Manufacturing companies are compelled to innovate through design that is a knowledge-intensive process. However, there lacks a comprehensive knowledge model while considering the specific requirements of innovation in design. In this paper, we propose a systemic model of knowledge for innovation based on our analyses and argumentations, which is characterized by the knowledge content and context from the perspective of systems thinking. By using Unified Modeling Language (UML), the model is implemented and developed into a prototype system of knowledge management for innovation. Then, a simple industrial use case is presented for demonstrating the applicability of our model. Finally, our major contributions and future work about the performance evaluation of knowledge development are discussed