Addressing The Demographic Challenge Of Knowledge Management
Manufacturing.net Nov 18
Extract:
When
a large manufacturer calculated how much they could save by
consolidating operations, they didn’t count the true cost of closing a
location a few states away that had a 90-year history and hundreds of
skilled employees. The oldest, most expert employees took early
retirement. The mid-level employees, the company’s intellectual
backbone, took their expertise to a competitor, rather than ...
These new systems are being built around these key ideas:
- Active and agile knowledge.
The old knowledge library paradigm is too static. Knowledge is active,
alive and has greatest value when used. It must be accessible, useful
and relevant. Engineers don’t have time to stop what they are doing to
dig for a manual — assuming they know where to look in the first place.
Knowledge must push to workers in context.
- Accessible, complete and current knowledge.
Knowledge is stored in a variety of disconnected documents that quickly
fall out of date. An engineer may not have time to search for
specification documents, best practices presentations and various
spreadsheets of data. And if he grabs old parameters without realizing
they are outdate, he may invest hours in a solution that is totally out
of specification. Systems must make it easy for users to access a
complete and current knowledge.
- Make knowledge capture part of the process.
If people don’t have time to go search through documents, they surely
don’t have time to create them. Efforts can vary in quality, depending
on who creates them. Capturing knowledge, evaluating it, refining it and
updating it has to be an organic part of the workflow — or it simply
will not happen.
- Structured flexibility.
Knowledge takes many forms and is used in many ways. An engineer might
need materials specifications, dimension measurements, picture maps,
work instructions and interdependency schedules to design a part. The
system must be flexible and able to completely capture and structure
that content for access and reuse.
- Reward knowledge contributions.
Some people fear sharing their knowledge will make it easier to ship
their job to China. Others take genuine pride in being the go-to person
when someone has a question. A well-managed knowledge system uses such
cultural issues to motivate, recognize and reward people for
contributing. They create a virtuous circle of engagement, trust and
use, with practical rewards that encourage more engagement and more use.