All entries for July 2016

11/07/2016

A navigation technique is to look at the stars to tell you where you are. Similarly, we must use a powerful new "knowledge lens" in order to navigate or manage our companies. But we can't manage knowledge in a traditional way.

Always changing, knowledge is more organic than mechanical.

Below is the 12 principles about knowledge by Verna Allee (2009).

1. Knowledge is messy. Because knowledge is connected to everything else, you can't isolate the knowledge aspect of anything neatly. In the knowledge universe, you can't pay attention to just one factor.

2. Knowledge is self-organizing. The self that knowledge organizes around is organizational or group identity and purpose.

3. Knowledge seeks community. Knowledge wants to happen, just as life wants to happen. Both want to happen as community. Nothing illustrates this principle more than the Internet.

4. Knowledge travels via language. Without a language to describe our experience, we can't communicate what we know. Expanding organizational knowledge means that we must develop the languages we use to describe our work experience.

5. The more you try to pin knowledge down, the more it slips away. It's tempting to try to tie up knowledge as codified knowledge-documents, patents, libraries, databases, and so forth. But too much rigidity and formality regarding knowledge lead to the stultification of creativity.

6. Looser is probably better. Highly adaptable systems look sloppy. The survival rate of diverse, decentralized systems is higher. That means we can waste resources and energy trying to control knowledge too tightly.

7. There is no one solution. Knowledge is always changing. For the moment, the best approach to managing it is one that keeps things moving along while keeping options open.

8. Knowledge doesn't grow forever. Eventually, some knowledge is lost or dies, just as things in nature. Unlearning and letting go of old ways of thinking, even retiring whole blocks of knowledge, contribute to the vitality and evolution of knowledge.

9. No one is in charge. Knowledge is a social process. That means no one person can take responsibility for collective knowledge.

10. You can't impose rules and systems. If knowledge is truly self-organizing, the most important way to advance it is to remove the barriers to self-organization. In a supportive environment, knowledge will take care of itself.

11. There is no silver bullet. There is no single leverage point or best practice to advance knowledge. It must be supported at multiple levels and in a variety of ways.

12. How you define knowledge determines how you manage it. The "knowledge question" can present itself many ways. For example, concern about the ownership of knowledge leads to acquiring codified knowledge that is protected by copyrights and patents.

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Definition of Knowledge Management Principles:

Knowledge management principles are an enduring set of guidelines for managing knowledge that are established by an organization, program or team.

Below is some principles about knowledge managementI picked up from Anna Mar (2013):

1. Knowledge is a Valuable Asset

2. Knowledge is Stored in A Central Repository

One of the biggest problems that knowledge management programs face is islands of knowledge. Teams and individuals have a tendency to horde knowledge in their own makeshift repositories. This principle makes it clear that everything goes into one central repository. Your knowledge repository (e.g. enterprise content management system) should allow teams and users to create their own knowledge spaces.

3. Knowledge is Quality Controlled

For example, quality guidelines may state that document authorship (who contributed to knowledge) be captured.

4. Knowledge is Decentralized

Most knowledge management responsibilities lie with those teams closest to the knowledge. Never centralize all knowledge management processes.

5. Knowledge is Social

Knowledge that sits on a shelf has no value. The value of knowledge depends on communication and socialization. The creation, assessment, improvement and use of knowledge is largely a social process.

6. Knowledge is Shared

A primary goal of knowledge management is to facilitate the sharing of knowledge. Encourage your organization to share (e.g. lunch and learn sessions).

7. Knowledge is Accessible

Knowledge is more valuable when it's accessible to a wide audience. Privacy and confidentiality prevent most organizations from sharing all knowledge. However, it's important to set the expectation that a valid reason is required to restrict access. The concept of accessibility also addresses access to knowledge for individuals with disabilities or special needs.

8. Knowledge is Secured

Knowledge is your most valuable information. It's critical that information security best practices be followed for knowledge management processes and tools.

9. Work Produces Knowledge

Set the expectation that every program, project, process and initiative is expected to generate knowledge. In some organizations, every meeting is expected to generate knowledge.

10. Knowledge is Improved

Knowledge that isn't improved quickly loses it's value. Knowledge management is a process of continual improvement.

: 11 Jul 2016 08:24 |  Tags: Book Kbam Review |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

11/07/2016

Notes I made from Asset Management Excellence: Optimizing Equipment Life-Cycle Decisions

1. Life Cycle Asset Management (LCAM) is an integrated approach to optimizing the life cycle of your assets beginning at conceptual design, continuing through shut down and decommissioning. Thorough planning, analysis and timely execution allow appropriate data-driven decision-making to occur and enable LCAM to deliver optimum:

 Operating and maintenance strategies

 Organizational structure

 Staffing requirements

 Reliability engineering processes

 Work control/planning and scheduling processes

 Equipment criticality and hierarchy in the appropriate enterprise resource system format

 Purchasing and stores processes

 Training plan

 Start up and commissioning plan

 Decommissioning plan

 Executive dashboards with performance baselines and targets

2. Three foundational elements must be in place to support life cycle asset management:

Management Strategy, Optimum Organizational Design and Long-term Asset Planning.

3. Life cycle phases of process asset systems

4. RADAR-based maintenance phrase/framework

5. Asset management is often one of the last options to maximise cost savings in a competitive global economy due to its intrinsic complexity, especially in many developing countries. Asset management in the process industry must consider the commissioning, operational and end-of-life phases of physical assets when commencing a design and implementation project. However, current asset management models show inefficiencies in terms of addressing life cycle costs comprehensively, as well as other aspects of sustainable development. An asset life cycle management (ALCM) model is subsequently proposed for assets in the process industry, which integrates the concepts of generic project management frameworks and systems engineering with operational reliability in order to address these inefficiencies.

Reference: D. Campbell, J., K.S. Jardine, A. and McGlynn, J. (2010). Asset Management Excellence: Optimizing Equipment Life-Cycle Decisions. 2nd ed. CRC Press, pp.11-30, 161-163, 301-305.

: 11 Jul 2016 06:06 |  Tags: Book Review |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

09/07/2016

Match business drivers to asset management goals

Asset management Goal-----------------------------Business driver

Compliance & Integrity------------------------->License to operate (Business continuity)

Asset Output-------------------------------------------->OEE (Delivery)

Cost----------------------------------------------->Reduce maintenance costs (Profitability)

Asset lifetime------------------------------------------->Lifetime extension (Sustainability)

Innovation------------------------------------->Adapt to new technology (Build the future)

The biggest challenge in manufacturing process is the balance between technologies, people and how the work will be performed and results are being measured. (Find the balance between people, processes and performance.)

Questions that needed to be awared of:

Are people going to accept work processes that are based on data?

Will they accept technology that changes their daily routine?

Technology that shows them their needs from a different perspective? (Which actually helps them to perform more efficient but forces them to look at their work process in a different way).

In all, to make this all work, human input is essential.

: 09 Jul 2016 16:06 |  Tags: Book Kbam Review |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

06/07/2016

The main task in managing assets of any kind is not so much the assets themselves. Rather, it is the value that the particular asset delivers to the enterprise over the whole of its life or what is more commonly called the “asset life-cycle”.

1. Careful Need identification (talking to the people who will be operating or using the asset)

2. Planning what is expected from it once acquired
   To plan exactly how the asset is to be used and what goals for utilization need to be set.
3. Design effort (to see what minimum purchase specifications should be or any design additions perhaps)

Any modification is often much more cost-effective here than trying to make modification after the purchase and commissioning phase.

4. Procurement or purchasing based on the previous three steps

For example, any guarantee, warrantee or other contractual terms that may be important.

5. Commissioning or properly installing to make sure that the business gets everything promised in the purchase contract

In this phase the organization makes sure the asset is fit-for-purpose.

6. Operating, maintaining and monitoring the asset on a continual basis

Depending on the asset, this phase may go from months to years or even decades and the business therefore needs to have a very planned use and maintenance approach.

7. Modifying the asset or upgrading it if possible and if this makes good commercial sense

This is often cheaper than replacing the asset completely although eventually a new version of an asset will prove to be the better overall option.

8. Decommissioning or retiring/disposing of the asset so that it can be appropriately replaced

At the end of their useful life or when the cost of operating or maintaining them becomes too high, assets need to be planfully retired and properly disposed of.

: 06 Jul 2016 23:32 |  Tags: Book Kbam Review |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem