Web-Assisted Knowledge-Management for Automotive Lighting Systems

Author(s):  
Mike Herridge ◽  
John S. Orisich

Knowledge management in today’s business environment is becoming one of the paramount issues in the successful production and simulation of automotive lighting systems. No longer can a single engineer maintain all the knowledge of previous lessons learned because of the shear amount of information involved. Additionally, today’s workforce is becoming more mobile and the investment in any single employee as a repository of design knowledge and product history is not feasible. With this in mind, the availability of a central repository for all simulation related information including design guidelines, previous analyses, and current production information needs to be considered a necessity for any manufacturer. By making this information available via an intranet, any employee can access their required information without requiring the attention of individual experts.

2005 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 41-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. Pretorius ◽  
H. Steyn

Knowledge management is widely acclaimed to be a source of considerable financial advantage for organisations. Various authors realise that project environments could also benefit from the creation and re-use of knowledge, including from the lessons learned that should be documented during project close-out. Projects face specific challenges (limited time spans, changing and dispersed teams) and the reduction of project risk, time and cost through knowledge management, may well prove worthwhile.This paper reviews the literature on knowledge management, both in organisations in general and in project environments specifically. A framework for knowledge management is derived from literature. The paper also reports on an investigation of knowledge management practices in four cases within a single South African business environment. Knowledge management practices similar to ones reported abroad were found.A model is proposed for the management of knowledge in project environments, both within a single project (intraproject) and between projects (inter-project) and. guidelines for knowledge management in project environments are provided. It is also suggested that, while the management of explicit knowledge is common in project management, more attention should be given to the sharing of tacit knowledge through human interaction.


Author(s):  
Sasha Harris-Lovett ◽  
Kara L. Nelson ◽  
Paloma Beamer ◽  
Heather N. Bischel ◽  
Aaron Bivins ◽  
...  

Wastewater surveillance for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an emerging approach to help identify the risk of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. This tool can contribute to public health surveillance at both community (wastewater treatment system) and institutional (e.g., colleges, prisons, and nursing homes) scales. This paper explores the successes, challenges, and lessons learned from initial wastewater surveillance efforts at colleges and university systems to inform future research, development and implementation. We present the experiences of 25 college and university systems in the United States that monitored campus wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 during the fall 2020 academic period. We describe the broad range of approaches, findings, resources, and impacts from these initial efforts. These institutions range in size, social and political geographies, and include both public and private institutions. Our analysis suggests that wastewater monitoring at colleges requires consideration of local information needs, sewage infrastructure, resources for sampling and analysis, college and community dynamics, approaches to interpretation and communication of results, and follow-up actions. Most colleges reported that a learning process of experimentation, evaluation, and adaptation was key to progress. This process requires ongoing collaboration among diverse stakeholders including decision-makers, researchers, faculty, facilities staff, students, and community members.


2021 ◽  
pp. 096100062199280
Author(s):  
Nafiz Zaman Shuva

This study explores the employment-related information seeking behaviour of Bangladeshi immigrants in Canada. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study conducted semi-structured interviews with 60 Bangladeshi immigrants in Ontario, Canada, and obtained 205 survey responses. The study highlights the centrality of employment-related settlement among Bangladeshi immigrants in Ontario and reports many immigrants not being able to utilize their education and skills after arrival in Canada. The results show that Bangladeshi immigrants utilize various information sources for their employment in Canada, including friends and professional colleagues, online searchers, and settlement agencies. Although Bangladeshi immigrants utilized a large array of information sources for meeting their employment-related information needs, many interview participants emphasized that the employment-related benefits they received was because of their access to friends and professional colleagues in Canada. The survey results echoed the interview findings. The cross-tabulation results on post-arrival information sources and occupation status as well as first job information sources and occupational status in Canada show a significant association among the use of the information source “friends and professional colleagues in Canada” and immigrants’ occupational status. The study highlights the benefits of professional colleagues among immigrants in employment-related settlement contexts. It also reports the challenges faced by many immigrant professionals related to employment-related settlement because of the lack of access to their professional friends and colleagues in Canada. The author urges the Federal Government of Canada, provincial governments, and settlement agencies working with newcomers to offer services that would connect highly skilled immigrants with their professional networks in Canada, in order to get proper guidance related to obtaining a professional job or alternative career. The author calls for further studies on employment-related information seeking by immigrants to better understand the role information plays in their settlement in a new country.


2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 118-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Trees

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present enterprise social networking and gamification as two potential tools to help organizations engage Millennial employees in collaboration and learning. Design/methodology/approach – The research provides general descriptions of enterprise social networking and gamification approaches, shares data on adoption of these approaches from APQC’s “2015 Knowledge Management Priorities Data Report” (based on a January 2015 survey of 524 knowledge management professionals) and includes four company examples adapted from APQC’s Connecting People to Content and Transferring and Applying Critical Knowledge best practices studies. The methodology for APQC’s best practices studies involves screening 50 or more organizations with potential best practices in a given research scope area and identifying five or six with proven best practices. APQC then conducts detailed site visits with the selected organizations and publishes case studies based on those site visits. Findings – Enterprise social networking platforms are in place at 50 per cent of organizations, with another 25 per cent planning to implement them by the end of 2015. By providing near-immediate access to information and answers, enterprise social networking helps Millennials learn the ropes at their new workplaces, gives them direct access to more knowledgeable colleagues who can assist and mentor them, and helps them improve their business outcomes by reusing knowledge and lessons learned across projects. Younger workers can also harness the power of social networking to create a sense of belonging and build their reputations in large, dispersed firms, where it is particularly difficult for them to gain visibility. A recent APQC survey indicates that 54 per cent of organizations either currently employ gamification to encourage collaboration or expect to implement it within the next three years. The rush to gamify the enterprise is, at least in part, a reflection of employers’ desire to satisfy Millennials and make them feel connected to a community of co-workers. Although games appeal to a wide range of age groups, Millennials grew up with digital interaction and tend to prefer environments that emphasize teamwork, social learning and frequent feedback – all of which can be delivered through gamification. Originality/value – The value of this paper is to introduce the value of and relationship between enterprise social networking and gamification platforms to human resource (HR) professionals looking to increase engagement and retention rates for Millennial employees.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 364-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Wing Chu

Purpose Despite the fact that schools should be places where learning occurs, most schools have overlooked the importance of knowledge. In contrast, commercial firms have recognized knowledge as a strategic intangible asset and a key resource of the enterprises. Therefore, enterprises have already harnessed knowledge to a great extent with wide practice of knowledge management (KM). The purpose of this paper is to show that KM could be applied to the education sector similar to the practice in the business world for leveraging intellectual assets. This paper examines how schools can kick off the process of KM implementation. This paper also reports what have been done and what should be done in KM implementation better in a school. This can give insights for schools which will try KM in near future. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a case study in a secondary school to explore how KM can be kicked off and sustained in a school setting. A KM system called knowledge base and a document management system called Digital Archive were developed to serve as the infrastructure for knowledge sharing. Lesson study and communities of practice (CoPs) were adopted to be the platforms for knowledge sharing among teachers in the school. A case study of the processes and lesson learned was done in this paper. Multiple sources of data, including observations, questionnaires and interviews, have been collected for evaluation. Findings In this paper, KM implementation was found to be effective through dual approaches: information-based and people-/interaction-based approaches. A knowledge base and a Digital Archive as knowledge repositories and lesson study and CoPs as platforms for knowledge sharing have been successfully established to facilitate sharing information/knowledge and nurturing a sharing culture and trust. Challenges faced and the related coping strategies during the process of implementation were shared and reflected. It was also found that building sharing culture is the critical turning point of the process of KM implementation. Breaking through the barrier of sharing was found to be very essential to KM implementation. Research limitations/implications This paper adopts case study methodology to report the process of KM implementation in a school. Although these results of the study conducted in one school may not be generalized to other school contexts, the lessons learned in the study will be a strong empirical evidence of research of KM implementation, especially in schools. Because of the limited number of prior studies and the importance of the pioneering work of launching KM implementation, this paper tries to address the research gap by using theory building from cases as a research strategy rather than theory testing research, especially in “how”and“why” in the steps of kicking off KM implementation in an unexplored research area. Practical implications This paper shows a case of KM implementation in a school with thoughtful procedures of implementing information-based and people-/interaction-based approaches. The paper is a showcase that will shed light on the processes and lessons learned and also helps to provide a model for schools who are interested in applying KM in their schools. Social implications Most people might think that KM can be applied only in commercial sector. This paper shows that KM can also be adopted in schools as well as other sectors. Originality/value This paper represents one of the pioneering work of implementing KM in a school. It hopes to make contributions for KM implementation also in the public sector within which are non-profit-making organizations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morteza Shokri-Ghasabeh ◽  
Nicholas Chileshe

Purpose – A research study has been undertaken at the University of South Australia to introduce application of lessons learned process in construction contractors ' bidding process in the context of knowledge management. The study aims to identify barriers to effectively capture lessons learned in Australian construction industry and how knowledge management can benefit from lessons learned application. Design/methodology/approach – The research study has been undertaken through conducting a “methodological triangulation” and “interdisciplinary triangulation”. This involved an extensive literature review of knowledge management, organisation learning, lessons learned and associated processes and administration of a questionnaire to a sample of construction contractors operating in Australia to elicit opinions on the main barriers to capturing lessons learned, practices such as existence and retention of documentation procedures. A total of 81 useable responses were received from 450 organisations. Response data were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics with correlation analysis to examine the strength of relationship among the barriers. Findings – The top-3 barriers to the effective capturing of lessons learned were “lack of employee time”, “lack of resources” and “lack of clear guidelines”, whereas, “lack of management support” was the least ranked barrier. The study established that despite the majority of the ACCs having formal procedures for recording the tenders submitted and their outcomes, only a minority actually retained the lessons learned documentation for each project. The larger contractors were found to be more aware of the importance of lessons learned documentation. A comparative analysis with previous studies also found a disparity in the ranking of the barriers. Research limitations/implications – The majority of the participants were small construction contractors in Australia. The reason is that the researchers were not aware of the contractors ' size prior to inviting them for participation in the research study. Second the findings may not generalize to other industries or to organisations operating in other countries. Originality/value – The findings of this survey help ACCs to understand the importance of lessons learned documentation as part of lessons learned implementation and identify the barriers to effectively document their lessons learned. The study provides insights on the barriers and proposes advocated solutions in form of drivers and enablers (critical success factors) of organisational learning capturing among the Australian construction contractors. By reviewing the current literature, “post-project reviews” and “lessons learned” as important elements of organisation learning knowledge transfer, are addressed. Finally, contribution of this study to knowledge and practice has been discussed in this paper.


Author(s):  
James Tittle ◽  
William Elm ◽  
Scott Potter

Many environments require humans and robots operating together to accomplish complex and dangerous tasks, but technology-centered designs often support robot navigation but not the mission goals of the organization using the robot. Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) is a particularly valuable domain to identify general functional requirements for effective HRI, and our purpose in this paper is to demonstrate how a CSE approach can lead to valuable design guidelines that more effectively support decision making within Human-Robot teams. Our analysis of HRI in USAR lead us to identify several important guidelines for supporting effective coordination for Human-Robot teams: including (i) enable individual problem holders to have direct control over point-of-view to facilitate active information seeking, and (ii) create common reference frames on shared imagery so different problem holders can remotely coordinate information and actions. Designs based on these guidelines will support a broad class of coordinated activities between team members.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.. Francis-LaCroix ◽  
D.. Seetaram

Abstract Trinidad and Tobago offshore platforms have been producing oil and natural gas for over a century. Current production of over 1500 Bcf of natural gas per year (Administration, 2013) is due to extensive reserves in oil and gas. More than eighteen of these wells are high-producing wells, producing in excess of 150 MMcf per day. Due to their large production rates, these wells utilize unconventionally large tubulars 5- and 7-in. Furthermore, as is inherent with producing gas, there are many challenges with the production. One major challenge occurs when wells become liquid loaded. As gas wells age, they produce more liquids, namely brine and condensate. Depending on flow conditions, the produced liquids can accumulate and induce a hydrostatic head pressure that is too high to be overcome by the flowing gas rates. Applying surfactants that generate foam can facilitate the unloading of these wells and restore gas production. Although the foaming process is very cost effective, its application to high-producing gas wells in Trinidad has always been problematic for the following reasons: Some of these producers are horizontal wells, or wells with large deviation angles.They were completed without pre-installed capillary strings.They are completed with large tubing diameters (5.75 in., 7 in.). Recognizing that the above three factors posed challenges to successful foam applications, major emphasis and research was directed toward this endeavor to realize the buried revenue, i.e., the recovery of the well's potential to produce natural gas. This research can also lead to the application of learnings from the first success to develop treatment for additional wells, which translates to a revenue boost to the client and the Trinidad economy. Successful treatments can also be used as correlations to establish an industry best practice for the treatment of similarly completed wells. This paper will highlight the successes realized from the treatment of three wells. It will also highlight the anomalies encountered during the treatment process, as well as the lessons learned from this treatment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. [11 p.]-[11 p.]
Author(s):  
MARÍA TERESA CEPERO GARCÍA ◽  
LUIS GERARDO MONTANE JIMENEZ ◽  
GUADALUPE TOLEDO TOLEDO ◽  
EDGARD IVAN BENITEZ GUERRERO ◽  
CARMEN MEZURA GODOY

ABSTRACT: Groupware Systems (GS) or collaborative systems are software systems that support the development of activities in which a group of users interacts to combine their skills, abilities, and work to achieve a common goal. In this area, an important concept is awareness, which is the information that helps people be aware of events beyond their current tasks. This information makes smoother the use of a collaborative system, so it is a fundamental element in this kind of software. In the design and construction of these types of systems, heuristics are used as design guidelines that serve as a useful evaluation tool for product designers and usability professionals. The current heuristics and guidelines for the design of awareness support focus on supporting the awareness of the team in the shared workspace, without considering elements to support the information needs of the user's own and individual interaction within the workspace. To address this problem and to facilitate the design and integration of awareness support, we developed 13 heuristics that integrate principles of Human-Computer Interaction and Computer Supported Cooperative Work to help groupware designers meet individual and team awareness needs. For evaluating the validity of the proposed heuristics, a structured and iterative consultation process was carried out with experts in Human-Computer Interaction and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. The proposed heuristics can help software engineers develop collaborative systems that integrate awareness information and satisfy users' contextual information needs. Keywords: Awareness, virtual groups, collaborative work, heuristics.


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