Knowledge Management Plan for Construction Material Company Al-Omraniah - Case Study Example

Knowledge Management: Knowledge Management Plan for Construction Material Company (CMC) Al-Omraniah (Student Name) (University Name) (Date) Introduction Knowledge management commonly referred to as KM is one of the processes or tools that are used by organizations to gather, analyze, store and circulate its intellectual resources (Walker & Bhatia, 2009, par 1). Knowledge management encompasses the whole organization in the form of enterprise knowledge management as it involves all the workers in an organization from the CEO to the front line employees. The process of identifying, gathering, analyzing, securing and maintaining organization’s information is very vital in every organization. Knowledge management systems or bases should be well taken care of in the organization as lack of a proper knowledge management process can result into regular loopholes that surface only when the user tries to find the missing information. Effective knowledge management involves general optimization of experience and understanding of organizational knowledge (Walker & Bhatia, 2009, par 2). Effective knowledge management becomes essential in an organization setting as effectiveness is the key to all knowledge management activities other than use of proper technology and processes in maintaining and retaining intellectual business resources. Intellectual business resources include training documents, procedures, materials, processes, ideas, experiences and skills. Effective knowledge management plans are very essential in organizations as they allow easy and quick access to intellectual resources to all members of a given organization whenever they are needed. According to eGain Communication Corporation, knowledge management is, “a set of practices that maximizes the business value of knowledge by gathering, structuring, and delivering it at critical points of customer interaction” (eGain, 2004, p.2). As some organizations view knowledge management as a form of document management, other views it as customer service and call centre management. Nevertheless, knowledge management is all about effective communication in all levels of the organization and timely access of information by all organizational members. About Construction Material Company Construction Material Company (CMC) is a Saudi Arabian based company which is the lead company in manufacturing and marketing construction materials in Saudi Arabia. CMC is considered as the biggest and the oldest material construction company in Saudi Arabia and was founded in early 70s. CMC is a subsidiary company for Saleh Al-Mudayfer Investment group which is a holding group with many other subsidiaries in the material construction industry of Saudi Arabia. Over the years, as Saudi Arabia experienced huge expansion in its industrial base, CMC have adopted the idea of supporting product diversification strategy as its guiding principle to help it maintain the leading position in the industry. CMC vision statement reads, “Construction Material Company aims to stay a leading company on the level of manufacturing construction material in the Middle East” ( ). Under its vision statement, CMC is guided by strong messages which are directed towards customer satisfaction, quality services and globalization. These messages include, commitment to providing high level of services and products in accordance to quality measures, keenness to appeasing its customers, and the believe that the process of development is mainly linked to human resources. CMC’s objective is to keep pace with advancements brought about by globalization. To achieve this, CMC ensures that it has expert teams in the field of engineering and construction techniques who are kept up to date with the current advancements in technology and globalization. Upon its commencement in the early 70s, CMC has been able to develop its strategic targets which reads as follows, “Maintain the prestige, leadership and reputation of the company in its field of work; Continuous growth vertically and horizontally in line with market requirements, size and trends; and, Find and develop leadership skills, administrative, technical and marketing” ( ). In addition, CMC has been emphasizing on development of its leadership and staff through continuous training programs for its employees and provision of fine services to its employee as a way of enabling it to combine originality and long experience that it has inherited from subsequent generations. Recommended Knowledge Management Plan For CMC Due to the expansive nature of CMC factories, in that, it has seven factories which are located in different urban locations within Saudi Arabia, there is a need for the leadership in this organization to develop a plan aimed at improving its performance through effective knowledge management. Knowledge Management planning is quite a new activity for many organization and careful planning is required for achievement of effective knowledge management systems or processes (Bellinger, 2004, par 4). In planning, it is important that all managers in the seven factories owned by CMC be actively involved together with CEO and the heads of both the engineering and building construction departments. Even though the scope of knowledge management plan differs from one organization to another, the following areas are the most covered areas under many knowledge management plans, and CMC is going to cover the same areas under its plan. These areas are, recorded information management; information products and services; data and database management; web site management; skills development and training for employees, coordination and accountability; and assessing performance in knowledge management. Good knowledge management in the selected areas will provide CMC with critical support for its knowledge management initiatives. It is essential to note that for an effective knowledge management plan to be achieved by CMC, the plan should be developed with clear linkages to the guidelines provided by the industry under which CMC operates (Information Management Planning, 2005, p. 14). Developing a knowledge management plan takes relatively short period which ranges between three to four months depending on the scope of the plan. For CMC case, the plan will take an approximate period of four months given that the scope of the plan is a bit wide and due to the fact that this plan need to be implemented in all the seven factories which will be represented during the planning period. Ideally, the planning period should coincide with the normal business, budgeting, and information technology planning period of the organization (Information Management Planning, 2005, p.15). This helps an organization to address its business activities and directions as outline in its budget plan. Before CMC embarks on knowledge management planning it is important that the reason for development of such a plan are identified and made clear to every concerned party in the organization. Some of the reasons for development of knowledge management plan which are likely to turn into benefits for CMC are; To begin with, service delivery is a key reason for development of knowledge management plan. Information assets are the hub to the business of CMC. Effective information management will result into improved service delivery for the CMC’s customers, stakeholders and the general public. Furthermore, improved service delivery results in achievement of the objective set by CMC to keep up with the advancement brought by globalization in the industry (Robertson, 2005). An effective knowledge management plan helps an organization to save resources in information management where the knowledge management plan covers a wide scope of activities. CMC plan will enable it to set priorities and improve its knowledge management process/system as all its information activities can be run concurrently. A knowledge management plan will also help CMC to assess the starting points of its knowledge management activities. The different factories run by CMC will have already established levels of readiness in implementing knowledge management activities. Premature changes in knowledge management can result into great failure by the organization. Nevertheless, this plan will help CMC to link its other planning activities to knowledge management planning activities such as human resource planning, budget planning, operational planning, information technology planning and business continuity as well. Coordination is yet another reason for developing a knowledge management plan as it is essential in management of every organization. Finally, the recommended plan will help CMC ensure that it is addressing issues of information management throughout its life cycle of information asset as illustrated below: Figure I: Information Life Cycle Sourced from: Information Management Planning, p.3 The recommended knowledge management plan for CMC should follow the following phases; Phase I: Gathering Knowledge: The first phase of developing a knowledge management plan involves gathering knowledge. Gathering knowledge involves identifying the most frequently asked questions and the most escalated question. Such information is necessary for the development of self-service web sites and call centres. CMC management should design a knowledge management system with users in mind, other than centring around Return on Investment (ROI) issues (eGain, 2004, p. 5). Knowledge gathering phase involves the following steps; Step 1: Building the team. This involves identification of the knowledge management team which will be involved in the planning process. The team should be made up lead experts (CMC CEOs), users (CMC factory managers and executive heads), knowledge authors (CMC CIOs and content managers), and project managers. The role of lead experts’ will be to decide how the knowledge base will be organized, the areas to be covered and the extent of coverage. Users’ role will be to provide suggestions to the plan, the knowledge authors’ role will be to provide technical support while the project managers’ role will include keeping the plan on track, among other (eGain, 2004, p. 5). Step 2: Measuring the value of knowledge. During knowledge gathering phase, assessment of the value that the knowledge gathered to the organization is done. Assessment of the value of the knowledge gathered is effective in ensuring that operating costs are reduced. The various touch points in the clients’ life cycle and their churn points are identified as they help to help assess the situations which make the customers to turn to another company. Assessment also helps to identify opportunities to improve customers experience through knowledge management. A positive or a negative value is always attached to the results of the assessment and the frequency of these values is also noted. Then, attention is diverted to high value and high volume situations (eGain, 2004, p. 6). Step 3: Locating content boundaries. The scope of the knowledge management plan need to identify as it is not wise to have overly ambitious knowledge management plans. The reason is because the users are likely to discontinue using the system when they are unable to get answers for what they are looking for and/or when they get wrong answers from the system. In the case of CMC, it is recommendable that the plan covers a single product line rather than covering all product lines at once (eGain, 2004, p. 6). Step 4: Setting objectives. When gathering knowledge, it is important that the knowledge team identifies the objectives which they ought to achieve at the end of the planning process. Objectives need to be set in the order of priority so that the most important objectives can be identified first and a lot of trade-off is involved in during this step. CMC should ensure that all the identified objectives match with its knowledge systems and processes in the order of priority (eGain, 2004, p. 7). Step 5: Setting time limits. Time-boxed approach is the most recommended approach for setting time limits under knowledge gathering phase. Under time-boxed approach, the proposed scope is narrowed down when it appears as if the deployment is falling behind schedule. Where the main reason for knowledge management plan is based on ROI, then lagging deployments always results into lack of achievement of the targeted ROI. However, where the knowledge management scope has been correctly and optimally identified, most of the important matters are addressed and problems in time management are rarely experienced. Time management is of essence in knowledge gathering as the uncovered scopes can later be expanded. As an ideal knowledge management plan takes 3-4 months, it is important to work within this given period of time (eGain, 2004, p. 7). Step 6: Choosing and Managing Experts. The people to be involved in knowledge management plan should be wisely chosen. These people should be technically competent and should be familiar with the daily activities of CMC. The success behind a good knowledge management plan is having the correct answers for the question at hand and this is only possible when knowledgeable and competent personnel are involved in the planning team. As it is common that many experts fear to share knowledge for the fear of being replaced by machines, it is therefore important for CMC to make sure that it communicated well in advance how the role of the experts will change once the knowledge management is implemented. In addition, CMC can develop incentives to motivate the experts to share knowledge with the rest of the organization members (eGain, 2004, p. 8). Step7: Managing content. After all the knowledge has been gathered and the gathering process has been completed, the other step under knowledge gathering phase is to manage the content gathered. Managing content means to review the knowledge gathered in the light of strategic objectives of the organization. Under reviewing, it is important that a review process is set to aid in approving the final content of knowledge management base. Again, the people to be included in reviewing the content other than the experts involved in gathering it are also determined. It is important to note that the content gathered cannot be left in the hands of the experts alone. A decision has to be made concerning who has the authority to make the final decision regarding the knowledge management base. For example, one of CMC’s strategic objectives is “maintain the prestige, leadership and reputation of the company in its field of work”. As it reviews the content gathered, it will be important to evaluate if these content captures the prestige, leadership and reputation of the organization. This can be done by having the decision makers or those in authority pass the content through a legal and safety test before unleashing the content to the public. Having legal content in the knowledge management base which is cautious of the safety of the members of public can help CMC maintain its prestige and reputation to the public. Prestige, leadership and reputation of CMC can also be maintained if the content of knowledge management base is first taken through a quality control process where by the quality of the content is tested before it is unleashed to the public (eGain, 2004, p. 9). Step 8: Communicating. The last step involves communicating the knowledge gathered to all the members of the organization, the stakeholders and the members of the public in general. As mentioned earlier, the recommended knowledge gathering phase for CMC should take a period of four months as all the above mentioned steps (1–7) are executed. Below is a diagram to illustrate time allocation for the knowledge gathering phase: Figure II: Developing knowledge management plan Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Sourced from: Information management planning, p.6 Phase II: Controlling Routine Updates After a successful phase of gathering the knowledge content required by CMC, the next phase is to controlling routine updates. Due to introduction of new products and services and changes in existing products and services as well, which are brought about by the knowledge management plan, it is essential to update the knowledge systems routinely. A clear and well understood procedure should be use during this phase and this is made possible by making use of a soft-ware assisted effort. However, it is important to note this is an ongoing process and it runs concurrently with the other phases, and still after the knowledge management plan implementation process is over as the organization continues to develop new products and services and making changes to the existing ones (eGain, 2004, p. 11). Phase III: Modification of Knowledge base Once the available updates have been done and the system starts to run smoothly, then any modifications required in the system can be conducted. However, the CMC management team should ensure that modifications are only done when the system has proven to be consistent with its strategic targets and objectives. Modification is usually done to the success rate in the areas covered by the plan. For example, due to rapid changes in technology and globalization effects on human resource, CMC can embark on modifying its human resource skill development and training; modifications can be done to ensure that the human resources are up to date with the current technological and globalization trends in the market (eGain, 2004, p. 11). Phase IV: Scope Enlargement As earlier mentioned, it is important that an effective knowledge management plan get up and running quickly with limited coverage at the beginning. Afterwards, when the system is up and running consistently as required, its scope can be expanded or enlarged in order to help the organization reap as much benefits as possible from it (eGain, 2004, p. 11). Having implemented the recommended knowledge management plan through the recommended phases, there is no doubt that CMC will be able to improve its performance. However, it is important for the CMC management to note that knowledge management is an ongoing process. Once the plan has been implemented, most knowledge management operations “follows a predictable pattern of dramatic initial success and glowing upper management support, followed by a period of decline and then a gradual recovery and rise to greater levels of benefits” (eGain, 2004, p.10). Below is a diagram to illustrate the likely knowledge management experience for CMC; Figure 3: Typical knowledge management experience for CMC Long term success Initial benefits maximized Benefits Trough of despair Time However, the CMC executive can avoid a major ‘trough of despair’ by avoiding major pitfalls and obstacles in the implementation process (Smith, 2010, par 7). Pitfalls and obstacles can be avoided by the executive through dedicating their time in educating and communicating the process to all member of the organization and stakeholders. In addition, the executive team should capitalize on exceeding expectations when evaluating an opportunity that requires people’s time so as to provide a knowledge management plan that fixes people’s problems. Nevertheless, CMC executive should not be discouraged by the ‘trough of despair’; instead, they should exercise the 20-30-50 rule. That is, they should recognise that “20% of the culture will be willing to change, 30% will resist change, and 50% will be undecided. Focus on the 50% undecided. Give rave recognition to the 20% that are participating and the 50% will soon follow. After 70% of the organization has crossed over the 30% will stand so far outside the circle they will be obligated to join or lose creditability” (Smith, 2010, par 8). Since the recommended plan is targeted to CMC executive team, it is important that support for the knowledge management plan is obtained at this level. To achieve executive support for knowledge management, KM principles can be applied in a small pilot that shows the benefits and the expected returns in both qualitative and quantitative terms to the executive and their support will definitely follow (Young, 2010). Above all, strong leadership is the key principle to effective knowledge management plan in every organization. Therefore, CMC leadership should ensure that they depict strong leadership in terms of supporting the plan, communicating the progress of the plan effectively to all stakeholders and participating actively in the implementation process so as to set a good example to other members in the organization. Conclusion Knowledge management is an effective approach which has proven to maximize organization performance through improving the value of business knowledge within an organization. As CMC has well defined strategic target, effective knowledge management initiatives and implementation of the recommended plan in the best practice can provide considerable and predictable return on investment to CMC. Furthermore, the knowledge management plan can effectively contribute towards CMC’s long-term competitiveness by improving its entire customer experience. References Albertia, G. O. (2005). Information Manageemnt Planning. Information Management , 1-74. Bellinger, G. (2004). Knowlegde Management: Emerging Perspectives. Retrieved November 17, 2010, from http://www.systems-thinking.org/kmgmt/kmgmt.htm Corporation, e. C. (2004). Knowledge Managemnt for Customer Service: Ingredients for success. eGain , 1-14. Robertson, J. (2005, November 1). 10 Principles of effective Knowledge Management. Retrieved November 17, 2010, from Step Two Designs: http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_effectiveim/index.html Smith, B. (2010). Knowledge Management Program Implemetation Tips and Guidelines. Retrieved November 17, 2010, from bosmith@ariba.com: http://www.eknowledgecenter.com/articles/1006/1006.htm Walker, A., & Bahatia, A. (2009, February 16). Knowledge Management. Retrieved November 17, 2010, from Knowledge Sharing Communities: http://it.toolbox.com/wiki/index.php/Knowledge_Management Young, R. (2010, March 4). KM Principles. Retrieved November 17, 2010, from KM Consulting: Applying knowledge and effective knowledge management is 'situational: http://km-consulting.blogspot.com/2010/03/km-principles-applying-knowledge-and.html Read More