Leveraging Knowledge for Operational ExcellenceA case study on Best Practices Sharing

Krishnamachari ArchanaG1001030E

Agenda Best Practices – Knowledge Application O Dell’s best practice framework BP Internal Transfer A case in point

Approach to BP Strategies Used Enablers to BP sharing Benefits derived from the project Lessons Learnt

The “evolving” next practice

Best Practices

If Only We Knew What We KnewIf Only We Knew What We Knew

Inside every organisation, lies unknown, untapped, vast treasure houses of knowledge, know-how and best practices.Pockets of business and process excellence exist alongside mediocrity.Best practices and internal benchmarking are tools for achieving excellence through knowledge.

Making BP happen

O’Dell identifies four enablers – Strategy, technology, culture and measurement for BP to be successful. Six tactics were used for making BP a success in an organization

Alignment to central business strategy Knowledge and BP Transfer Customer focused knowledge management Employee responsibility of knowledge creation and sharing Innovation and knowledge discovery Intellectual Asset Management

Case Study – Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments implementation of Best Practices through TI-BEST

BP Sharing at TITransfer is ``identifying and learning from best practices and applying them in a new configuration or new location'' (O'Dell and Grayson, 1997).

TI’s Best Practice Sharing (TI –BEST) is built on a supply/demand model . It was created in 1994.

The goal is to provide a global mechanism for TI’s businesses to communicate their strengths and weaknesses.

A four step improvement process was devised to support TI-BEST Defining business excellence Assessing progress Identifying improvement opportunities Establishing and deploying an action plan

BP Sharing at TIA 15 member BPS team was set up and a formal roll out on the “alignment to business strategy” was spread.

StrategyStrategy

MeasurementMeasurement

CultureCulture

CustomerCustomer

O’Dell’s Frame workO’Dell’s Frame work

BP Sharing at TI

Meeting of the m

inds

– Seminar on

knowledge sharing

and BP transfer

Share Fair

The Best Practices KnowledgeBase has itself become a best practice inside and outside TI.

OBP is dedicated to reducing learning times and releasing resources that would otherwise be spent rediscovering knowledge that TI already possesses

TI looks at knowledge creation in four aspects

Customer knowledge Competitive business

intelligence Processes Products

Technology – The Enabler

Lotus Notes capability to replicate Best Practices Knowledgebase to all servers provides simultaneous, worldwide access without response time issues.

The integration of Notes™ databases and the Internet through the InterNotes Publisher™ and Netscape functionality permits the delivery of best practices

to a much broader audience through TI’s intranet. The standardization of desktop applications on the Microsoft suite allows

people across TI (and outside TI) to share source documents through attachments and file transfers.

Collaborative discussion environments provided through Lotus Notes™ allows the posting of topics and responses to those topics and provides a mechanism to save and search these discussions.

Intelligent agents and the ability to link to other resources available on the web have enabled the BPS team to add links to other resources rather than replicate them.

IT has been a key enabler in making BP sharing possible. TI’s long history of developing, adapting innovative information technologies has helped hand in this mission

BenefitsThe project was aimed at eliminating pockets of mediocrity in TI and to spread world-class excellence through out the enterprise. Some of the benefits directly attributable to TI- BEST are

In 1995, TI Europe received the European Foundation for Quality management’s European Quality Award and TI Singapore received the Singapore Quality Award.

TI’s semiconductor business generated a second ‘free fab’ of capacity in 1995 by sharing practices across a wider breadth of wafer fab operations. In 1996, they achieved yet another ‘free fab’. Cost avoidance is estimated in excess of US$1.5 billion.

TI achieved top ranking in customer satisfaction in the semiconductor industry in 1995.

TI’s line of Notebook Computers was cited for product excellence

Lessons Learnt

More than tangible benefits – BP Sharing has led to first truly global effort taken at TI to break barrier of autonomy and create a single identity.

BP sharing has evolved as a mechanism to initiate dialogue between employees and management

BP sharing is an ongoing philosophy and is now directed at building a solution to achieve business excellence ( with estimated cost benefits of over US $1billion)

Technology has been a key enabler in making the BP sharing initiative a success at TI.

What’s next?

TI aims at creating a business environment that generates “reusable solutions” to common problems. To move from a isolated business environment, TI has undertaken the following projects.

A TI yellow pages directory to allow employees to set up “Connect Pages” and to communicate on current activities, interests etc.

TI “Want-Ads” to allow employees to upload new projects/ideas for peer review. These ads will solicit ideas for solving key problems.

References

• Gurteen Knowledge Blog. (2008). Retrieved April 20, 2011, from Gurteen.com: http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/best-practice

• Cramm, S. (2009, September 11). Harvard Business Review Guest Blogs. Retrieved April 24, 2011, from Harvard Business Review : http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/cramm/2009/09/how-are-you-turning-best-pract.html

• Johnson, C. (n.d.). Leveraging Knowledge for Operational Excellence. Journal of Knowledge Management.

• O Dell, C., & Jackson, G. (1998). If only we knew what we knew. California Management Review.

• Schubert, F., Ravi, S., & Alton, C. (2007). Knowledge Management Tools and Techniques. Singapore: Pearson.

Thank You