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Tosan and Canweb
have partnered together to bring you a new & exciting knowledge
capture package!
How gray is your workforce?
As of September 30, 2006 the NRC workforce average age was 47.60 years!
Wanda Reder, president-elect of IEEE PES and vice president
of S&C’s Power Systems Service division found: “At
least 20%, and at some companies up
to 40%, of power industry employees
in North America will be eligible to retire in the next
five years. The occupations that will experience
the most retirements are also the most difficult to replace.”
IS YOUR INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL SECURE?
Many are beginning to realize that the successful transfer of
legacy knowledge and intellectual capital is a core issue, particularly
for those critical positions where this “tribal” knowledge
is limited to one or two people.
- Do you worry about losing experience at critical positions?
- How vulnerable are you to departure threats?
- Can you capture tacit, tribal or unwritten knowledge that
is the productivity base for these positions?
- Is it recoverable?
- Are you able to attract enough of the highly technically
competent Gen Y people to your organization?
- Do they stay with you after you have invested in training
them to competency?
- Would you like to broaden the replacement pool?
- Are you satisfied with your training time to competency and
compliance?
The Solution Sounds Simple:
- Just capture the tacit knowledge,
- Recover it,
- Organize it,
- Use it as part of the training of new people,
- And deliver it to their workplace.
THE CHALLENGE – HOW TO DO IT?
Intellectual capital is the most valuable resource held by most
organizations. “Tribal” and “Tacit” knowledge,
undocumented, is often held by a few in critical positions. Experienced
workers have accumulated this knowledge. Capturing this
knowledge and recovering it for future use is critical to the
productivity of many companies.
Tosan, www.tosaninc.com,
is expert in helping to create productive cultures in today’s
multigenerational work force where the knowledge and experience
of these workers are respected. The passing on of the “Tacit” and “Tribal” knowledge
can be a way of recognizing the contribution that these employees
have made and are continuing to make.
This knowledge capture can apply to people at any level and
in any position in an organization. How many times have
you asked yourself “Now where do I find that?” or “What
does this contract section really mean?” It is particularly
useful for tasks that are done infrequently. Some examples
of places where knowledge capture is very useful are:
- Retrieve “Tacit and Tribal Knowledge” from a
retiring employee.
- Capture the work process and ‘Tacit and Tribal Knowledge” in
critical positions.
- Capture the “Tacit Knowledge” used in infrequently
performed maintenance tasks.
- Capture “Tacit knowledge” used in trouble shooting
and process improvement investigations.
- Capture “Tacit knowledge” in business or process
improvement investigations.
- Capture the “Tacit and Tribal knowledge” of
the process and link information sources used in infrequent
complex activities like budget development.
- Capture the “Tacit Knowledge” and link references
involved in contract development and management.
The KNOWLEDGE CAPTURE step is critical.
Tosan has developed a structured interview process to do this. Tosan
encourages the use of multi-generational teams. A retiring
veteran can be teamed with a new employee from Gen-Y (born after
1980), who will be the replacement. The Gen-Y employee
is computer literate and skilled in a way that the work place
has never seen before. This generation seeks training and
seeks the ability to obtain growth and responsibility as fast
as it can. The iWare Knowledge Capture Platform permits
the Gen-Y person to capture the procedures used in an organized
structure. All of the reference material that is needed
for the procedure, investigation, or activity can be linked for
future reference to the right steps in the activity. The
capture can be done as part of an interviewing process, in an
informal meeting, during training, or “on the job” as
the older team member does the work.
The KNOWLEDGE RECOVERY step using the iWare Knowledge
Capture Platform is simple.
As the knowledge was captured it was recorded in “Knowledge
Objects” which the recorder organized in a tree structure
that followed the steps in the task. Any user can click
on the knowledge objects to see the procedure, and to see the
information that was linked. If the searching user doesn’t
know where to look, the iWare Knowledge Capture Platform offers
a search engine, which provides a focused search capability related
to the fields that are part of the capture methodology.
It may be desirable to “ORGANIZE THE CAPTURED
KNOWLEDGE”.
In many cases the procedure used by a veteran relying
on memory may not be the most efficient method. This will
be obvious when the information and process documented
is analyzed. The organization may have a “Learning
and Development”group that structures processes and keeps them current. They
can select and organize the information needed for each position
or task.
The iWare Knowledge Capture platform can be used
to deliver information for TRAINING.
The new Gen-Y entries into the work force are seeking to improve
their competency as fast as possible. Structured information
can be delivered to a work station through the iOnline system
so that the user has access at a mouse click to reference information
related to process steps, equipment, procedures and any other
important information needed at that point to make a decision
or to complete the task. This can be delivered
to a simulator or work station through a control system screen,
a process flow diagram, CAD drawing, digital photo or any other
useful representation of the work at hand. Only the required
information is delivered, so there is no need for the user to
take the time to filter out unnecessary information.
The captured “Tacit and Tribal Knowledge”,
now organized, reviewed, and approved can be delivered to
the competent user “AT THE WORKPLACE”.
This will appear the same as it appeared in the training environment. This
encourages faster times to competency and compliance and provides
an environment that also encourages development of commitment.
IWare can LINK information in the Knowledge Capture
process to most electronic formats including:
- Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, and Outlook) integrated with
iOnline.
- Geographical Interfaces (CAD, GIS, MMI)
- Human Machine Interfaces (HMI)
- Distributed Control Systems (DCS)
- Components in drawings, flow diagrams, digital photos
- Operator Training Simulators (OTS)
- ERP Systems (SAP)
- Facilities Management
It is not intended to replace an existing software system. It
provides a simple fast linking capability. While a data
base is included, it is not necessary to bring any of the linked
information into the data base. The platform was designed
to address abnormal situation management and situation awareness
in process control rooms. It is feature rich including
access privileges, automated messaging, an electronic logbook
and a Knowledge Explorer for searches.
Installation and training is SIMPLE AND QUICK
Installation can vary from use on a single computer, use by a
small group, integration with an operating control system,
to fully plant wide including both the IT business system and
the process control systems. License pricing is flexible
to reflect the intended use. Operator training typically
requires a bit less than 2 days. An additional day of
training will qualify the iWare administrator.
STARTER PACKAGE
CanWeb and Tosan together offer a “Starter Package”. You
pick a small unit or area with common purpose where you see the
need to capture “Tacit and Tribal Knowledge”. Tosan
will provide a series of structured Knowledge Capture interviews.
CanWeb will install the iWare Knowledge Capture Platform and train
your people to use the software. CanWeb personnel will
work with your people through the trial knowledge capture program,
providing support for both the software use and for the ways
to effectively make the capture process work for you. Contact us for more info. |
