Abstract：Based on review and analysis of existing tacit knowledge acquisition methods and problems, a definition of empirical tacit knowledge for the decisionmaking is presented. After analyzing the characteristics of the empirical tacit knowledge, its representation method is given. And then a “twostage acquisition method” to acquire empirical tacit knowledge for decision making is proposed, which can complete the transformation and acquisition process of tacit knowledge from “tacit knowledge in the minds of experts” to “original tacit knowledge”, and to “structured tacit knowledge”. Finally, a case study of plant facility planning decisionmaking is provided to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of this approach.
2013, Vol. 10 
