Successful Knowledge Management - Case Study Example

Introduction Knowledge management will provide the opportunity for project constituents to have access and make use of knowledge in the current project scenarios. In project based industry where there might be low profit margins and contracting companies may rely highly on the success and profitability of individual projects (Kamara, 2005). In the project there is need to have continuous improvements and this will be learning from the projects and exploiting project knowledge in a smart way. In this way knowledge management will play a role throughout the project lifecycle. The knowledge management will have a number of sub-processes including creating, acquiring, capturing and sharing and utilizing of the knowledge. The different stages of the project will provide several opportunities where there will be need of sharing knowledge. Preparation stage The first part of the project that will be a knowledge sharing platform is the preparation phase. The preparation stage consists of the project appraisal and the design briefing. The project appraisal comes before a project has not been agreed upon (Katzenback Jon R. & Smith Douglas K., 1993). The approval of the project will usually be dependant on the agreement of the proposed project with the overall objective of the funding organizations. The design will involve the getting information about the client’s requirements (KPMG,1998). The client will give information on what they want the design to fulfill. The various components on the schools will be discussed. It will be agreed upon whether the school is to have boarding facilities. The type of buildings that will be preferred will be discussed at this stage and this include whether there is to be storey building or not. The type of material to be used will also be discussed. Other issues that will be raised are the availability for of water and power to use during the construction stages and after the construction. The availability of these facilities may affect the project cost considerably (Birkinshaw, 2002). Design stage Design stage is another important aspect of the project. This can be achieved in three stages including the concept design, design development and technical design. This will involve several disciplines of the design team including the architects, structural engineers, urban planners and there is sharing of information among them to ensure that legal and client requirements are satisfied (Divr, 2003). The development of a design concept is believed to be an exciting part of engineering as it involves letting the imagination to run free so as to generate new and creative ideas (KPMG, 1998). It is however important to note that design concepts which can be engineered are in a special class. It is not a matter of designing something that appears to be new but it is an attempt to find a balance between all the combinations of the factors that will have an influence on the design of project. There is need for the project to appeal to the intended users at various levels including function, usability, cost and reliability and this therefore calls for studying the problem very carefully (Lynne, 2001). It is a general belief that without understanding of the problem there is no hope of concepts being generated which can be turned into realizable products able to satisfy the desired requirements. There will be need for all the professions to ensure that the projects compliment the neighborhoods and have an enhancement on the lives of the people who experience them. Apart from satisfying the client there will be need for developing the employees and improving the surrounding. The use of resources wisely may be very important and this may have effect on the cost (Kogut, 1992). Where land is small storey building may be very necessary although may increase the cost of building. The locations of power lines, main roads and sewerage lines may force the locations of building plans to be changed to other places even when the cost may increase maybe because of variation in foundation depth for different locations. Building distribution The distribution of the buildings in the compound may be highly dependant on their uses. Where sports facilities are catered for it may be necessary for the location to be a considerable distance from reading places like library or classes. The freedom of spreading the building in the compound may be constrained by the need of provision of security. This is due to the fact that buildings which are close to each other need fewer security personnel as opposed to when the buildings are spread over a wide area (Majchrzak, 2004). There will be need for having the opinion of security expert at this stage. The other factor that may determine the sighting of the buildings is anticipation of fire outbreaks. The distribution of the buildings may be required to put into consideration the likelihood of fire starting in each of the buildings. The kitchen and food and fuel stores may be the points where fire is likely to occur and also the point where there is likely to be high rate of fire spread (Forcadell, 2002). To reduce the risk of fire spreading to other buildings the store and kitchen may be required to be a considerable distance from the other buildings like classes. The teachers and other administration offices buildings may need to have a strategic location so as to enable the occupiers to have a clear view of the school from these offices. This will help in monitoring the activities of the students and the end result being high discipline among the students. For this aspect of the school to be captured it is necessary for some school representative like the head teacher to be allowed to give their views on the design that will help in monitoring the activities of the students. While having the offices being part of the class building may bring the cost of production down but the aspect of monitoring the students may make it necessary to have a separate building to be strategically located in the compound. Raw material choice Knowledge sharing will also be important at the design stage. It is important for the architect to be aware of the material easily available in the market. This may require the architect, the engineers and suppliers of material to share their knowledge about materials. The engineer may have some reservation about some material because it may involve specialized labour when dealing with such materials at the construction and his may translate to higher cost (Forcadell, 2002). The scarcity of the specialized labour may also bring about the delay of completion of some stages of the project. The fact that the contractor may need to hire some specialized labour may also reduce the guarantee of the standard of work to be delivered. Through the knowledge sharing the architect can help in getting the specialized labour maybe at a lower cost (Kogut, 1992). This could be through contacting people they have used their services previously. On the other hand the supplier may give information which may need the architect to change some of the design detail to eliminate some materials or reduce some materials that may not be easily available. The use of the available skills and materials in the neighborhood is another aspect that needs focus. The school manager may have a particular interest of including the use of local skills and materials as a way of ensuring good neighborhood. This may have a direct effect of lowering the cost of the project as the locally available material may be cheaper. The other benefit will be indirect where the neighboring community will be made to feel part of the project by being involved in the project. When the neighboring communities are given the chance to participate in the construction activities it may be a way of obtaining other information from them including their environmental concerns and the general security of the area and the type of facilities that may be required in the school. When looking at the alternative of materials the energy conservation, environmental concerns and fire concern will need to be addressed. The stakeholders may put emphasis on energy conservation (Divr, 2003).. This may require that solar water heating system to be included in the design. This will also be dependant on the climate of the area and the cost of conventional power in the area. In areas where there is sunshine for considerably long time during the day, installation of the water solar heating will be a viable option. The design of classes may need to be altered to make maximum use of natural sunlight. On the other hand where the building require heating it may not be advisable to have large windows that encourage loss of heat. The material thermal properties will be very important. Material of low conductivity may be required to avoid heat loss to the outside. The client may require class rooms of particular design with some specific features incorporated. Some of the classes may be required to have temporary partitioning so that it is possible to combine to classes into one by sliding the partition to the sides. This will be important feature which may reduce the cost of having extra rooms for special purposes (Majchrzak, 2004). Some of the classes may need to have permanently fixed furniture as this can be an important way of minimizing furniture breakage and also ensures that there is permanent orderliness of furniture. All these design features may need to be shared by the project beneficiaries, the architect and the engineers so that they can be incorporated appropriately. The contractor need to give information on the cost of implementing such recommendation and how reliable it is to have such features function as anticipated. Project execution After the design aspect has been agreed upon the next step is making sure that the information has been incorporated in the design drawings. The various disciplines will collaborate to ensure the various drawings compliment and are suitable for submission for tender. The drawings need to have all the dimensions, the material specifications and quality of finish required. In the construction stage of the project there be a lot of information which will need sharing to ensure that the project run smoothly to completion. The contractor may require information on the availability of labor in the project neighborhood. There will also be inquiry on accommodation facilities available for the workers. The machinery required in the construction will be named. Through the sharing of information on the progress of work it will be necessary to establish whether the work is progressing at the desired speed. There may be need to increase the workforce in order to increase work output. The quality of work will also be monitored and the information shared. The quality of work may not be reaching the required standards because of lack of the close supervision and there maybe need to increase the supervising personnel to ensure the quality improves or the site manager may be required to ensure that the available supervisor is performing their duty properly(Majchrzak, 2004). Accident occurrence and utilization of resources The occurrence of accident need to be reported and their causes and how they affect the project progress established. The accident may be due to lack of training of the manual laborers on use of equipment or it could be due to inadequate supply of protective equipment. This will call for all the parties to evaluate the safety measure standards provided at the site. The utilization of resources like water, electrical energy and other form of energy will have to be evaluated to ensure that there is no misuse of these resources. Incase there is overuse of the resources there is need to establish the cause. Old machinery may be the cause of excess use of fuel in addition of generation of excess pollutants. Machinery may be consuming much fuel because of the fact that there is a lot of idle time where the machine is running with no work output (Davenport, 1999). Wastage of water may be due to leakage of pipes or there may be excessive use in sprinkling for dust reduction at the work site. Incase the work is moving at slower rate there might be need for hiring extra personnel or improving the performance of the workforce by closer supervision or by rearranging their working area. The possibility of having overtime could also be discussed with clear agreement being reached upon regarding the extra time required, and the payment of the extra time. There might be need for hiring extra machinery in order to increase the work output. Conclusion After the project is completed there will be information sharing on how each phase of the project progressed to completion. There will be need to share information on the challenges that were encountered. The knowledge gathered in one phase will be used in improving the activities in the same phase and also in subsequent phases of the project. The accident that occurred and there causes will be shared. When the project is completed it will be checked to establish if it had conformed to the required standards. There will be sharing of information and this will help in the future projects. In this project sharing of this information will be very important as the shared information can be used in the next phase of the project. There may be review of the mistakes which were done and how they could have been eliminated. The project recipient will be given a chance to ask on the best way to take care of the facilities. The performance of the various components will be tested to make sure that they are in good working order. At this stage the changes which can be made in the facilities to meet the changing future demands may be highlighted. This will ensure that an alteration in the design with lack of clear information does not interfere with the initial design. The different discipline will also learn lessons on how they can make improvements on the present project or any other project they may be engaged in. Knowledge management will generally be of benefit to all the disciplines involved in this project. It will also ensure that there is general improvement in the project execution from the first to the last. Recommendations The following are important recommendations that may be of benefit in ensuring that there is benefit in knowledge management. The knowledge sharing will be more beneficial if there is more interaction for personnel in all the disciplines. There is also need to have frequent meetings which will be avenue for knowledge sharing. For there to be knowledge utilization the workers are supposed to be disciplined, flexible and they should also have freedom to be innovative in the process of executing there duties. References Birkinshaw, J. and Sheehan, T. 2002. Managing the Knowledge Life Cycle, Sloan Management Review, 44(1), pp.75-83. Davenport, T.H., De Long, D.W., and Beers, M.C. 1998. Successful Knowledge Management Projects, Sloan Management Review, (77)2 Winter, pp 43 – 57 Davenport, T.H. and Prusak, L., 1999. Working Knowledge, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, Divr, D., Raz, T. and Shenhar, J. 2003. An Empirical Analysis of the Relationship Between Project Planning and Project Success, International Journal of Project Management,2(21), pp.89-95. Lynne, M. 2001. Toward a Theory of Knowledge Reuse: Types of Knowledge Reuse Situations and Factors in Reuse Success, Journal of Management Information Systems, 18[1], pp.57-93. Kamara, J. M., et al 2005. Cross Project Knowledge Management. In Knowledge Management in Construction, Anumba, C. Egbu, C. and Carrillo, P. (eds.),Blackwell Publishing Katzenback Jon R. & Smith Douglas K. 1993. “The Discipline of Teams.” Harvard Business Review. Reprint R0507. KPMG 1998. Knowledge Management Research Report, KPMG Management Consulting. McGeorge, D. and Palmer, A. Construction Management: New Directions, Blackwell Publishing. Kogut, B., and Zander, U., 1992. Knowledge of the Firm, Combative Capability and the Replication of Technology, Organization Science 3(3), pp.383–397. Forcadell, F.J. and Guadamillas, F. 2002. A Case Study on the Implementation of a Knowledge Management Strategy Oriented to Innovation, Knowledge and Process Management,9(3), p.162-171, 2003. Majchrzak, A., Cooper, L.P. and Neece, O.E. 2004. Knowledge Reuse for Innovation, Management Science, (50)2, pp.174-188. Read More