@Tata Steel

Knowledge Management
By By By By S.Kanakaraj
Before 21st century the three major problems faced
by the industry are Land, Labor and Capital.
After 21st century, the fourth factor is increasingly
and fast becoming a hurdle or bottleneck for
companies to grow.
That is "Knowledge", which is at the heart of much
of todays global economy and managing
knowledge has become vital for companies success.
Importance of Knowledge When arisen?
Knowledge
Knowledge can be defined as a fluid mix of experience,
values, contextual information and expert insight that
provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating
new experiences and information.
Knowledge is information in action.
Knowledge is what people in an organization know
about their customers, products, processes, mistakes, and
successes.
Knowledge - Types
It is the visible knowledge available in the form of
letters, reports, memos, literatures, etc. Explicit
knowledge can be embedded in objects, rules, systems,
methods etc.
Explicit knowledge:
Knowledge - Types
It is highly invisible and confined in the mind of a person. It
is hard to formalize and therefore, difficult to communicate to
others.
Tacit knowledge:
Transformation of knowledge from tacit to explicit form increases
its usability and visibility.
Capturing the experts Tacit Knowledge that resides within him in
the form of Know-how and insights is a very difficult and challenging
task.
While tacit and explicit type of knowledge is only a way to dissect
the field, in reality the situation is more complicated .
Knowledge - Types
The above two categories are so heavily interlinked that such a
bipolar map is not easy to draw in practice
For example, to understand completely a written document i.e.
explicit knowledge, it often requires a significant amount of
experience i.e. tacit knowledge.
A diagram of machines is indecipherable without an engineering
background.
Knowledge - Types
The Essence of Knowledge Management
The central theme of Knowledge Management is to leverage and
reuse knowledge resources that already exist in the organization so that
people will seek out best practices rather than reinvent the wheel.
Knowledge Management is a process that, continuously and
systematically, transfers knowledge from individuals and teams, who
generate them, to the brain of the organization for the benefit of the
entire organization.
It is the systematic, explicit, and deliberate building, renewal, and
application of knowledge to maximize an enterprise's knowledge-related
effectiveness and returns from its knowledge assets.
Other ways to define KM
Capturing, storing, retrieving and distributing tangible Knowledge
Assets such as copyrights patents and licenses.
Gathering, organizing and disseminating intangible knowledge, such
as professional know how and expertise, individual insight and
experience, creative solutions and the like, brands, technology.
Creating an interactive learning environment where people readily
transfer and share what they know, internalize it and apply it to create
new knowledge.
KM Initiative
Tata Steel decided to embark on formal KM initiative in the year 1999.
The beginning was made in July99 to place a Knowledge Management
(KM) programme for the company to systematically & formally share
and transfer learning concepts, best practices and other implicit
knowledge.
The emphasis on knowledge management was clearly demonstrated
in 1999 while coining the vision statement of the company which read
Tata Steel enters the new millennium with the confidence of learning
and knowledge based organization..
@TATA Steel
KM Initiative
The essence of Knowledge management is to capture the available
abundant knowledge assets either in form of tacit (experience, learning
from failure, thumb rules, etc.) or explicit (literature, reports, failure
analysis etc.), to organize and transform the captured knowledge, and to
facilitate its usage at right place and at the right time.
@TATA Steel
Phases of Knowledge Management
Starting from a small sapling in 1999, the KM system of Tata Steel
underwent a lot of improvements, and changes. In the process, it passed
through many learning phases to reach its current state.
The various phases of KM spiral at Tata Steel are shown in Fig 2. In its
latest phase, the Knowledge Management has been identified as one of
the main enablers to make Tata Steel self reliant in technology which will
enable the company become a global player in near future.
@TATA Steel
Phases of Knowledge Management
@TATA Steel
Stakeholders in KM
@TATA Steel
Tata Steel aims at capturing knowledge from various working groups
and outside agencies who play a major role in day-to-day functioning.
The major stakeholders covered under KM being:
Senior Management
Officers
Employees (Supervisors & Workmen)
Customers
Supplier
Experts (In & outside company)
Opportunity of Knowledge Transfer
@TATA Steel
Tata Steels knowledge management initiative is driven by its
corporate KM group which attempts to cover all possible
opportunities of knowledge generation in and outside the steel
works. The primary sources being:
Day-to-day operation
Learning from failure
Published Papers by employees (National and
International publications)
Task Force/Consultant/Technical Groups
Engineering Project
Knowledge Sharing across the value chain
Opportunity of Knowledge Transfer
@TATA Steel
Tata Steel defines its value chain as a connected series of internal
and external organizations, resources, and knowledge streams
involved in creation and delivery of value to end customers, It
includes the organizations suppliers and customers.
In fact, one of the organizations strategic goals is to develop value-
creating partnerships with customers and suppliers.
Tata Steel developed two programs in particular to help manage
knowledge across its value chain: the customer value management
(CVM) programand its supplier value management (SVM) program.
Instruments of Knowledge Transfer
@TATA Steel
Tata Steel follows three strategies for managing organizational
knowledge.
Knowledge can be contributed either by an individual (codification)
or a team or a group of people (Personalization).
The first two strategies enable capture and systematic storage of
knowledge, whereas the third strategy (Knowledge Diffusion) derives
the benefit of replicating best practices identified in the repository
and thereby eliminating the re-invention of wheel.
Instruments of Knowledge Transfer
@TATA Steel
Instruments of Knowledge Transfer
@TATA Steel
All contributions are first sent to a set of subject matter
experts to check their relevance, correctness of information
and utility to the company before being available in portal
for public usage.
Knowledge Contribution by an individual (I)
Ask Author (I)
A user can put forth his/her queries to the author regarding
any particular Knowledge Piece through this route
Instruments of Knowledge Transfer
@TATA Steel
A panel of experts is identified area-wise to answer queries
of users from all corner of Tata Steel. This feature directs
the query to the relevant expert and thus helps the
questioner in seeking his answer. The queries also remain
open for other users to attempt a reply.
Ask Expert (I & II)
Knowledge Usage (III)
Any employee can bring about intangible/tangible savings in
related work areas by using an existing knowledge asset
Instruments of Knowledge Transfer
@TATA Steel
To encourage knowledge sharing behavior in an informal
manner, across the boundaries of departments and
divisions, various Communities of Practice or Knowledge
Communities are formed.
Each knowledge community further consists of certain
sub-communities which attempts to focus on smaller
functional areas.
The knowledge communities continuously look for new
bench marks, identify gaps, set targets and strive to achieve
them through experiments and best practice deployment.
Communities of Practice (II)
Instruments of Knowledge Transfer
@TATA Steel
In the process, the new knowledge gathered is collected in the
form of various K-Products, such as, Best Practice Identification,
Trial of new products, Experiments and Best Practice deployment.
Communities of Practice (II)
Instruments of Knowledge Transfer
@TATA Steel
The knowledge repository of Tata Steel is not only huge in size,
but also is rich in content - thanks to the contribution of more than
15,000 employees.
However, constant effort is put in to keep the knowledge base
current and contemporary. In order to do this, old knowledge
pieces are archived and knowledge on similar subjects are distilled.
In the process of knowledge distillation, members are
encouraged to compile knowledge pieces available in related areas
and hence prepare a consolidated one which will contain all
relevant information at one place.
Content Management (I)
Instruments of Knowledge Transfer
@TATA Steel
The diverse community structure requires knowledge sharing
among the members to ensure proper knowledge diffusion.
Hence communities organize inter and intra community meetings
at regular intervals chaired by senior officials to discuss and share
knowledge on aspects that affects both the parties.
These communities also organize seminars by inviting well-known
experts in various fields.
Other activities of Knowledge Communities (II & III)
Instruments of Knowledge Transfer
@TATA Steel
A large number of employees in Tata Steel are deployed at the
shop-floor. In a century old company, these employees really
possess a wealth of knowledge.
In order to capture the tacit knowledge from shop floor and to
facilitate horizontal deployment of the same at all other locations, a
new initiative named as Knowledge Manthan (means churning) has
been started in 2004.
Involving shop-floor employees in KM
Instruments of Knowledge Transfer
@TATA Steel
Realizing the rich dividend from its Knowledge Manthan initiative
the Knowledge management group has extended the idea of
involving grass-root employees by launching yet another initiative
named MASS in the year 2005. Many of the ideas captured
through Manthan are now being deployed through MASS.
Involving shop-floor employees in KM
KMPortal
@TATA Steel
On the corporate intranet a KM Portal has been developed
to communicate all KM related matters across the company.
It provides an online knowledge repository to the users who
can submit, search and use knowledge pieces available on it.
The portal also provides a virtual forum where employees
can invite and involve other fellow employees or lead experts
(specific to interested areas) to discuss and solve the
problems faced by them.
Relevant Indian and international standards, quality
system manuals, standard practices and procedures also
feature for ready reference of users.
KMPortal
@TATA Steel
Awards & Accolades
of TATA Steel
Tata Steel has won many laurels for its endeavor and
initiatives towards creating a culture of managing knowledge.
It was the winner of MAKE Asia award for the year 2003 and
2004 (finalist in the year 2002).
In 2005, Tata Steel won the first MAKE India award. It has
also earned a distinction among Indian companies to be
selected twice as a best practice partner by American
Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) for its KM process.
KM Milestones
of TATA Steel
October 04, 2006
Tata Steel ranked as no.1 in 2006 Indian MAKE Survey
June 15, 2006
Tata Group recognized as one of the 2006 Global
Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE)
January 24, 2006
Tata Steel is selected as a Best Practice Partner by
APQC Second Time for KM
December 6-7, 2005
An International Symposiumon Knowledge Management
was organized at Jamshedpur on December 6-7, 2005
KM Milestones
of TATA Steel
2
nd
August, 2005
Thrust on usage of knowledge assets
through MASS (Manthan ab shopfloor se)
August, 2005
Tata Steel winner of the first Indian MAKE Award, 2005
July 2, 2005
Launch of Knowledge Debate; a mode of knowledge
transfer
March, 2004
Tata Steel is the Best Practice Partner in Knowledge Management
KM Milestones
of TATA Steel
2nd March, 2004
TATA STEEL Launches Knowledge Manthan
TATA STEEL Wins MAKE ASIA 2004 AWARD
March, 2004
Tata Steel is the Best Practice Partner in Knowledge
Management
August, 2003
Tata Steel wins the MAKE ASIA 2003 Award
Thank You !
By By By By S.Kanakaraj