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"TEC's solutions, which include research comparison reports selection tools
consulting services are driven by its powerful analysis engine, eBestMatch.TEC knowledge management strategies
designed to help manufacturers stem the loss of organizational knowledge capital."
Source: Technology Evaluation Centers
Stemming the Loss of Knowledge Capital: A Business Fix for Canadian Manufacturers
Knowledge Management is also known as :
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Knowledge Management System,
Loss of Knowledge Capital,
Practice of KM,
TEC KM Best Practices,
ITIL Knowledge Management,
about Knowledge Management,
Efficient Knowledge Capital,
Introducing Knowledge Management,
Effective Knowledge Management,
Stemming the Loss of Knowledge Capital,
Success Knowledge Management,
Open Knowledge Management,
Kind of Knowledge Management,
Versions of Knowledge Management,
Leading Knowledge Management,
Use of Knowledge Management,
Latest Free Knowledge Management Reports,
Successful Knowledge Management,
Captured Knowledge Management,
Knowledge Management Strategies,
Knowledge Management Strategy,
Knowledge Management Tools,
Knowledge Management that Works,
Successful KM,
Knowledge Management Solutions,
Knowledge Management Repository,
Knowledge Management Technologies.
The clock is ticking for Canadian manufacturers to come up with a solution
to the ongoing loss of knowledge capital. Their best hope lies in introducing
knowledge management strategies across the enterprise-before it's too late.
Canadian manufacturers are in danger of losing significant knowledge capital. Natural
employee attrition, such as departures or layoffs, inevitable retirement, and the brain drain
are contributing to an exodus of knowledge. Canadian manufacturers should introduce
efficient and effective knowledge management strategies across the enterprise before
it's too late. By creating a repository of knowledge capital, Canadian manufacturers can
increase productivity by leveraging past discoveries, maintaining competitive advantage,
and improving customer service.
LOSS OF KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL: THE BUSINESS IMPACT
The pressure is on Canadian manufacturers to reduce costs. Consider a team of
engineers and assemblers who have dedicated time and effort to designing and producing
a complex project, only to discover a similar project had been done in the past; consider
the waste of repeated processes, the missed opportunities, and the cost of design and
manufacturing rework. Reuse of what is already learned increases productivity. In an engineer-to-order (ETO) manufacturing environment this is particularly significant, as captured
knowledge shortens the design and production cycle, and development can be completed
faster. It reduces design iterations and manufacturing rework. A knowledge management
system may eliminate the need for physical prototypes, as the design will be correct the
first time. This streamlines the design process, and increases automation and production
efficiency. An effective knowledge management strategy will likely provide the manufacturer
significant competitive advantage by eliminating design redundancy and getting product to
market faster. After all, in project-based ETO environments, error-free work coupled with
decreased design and production times are the keys to being profitable.
"Since 2002, Canada as a
whole has lost more than
a quarter million
manufacturing jobs...
50,000 of which have been
lost this year alone."
-Canadian Labour Congress
Customers are increasingly demanding that manufacturers be more responsive to their
needs during the bidding process. ETO projects are often complex, involving a vast number
of materials and a range of component equipment. But to win business, quotes provided
to customers must be accurate. Knowing the estimates from similar projects is valuable,
as it enables manufacturers to respond to more bids, reuse the information to build better
quotes, and provide accurate quotes to customers and prospects. By delivering what is
expected better, faster, and on quote, manufacturers are delivering better customer service
and at the same time, keeping their costs in line. Additionally, with knowledge management,
customer input can be mapped to projects and alternative bids developed to deliver
improved customer service. Manufacturers should shiftreturn on investment (ROI) metrics
from product-centric measurements to customer-centric.
Silos of information are preventing Canadian manufacturers from shortening production
cycles, which threatens their competitiveness. A lack of workflow collaboration across
business units has created a communication disconnect. For example, since the shop
floor and assemblers often work in silos, separate from the design team, there is a need to
improve communication of processes. Time and effort is lost as changes and processes pass
through various departments that are often in different locations and working on different
priorities. With disparate teams, the sharing of knowledge is critical to successful ETO
projects; after all, the engineer's view of the world is different from that of plant managers.
Additionally, while teams can be disparate, so can systems, with spreadsheets and manual processes accumulated over a period of years. Organizations that integrate around a single
enterprise-wide system with a common base of information and well-defined business
processes will streamline disparate communications and connect design to production and
engineer to assembler-thereby getting products to market faster and helping customers
keep costs in line.
LOSS OF KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL: THE ORGANIZATIONAL IMPACT
A knowledge management strategy is hopeless without stakeholder management.
Canadian manufacturers should invite participation from all stakeholders, both inside and
outside the enterprise. Since knowledge capture entails internal change and a shift in
corporate strategy, input with respect to what the users want from the system and how the
system manages knowledge should be collected to secure a positive launch. Stakeholder
management includes buy-in at the executive level, including cost justification; buy-in
at the user level; buy-in at the designer and engineering level; and inclusion of external
participants such as partners, suppliers, and customers. After all, a knowledge management
system is not static, but dynamic, with active, continual exchange amongst stakeholders.
How a knowledge management system is introduced in an organization will determine its
success. Canadian manufacturers need to manage change inherent in new policies,
procedures, and methods. End-user stakeholders need to understand that knowledge
management is as valuable to them as it is to the company. They can help identify the
potential challenges of such a system-and by the same token, help mitigate issues at
the outset, as well as determining acceptable risks. For these reasons, change should be
managed at every level of the organization's hierarchy. To achieve an efficient knowledge
capture process, and for sustainable success, companies should create interdependent
and continuous communications. And the way to overcome any resistance is to define
an integration strategy early, and then put the pieces in place to accomplish each step of
the process. After all, it is the users who will define the ultimate success of a knowledge
management strategy.
Even though the ultimate success of a knowledge management system depends on
the end users, an effective strategy should involve the rich knowledge lying outside the
organization. A cross-functional team of suppliers and partners contributing to an open
knowledge management system, together with input from customers, will enable realtime
feedback and questions. By opening the knowledge system to these external parties,
Canadian manufacturers can anticipate and solve customer projects even before the
first design iteration. This kind of knowledge management makes the manufacturer more
resilient with respect to global competitors, as it gets the manufacturer past concerns
of time-to-market, and on to the business of generating revenue from converted sales.
Having input from customers and suppliers well before the manufacturing process begins
enables manufacturers to close sales even before the first product comes off the production
line. Thus, time to converted sales becomes more relevant than time to market.
From the perspective of executive stakeholders, each application should justify its
place in the organization through measurable ROI. Many Canadian manufacturers use
customized in-house-developed versions of knowledge management tools to save costs.
But these manufacturers are at a huge disadvantage-stuck in time thanks to legacy
systems and old data storage mechanisms that are cumbersome and outdated. To be
competitive, Canadian manufacturers need to move beyond Excel spreadsheets and other
manual systems, as old programming languages are difficult to maintain and do not keep pace with changes in business. Today, application logic has improved and the state of
application integration across the enterprise is far better than it was before. Executive
stakeholders should put a plan in place to reduce dependency on outdated infrastructures
and consider implementing a leading knowledge management solution.
Caveat: there is an apparent creativity paradox within knowledge management. While
using past knowledge may seem more efficient, there is a distinct possibility of hindering
engineering creativity or "out of the box" thinking. Design-level stakeholders may perceive
knowledge capture as a threat thwarting new ways of doing things-ways which may turn
out to be better. But the reality is that captured knowledge secures creativity. A knowledge
management system provides a foundation for creativity and opens the door to endless
possibilities. The upside to using past knowledge to avoid past mistakes, reuse knowledge,
increase productivity, and improve customer service, far outweighs any downside of
knowledge capture.
"A knowledge
management system is not
static, but dynamic"
CONCLUSION
An effective knowledge management strategy would deliver significant benefits to
Canadian manufacturers in an ETO environment, including reduced costs and increased
productivity; improved customer responsiveness and competitive advantage; and improved
communication, both inside and outside the organization. But Canadian manufacturers
need to move beyond a fractured, disparate process of capturing knowledge, and tackle
the issue with structured vision. The change won't come easily and in many cases will
require a completely new way of thinking about how to capture and store knowledge-an
approach which emphasizes interdepartmental cooperation and buy-in across the enterprise,
from the executive office to the shop floor. Functional simplicity should be conveyed to
users to get them over capture process and data management barriers.
Keep in mind that while executive project champions open doors to funding a knowledge
management repository, cross-functional teams and users are the ones who will ensure
that knowledge management is as valuable to them as it is to the company. Invite user
participation; couple that with an open system to capture input from knowledge-rich
partners, suppliers, and customers. Additionally, companies must make better use of
knowledge management technologies such as applications that use a central repository of
data to store information on engineering or design rules for products and projects. Leading
applications offer robust functionality and have similar user interfaces to keep familiarity
for business users. Taking a cookie-cutter approach to captured knowledge exposes the
organization to the precarious possibility of hindering creativity, albeit inadvertently. But
in fact, best use of knowledge management secures creativity, and design engineers will
appreciate a dynamic knowledge repository. The key to successful knowledge
management is the active participation of all stakeholders.
About the Author:
Christina Park is a senior research analyst at Technology Evaluation Centers
(www.technologyevaluation.com). She has nearly ten years of international IT experience
in business systems, enterprise applications, and hardware manufacturing, and has written
numerous articles covering enterprise applications.
She can be reached at cpark@tec-centers.com.