exploratory Study

This paper explores the characteristics of knowledge management (KM) for mass customisation (MC) with respect to knowledge classification. The proposed knowledge classification framework classifies horizontal knowledge areas into customer, product, and process, and vertical knowledge hierarchies into strategic, conceptual, and operational. This provides useful strategic and operations insights in KM for MC. The classification framework explained different methods of knowledge process operations and different KM strategies. Therefore, firms intending to implement KM for MC need to consider the differentiated characteristics of classified knowledge areas and hierarchies. This study was conducted through focused interviews on practitioners from companies providing MC.