From Practical Know-hows to Design Solutions in Shoe Manufacturing Processes
The research question of the study is “How are practical know-hows used in shoe manufacturing processes and how can these be transformed into design solutions?” The aim of the study to reveal how practical know-hows are used in shoe manufacturing processes and how can these be transformed into design solutions. It will answer this question for designers; “Can practical know-hows be a key for improving or create new design solutions for shoe manufacturing process?” Research is helpful for industry and for designers. The answer of the questions provide them to understand how they transform accumulated skills and experiences to create a new design solutions or improve existing solutions. In the literature review, the differences between the practical knowhows’ and design solutions’ types were researched. It was found as a fact that the practical knowhows are implicit, but the design solutions are explicit. The method of the study is a case study that includes interview and observation techniques. The interviews and observations were made in Raker Company, which manufactures shoes in İzmir, Turkey. The workers and managers shared their knowledge for the research. Interview and observation results corroborated the argument. The transformation of the practical methods in shoe manufacture into design solutions supported the importance of the production speed and standardization.In this research, it was proved that the knowledge of the workers in shoe production was used as a implicit knowledge in general.