Leveraging Knowledge Across the Value Chain

Published by: American Productivity & Quality Center

Published: May. 24, 2006 - 170 Pages

Table of Contents

• Buckman Laboratories International Inc.
• Caterpillar Inc.
• Raytheon Co.
• Tata Steel Ltd.
• United States Air Force Materiel Command

Abstract

KEY FINDINGS

Competing on Knowledge

• Escape the commodity pricing trap through customer segmentation and intimacy developed through knowledge sharing.
• Build a sustainable, win-win value proposition all along the extended value chain.
• Build value chain initiatives on a foundation of competency in KM, process improvement, leadership development, and learning.
• Use relatively straightforward techniques for managing the potential legal and exposure risks in sharing knowledge across the extended value chain.

• Gain clear, visible, and sponsored executive support by tying knowledge sharing to business strategy and business value.
• Understand business processes so that knowledge-sharing practices can be built around them.
• Gain buy-in by involving the appropriate value chain partners in the design of the knowledge-sharing initiative.
• Use a communication strategy to spread the word about the initiatives and build and sustain buy-in.

• Create an approach to determine and prioritize which parts of the value chain to enable with knowledge-sharing tools and techniques.
• Analyze the performance of critical value chain partnerships to identify where it is appropriate to transfer and implement best practices.
• Select the appropriate array of knowledge-sharing tools/approaches to match the needs of each partnership.
• Lower the barrier to entry for knowledge sharing between value chain partners by providing intuitive, easy-to-use tools.
• Create and operate under a shared funding model divided between the business units and the corporate level.
• Define clear governance processes for value chain, knowledge-sharing partnerships.
• Define clear roles and responsibilities for overseeing knowledge-sharing partnerships and managing the change required for success.
• Create standard operating processes and workflow for managing the security and confidentiality within the partnership.
• Conduct face-to-face partner forums/workshops with key value chain partners to build understanding of processes and create trust for knowledge sharing.
• Use multiple communication vehicles as often as possible to strengthen support for current and future knowledge-sharing partnerships.

• Leverage existing knowledge-sharing tools for use with internal and/or external partners, suppliers, or customers where it makes sense to do so.
• Provide a suite of applications CoPs can customize for their specific needs.
• Implement strong authentication and monitoring capabilities for those IT tools.

• Devise business value measures.
• Have a methodology in place to measure the results and execute this methodology continuously.

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