Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
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Second, it was noted that the KMS should address analyzing the data rather than
interpreting the findings. To address this issue, the system was designed to be
responsible for storing explicit knowledge, fetching this knowledge, and dis-
playing such knowledge to the individual. The individual will be responsible for
interpreting this data and applying to their daily work.
The knowledge repository was updated with knowledge artifacts including exper-
imental data, documentation, videos, and images. The R&D engineer had already
created many of these sources of explicit knowledge. The knowledge system was
then coded to allow the above functionality. The system operates by the user ini-
tiating all responses, through the query of existing explicit information or the
update of existing information. The user can interact with the application in the
following ways:
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View/update procedure: This allows the user to view/update any documents,
images, and video associated with conducting a procedure; they can view pur-
poses of the procedure, references, definitions, pre-requisites, or the procedure
itself, images, and videos.
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Upload artifacts (video, images, and documents): The user can upload docu-
ments, images, and videos associated with a specific procedure.
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Upload experiment: The user can upload new experiments for analysis.
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Analyze experimental data: The user can analyze an experiment based on a cus-
tomer specification. This will recommend machine and process settings to design
and manufacture a product of such specifications.
To build the IT application a suite of software was used. A standalone DOE
application was used for the recording of experimental data. A content management
system (Joomla) was used to host the application due to its user-friendly capabil-
ities. A combination of PHP and Javascript was used to enable the system to be
interactive. This software was used to fetch, update, and query information. Apache
server was used to host the application. The IT-based KMS was hosted on an intranet
server in the company.
The KMS system supported the company's business objective by enabling
them to operate in the highly regulated medical device sector. It enabled engi-
neers to exploit explicit knowledge recorded in the system to further enhance
their tacit knowledge (by conducting and interpreting additional experiments
as required). The company now offers products in the medical devices sector
which was not previously feasible with their old development and manufacturing
processes.
The redesign of the development and manufacturing processes as a result of the
KMS has led to reducing the company's innovation time as well as enabling it to be
more flexible and adaptive to customer requirements. The company turns to experi-
ments to address any issues which may arise and are not afraid of changing internal
processes to enable them to identify new ways of doing things.
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