BLEKINGE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
MBA THESIS
SPRING 2006
SUPERVISOR: ANDERS HEDERSTIERNA
AUTHOR: ASLI MORALI

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
via
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

CASE STUDY
QUALITY CONTROL PLANS
IN
SIEMENS A&D ET

to study in the MBA program as an international student.
I also would like to thank Siemens A&D ET for sponsoring my thesis.
My supervisor from Blekinge Institute of Technology, Anders Hederstierna guided me

Kudret Yapici from Turkey
Liang Pan from China
Georgios Sarris from Greece
Sorin Popescu from Romania

I also would like to thank Hans Schmidt and Gerhard Nissl from Siemens A&D ET Regensburg Headquarters Quality Technical Support Department for the unstructured interviews that has given me a very good insight to the IT systems used in Siemens A&D ET.

Finally, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to my Supervisor Ertan Karamehmetoglu from Siemens A&D ET, which supported me during all my way along the thesis even if he was very busy. I appreciate very much the effort and the time spent of my supervisor.

Author: Asli Morali
Supervisor: Anders Hederstierna
Department: School of Management, Blekinge Institute of Technology
Course: MBA thesis, 10 credits.

day by day a very critical issue for organizations by being considered as one of the most important competitive advantages. Globalization brings more complexity into business environments and communication and information technologies are very critical for control and coordination. IT gained much importance allowing organizations to manage knowledge in global scale. The knowledge sharing is even more complex and critical for multinational organizations. This study will help to gain a deeper understanding of the effects of IT in knowledge management process in multinational companies. As an example, Siemens AG is a well-known multinational involved in intense global knowledge management and sharing. Siemens A&D ET is one of the divisions of Siemens AG which is looking for an IT solution for knowledge management about quality control plans worldwide. The case study will try to find the most efficient IT solution for Siemens A&D ET to share knowledge internationally about quality control plans.

effects of IT in knowledge management process in multinational companies. The secondary purpose of this study is to give some advices about how knowledge on quality control plans could be shared in between different locations by use of IT within Siemens A&D ET.

the knowledge in general and the classification of knowledge as a basis for the study. Next, I presented the literature about knowledge management. Then, I covered Knowledge Management and Information Technologies to discuss finally the knowledge management in multinational companies by use of IT.

situation in Siemens A&D ET. The analysis is done based on the empirical study, first I analysed the situation in international production locations, then I analysed the options of IT solutions. Lastly, I combined both analysis to drive a conclusion.