IBM

IBM'S knowledge management  approach and strategy focuses on four elements whose intergration are key to creating and sustaining a knowledge based business : expertise, content, collaboration and learning. In addition it focuses on how these elements are leveraged by different social system. Expertise involves the ability to find and work with the subject matter experts across the business and then leverage their knowledge and experience. Content management is the ability to access pertinent information immediately and easily. Collaboration refers to the ability for two people to work together through time and space. Learning or e learning is the ability to receive just in time mentoring and education to develop a career and job related skill set.

This according to me is basic knowledge managements and descripes it well in a nut shell thats why I wrote about it. First expert knowledge should be recorded so it can be used for future reference. It saves time and moneyof calling experts again. But it is important in what manner you record it. It should be easily accessible for the one looking for it. The database key word search for example is a good way of finding things instead of reading 100 pages of information which is not useful at that point of time. Working in team always helps as people more people bring more knowledge to the table.They can find info faster with two people looking for it.

: 24 Apr 2009 12:05 |  Tags: Kbam Mbe |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Recession– Ford– Knowledge Management and Maintenance

In 1980 there was a recession and Ford reliased the importance of sharing information. It created teams. These teams were employees from different plants who came together and spend days in different factories. They realised that not all effective policies/methods were followed in all factories. So they ensured that all effective method were followed

Mr Excellence who has expnded can do the same. This ford example can show him the importance of KM especially in this time of recession where one needs to be cost effective.

: 24 Apr 2009 11:51 |  Tags: Kbam Mbe |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Artificial Intelligence

while reading more into knowledge management, I came across this interesting tool called artificial intelligence. Now a days taks are getting more complex. Artificial intelligence can come in handy out here. This system is a machine that can do things like humans. It also good at collecting knowledge and using previous knowledge it can come up with a solution. It can help no expert operate machines they barely know anything about. They are designed to make an humans task more easier. Use of robots comes under artificial intelligence as well. It is a very interesting tool.

Computer has definately made the world a more easier place to live in now a days. Implementation of artificail intelligence can really help in many ways and has been implemented by many companies such as texas instrument and cambell soup

: 04 Apr 2009 16:36 |  Tags: Kbam Mbe |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Should messengers be allowed at work places?

As I said in my previous blog that chat rooms are a good way of exchanging and sharing information. It is very cheap in terms of cost. Now some of these messengers have call facilities as well which makes communication inexpensive. But how do we ensure that employees do not take wrong advantage of this. The might start talking to their friends and company may suffer due to this. Should chatroom talk be monitored in the company?

: 02 Apr 2009 15:27 |  Tags: Kbam Mbe |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Blogging is a Tacit way of Sharing Knowledge…....

Tacit means informal..............I just realised that blogging is a good way of sharing knowledge.....it has helped me so much to gain more information and probably help others by sharing information. I am not sure if any companies implement blogging in their organisation but I think it is a good way to share information throughtout the organisation. Discussion form an important part for knowledge to grow. Exchange of information helps existing knowledge grow.

Another thing I was thinking was that its interesting that sometimes we have the information right in fron of us but do not make use of it.....things such as manuals of the organisations may exist but people do not bother looking into it. It may have the information you may need while meeting a client. You dont want to appear clueless in front tof the customer. Your organisational structure should be such that people read manuals, databases, BLOG ASWELL :)

: 02 Apr 2009 15:16 |  Tags: Kbam Mbe |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

RDD comes to an end

It was a very emotional day for me. I had mixed feeling.

It could be possible that I may not see some of my classmates again. This made me really upset. We got along so well like a family. I am going to miss each and every classmate.

I was happy because I now get a months break from the 9 to 5 classes but I really hope I do not procastinate.

I will miss Paul too. He has helped me further develop not only my learning skills but also develop my personality.

In RDD I really liked the fault tree analysis. The use of "And" and "Or" gates is really interesting. I do feel that fault tree analysis can get quite complicated sometimes. I felt so while working on the presentation.  I do feel its not a full proof way of getting all your problems solved. I thought benchmarking is imporant as you can always learn from other peoples success and failures

: 29 Mar 2009 13:46 |  Tags: Mbe Rdd |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Knowledge Management—High turnover rate

As well all know by now that knowledge management is linked to intellectual capital. Intellectual capital not only encompases the empolyees knowledge but also the customers and vendors knowledge. It also includes things in the organisation when the employees go home such as databases, manuals, software and customer file.

I always used to wonder that if employee turnover is high then thats a lot of experience and information walking out of the door. But KM  makes it possible for us not to worry about that. If your company is organised in a way where there is exchange of knowledge and information easily available and recorded it is so much more easier. Each time something goes wrong we can record it in the database and also record how we solved the problem. So this will help us not worry about high turnover rate. But this doesnt mean that you should be happy with high turnover rate. Work to reduce it. High turn over rate means loss of time and money. Time and money taken to hire and train some one new is very expensive!!

: 29 Mar 2009 13:32 |  Tags: Kbam Mbe |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Cell Manufacturing

I found the concept of working in small batches very interesting. I f one makes different types of products too, it important to alternate between the two products than just making product A in the morning and product B in the evening. This is called product levelling. It also involves producing goods at a fixed speed. There is standardization then. Its not the one day you produce more and the other day you produce less. By working in small batches one can detect defects more easily and reduce the lead time and changeover time. The WIP inventory is reduced.

: 15 Mar 2009 20:39 |  Tags: Mbe Piuss |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Time Management

Well in our presentation we ran out of time and could not complete it. Well most of our team members were quite dissapointed, as this was the last presentation we would have and we all had worked very very hard on it. In the assesment we got from  team 1 was that we had good content in it. I tried to evaluate where we had gone wrong. Why did we not finish. May be because we spent too much time explaining definitions.

I have definately learnt how to be more careful and manage time more effectively by prioritizing whats more important. I think I came out a winner from this presentation and not a loser. I have learnt so much during the course of this presentation. We all discussed what we were talking about in the presentation, gave our inputs to each other. The team worked very efficiently. The portfolio was a good way to reflect on the ideas in the presentation.

It was very nice for a lot of class mates to say that they felt bad that we could not complete the presentation. This shows cooperation and unity and not competition. I think all groups did a really good job and as Paul said in class, that we all have come a long way from presentations we gave in CBE about 4 months back i think.

: 15 Mar 2009 20:09 |  Tags: Kbam Mbe |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Lean and Six Sigma

I just turned in the pma a couple of hours back. It sure has been very interesting. It was interesting to see how lean and six sigma can be used together. Both have similar goals of minimizing defects, and are quite similar in many other ways.  One of the only difference I found was the lean also emphasises on compressing the process to reduce the lead time, which probably six sigma doesnt really work on. Both also use stastistical tools to solve problems and have a cylewhich helps them solve problem. What I found interesting was the use of hoshin kanri in lean. PDCA cycle is a huge part of lean culture which is a part of hoshin kanri too. Honshin kanri can be used in a lean company. The Catch ball method is a good way of brainstorming. Six sigma too talks a lot about brainstroming and having cross functional teams which would help improve the quality of brainstorming. It is very important to have a facilitator in a six sigma team who is a black belt, who will encourage comunication between members and try and create an environment of trust. There are so many other ways how these are similar. Its interesting to see so many companies such as Xerox, Ford adopting lean six sigma.

: 15 Mar 2009 20:00 |  Tags: Mbe Piuss |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem