The paper analyses the theory and practice of the knowledge bank - the knowledge management instrument used for accumulating, storing and using the individual and organizational knowledge. The paper relies on the experience obtained in the creation of the knowledge bank in a large Lithuanian manufacturing company on its way to the learning organization. It presents the theoretical and practical insights into the concept and its application. The reseachers in the field of knowledge management focus on various types of knowledge, such as embrained knowledge (Argyris, Schon, 1978), embodied knowledge (Gmable, Blackwell, 2001), cultural/ embedded knowledge (Levitt, March, 1988; Spender, 2000), tacit and explicit knowledge (Nonaka, Takeuchi, 1995) or collective knowledge (Tsoukas, 1996; Spender, 1996). However, very few of them touch upon the practical aspects of identifying the valuable organizational knowledge, especially the tacit one, both on the individual and organizational levels, turning it into the explicit knowledge, making it publicly available inside the organization, and thereby promoting the processes of organizational learning. The knowledge stored inside the organizational knowledge bank should fulfill certain criteria, e.g. they must be useful to the members of organization, be appropriately encoded and classified, integrated into the organizational policies and information flows. The knowledge stored in the knowledge bank should cover both the specific / technical and generalist / managerial competences whereas the latter enjoy greater transferrability inside the organization. The knowledge actors inside the organization that are critical to the organizational success need to be identified, while the knowledge bank store their exclusive competences, available for sharing inside the organization. It means that specific motivation schemes have to implemented that respond to the wide range of needs of the main knowledge workers. The creation of the knowledge bank is an inseparable part of the organizational learning process. The traditional manufacturing organization may possess the basic preconditions for the successful introduction of the knowledge management processes, however, must build and constantly sustain its commitment to becoming the learning organization. The creation of the functioning knowledge bank as a continuously self-regenerating competence pool represents a challenge to the hierarchical structures and processes of the traditional manufacturing firm that need to be changed accordingly. The presentation will be based both on the practical insights from the workings of organization, the findings of survey of employees as well as the instrument proposed for the introduction in the enterprise.