二十一世紀為知識爆炸的年代，在這知識大量生產的時代中，企業應該善用知識管理以從事產品創新，並將其成果予以商品化，使之產生經濟價值。但過去知識管理研究以探討個人、組織及社會等因素與知識管理過程之間的影響性為主，且很少有探討關於知識管理的整合性程序與方法。然而，如何透過知識管理有效進行技術知識創新與新產品開發，也是企業提升競爭力時所關切的重要課題。因此本計畫所提出之運用知識管理發展產品創新能力是一具整合性程序與方法之創新構想，此整合性系統若能運用成功，除可提升企業實施知識管理的時效與績效外，而且能有效發展產品創新能力，進而提升手工具產業的經濟價值，並可成為其他企業運用知識管理的主要參考範例。
由於台灣目前瞭解有效運用知識管理的人才不足，因此整合性運用知識管理程序與方法將可解決人才不足的問題。此整合性系統包括：確定如何獲取知識、建立知識分類流程、建立手工具產業的知識地圖、盤點合作企業的現有知識、發展產品創新能力等程序與方法。故本研究之優點如下：
1. 可提升企業運用知識管理的可行性，強化企業競爭力，並提升手工具產業的經濟價值。
2. 本計畫探討之運用知識管理發展產品創新能力，其實施程序完整且作業方法清楚，適合各企業參考使用。
3. 可提升產品創新的時效性，以改變台灣手工具業的產值負成長趨勢。
4. 促進其他企業善用知識管理，有助於提升台灣的知識經濟。
The twenty-first century will be the era of the knowledge economy. A business should apply knowledge management to develop product innovation and commercialize the outcome for economic value. The past research of knowledge management often stresses partial factors that influence the effectiveness of knowledge management. For instance, some form the perspectives of individual, organizational, social factors, or etc. However rare studies pay attention to a more integrated framework of how knowledge can be effectively practiced and integrated. How to promote knowledge innovation and to develop new product through knowledge management is one of the most important subjects. Therefore, we purpose to offer an integrated framework of knowledge management upon product innovation to help firm meet time pressure and increase effectiveness, Particularly in those economic entities that are short of industrial experts who response of knowledge management.
A successful management system that brings benefits of human resources saving includes confirm of knowledge acquirement, build process flow for knowledge category, build knowledge map for hand tool industry, store of business knowledge, and develop capability of product
innovation. Our study contributes to (1) the competitive advantage of a firm through knowledge management practices, (2) the board application of the knowledge management upon product innovation with a through process guide and generalizability, (3) enhance a firm’s knowledge of product and sustain a firm’s capability of innovation, and (4) facilitate the knowledge management within a sector, and thereby facilitate the development of knowledge economy in Taiwan.
