Abstract
Because of the need of more product variety and reduced product life cycle, the lead time of new product development (NPD) has to be shortened. How to introduce the new product into market in the shortest time period has become an important issue for an enterprise to achieve a leading position in the market. Since procurement is one of the key components of the NPD process, if the related knowledge about procurement can be provided by an effective knowledge management system, the time spent on procurement in NPD can be reduced efficiently.The knowledge management system built in this study contains the knowledge and document for the procurement in the NPD process. This system can provide the knowledge for different stages of the NPD process. If a user needs more knowledge, he can use a keyword to search the related knowledge in the system. The default knowledge is necessary and the user-search knowledge is a further support to a user. User can make good decisions base on the provided knowledge by the system. The knowledge need to be updated on a regular basis to make sure the validity of the knowledge. A user can also choose a suitable supplier for a component, which plays an important role in the NPD process.A user can find knowledge related to procurement knowledge management quickly and conveniently. Through continuous updating of the knowledge system, it can reduce the NPD time, which is the key to compete in the market.