Engaging environments: Tacit knowledge sharing on the shop floor

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that facilitate tacit knowledge sharing in unstructured work environments, such as those found in automated production lines. Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on a qualitative approach, and it draws data from a four-month field study at a blown-molded glass factory. Data collection techniques included interviews, informal conversations and on-site observations, and data were interpreted using content analysis. Findings: The results indicated that sharing of tacit knowledge is facilitated by an engaging environment. An engaging environment is supported by shared language and knowledge, which are developed through intense communication and a strong sense of collegiality and a social climate that is dominated by openness and trust. Other factors that contribute to the creation of an engaging environment include managerial efforts to provide appropriate work conditions and to communicate company goals, and HRM practices such as the provision of formal training, on-the-job training and incentives. Practical implications: This paper clarifies the scope of managerial actions that impact knowledge creation and sharing among blue-collar workers. Originality/value: Despite the acknowledgement of the importance of blue-collar workers' knowledge, both the knowledge management and operations management literatures have devoted limited attention to it. Studies related to knowledge management in unstructured working environments are also not abundant. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Knowledge-based integrated production management model

Purpose - This paper aims to propose a model of production management that integrates knowledge management, as a third dimension, to the production and work dimensions and to identify factors that promote a favorable context for knowledge sharing and results achievement in the production operations shop floor environment.Design/methodology/approach - The model proposed is built from opportunities identified in the literature review.Findings - The factors in the model integrate its three main components: knowledge management, production organization and work organization, providing a representation of the dynamics of the workplace and shop floor environment.Practical implications - The proposed model and its factors allow managers to better understand and to improve the organization activities, because it integrates knowledge management with the production organization and work organization components of traditional models.Originality/value - Literature acknowledges the role of knowledge as competitive advantage, but it is still dealt in an implicit way within the traditional models of production management. This paper proposes a model and factors that provide a favorable context for tacit knowledge sharing and results achievement in the production operations shop floor environment. The model explicitly integrates knowledge management with traditional models' components.

Knowledge-based integrated Production Management Model applied to automotive companies

This paper aims to examine the relevance of a production management model, in the shop-floor operations environment, that integrates the dimensions of production organisation (lean and mass production), work organisation (enriched and semi-autonomous groups) and knowledge management. A theoretical model has been applied to automotive companies to verify model adherence. Each of those dimensions has been described by factors. Shop-floor personnel interviews were conducted to confirm the factors relevance to that company. Results have shown that the model represented the reality of those companies concerning the researched dimensions. The factors allow managers to promote a favourable context for knowledge sharing. © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

As contribuições do audiovisual para a formação de jovens produtores: a construção de conteúdos por meio de dispositivos móveis

Pós-graduação em Televisão Digital: Informação e Conhecimento - FAAC

Fatores facilitadores e inibidores no uso das comunidades de prática: um estudo de caso em uma empresa alemã

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Empacotamento de experimentos controlados em engenharia de software: uma abordagem baseada em ontologia

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Criação de contexto favorável ao compartilhamento do conhecimento operário: pesquisa no ambiente vidreiro

In search for better competitiveness, the automotive industry has discussed and applied several concepts related to people and processes. However, in many organizations, the adopted concepts are implemented and kept unarticulated. In this context, authors recognize the role of the knowledge as competitive advantage, but it is still dealt in an implicit way with the traditional models of Production Management. Exploring opportunities in this scenario, this Thesis aims to analyse worker knowledge sharing using factors of Knowledge Management, Work Organization and Production Organization. For the realization of the present Thesis, the scope of the research was restricted to be the labour environment of the glass plants shop floor. The choice of the glass sector is justified due to high dependency on the tacit knowledge of blue-collars. The research uses a qualitative-quantitative approach and employs interviews with workers and managers to identify factors. To assess the importance of these factors in the management judgments, is employed the technique Incomplete Pairwise Comparisons based on Analytic Hierarchy Process Saaty (2001). The result indicates integration among factors and highlights the importance of systematic and technical conversation among operators to share better your knowledge. Also, worker knowledge sharing is improved using communication, training and work instruction. This research extends the conceptual frameworks encountered in literature from the factors integration of Knowledge Management with the Organization of Work and the Production and makes explicit use of the theme of knowledge. This contributes to promote of a favourable context for the creation and sharing of knowledge, among the people in the labour environment, and to support incremental innovation

Apresentação de métodos para implementação de plataformas colaborativas de Sistemas Automatizados de Produção

Automated Production Systems Development involves aspects concerning the integration of technological components that exist on the market, such as: Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), robot manipulators, various sensors and actuators, image processing systems, communication networks and collaborative supervisory systems; all integrated into a single application. This paper proposes an automated platform for experimentation, implemented through typical architecture for Automated Production Systems, which integrates the technological components described above, in order to allow researchers and students to carry out practical laboratory activities. These activities will complement the theoretical knowledge acquired by the students in the classroom, thus improving their training and professional skills. A platform designed using this generic structure will allow users to work within an educational environment that reflects most aspects found in Industrial Automated Manufacturing Systems, such as technology integration, communication networks, process control and production management. In addition, this platform offers the possibility complete automated process of control and supervision via remote connection through the internet (WebLab), enabling knowledge sharing between different teaching and research groups.

Teoria dos Jogos aplicada à inteligência competitiva organizacional no âmbito da Ciência da Informação

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Avaliação das barreiras à inovação em sistemas de embalagens que visam a redução do desperdício/perda de carne bovina in natura

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Análise do fatores para o compartilhamento do conhecimento operário em indústrias do setor automotivo no Brasil

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Conhecimento e formas de utilização de plantas medicinais em duas comunidades rurais: agricultores familiares de Santa Albertina (SP) e assentados de Ilha Solteira (SP)

Pós-graduação em Agronomia - FEIS

Challenges of Knowledge Representation in Contemporary Archival Science

Since its emergence as a discipline, in the nineteenth century (1889), the theory and practice of Archival Science have focused on the arrangement and description of archival materials as complementary and inseparable nuclear processes that aim to classify, to order, to describe and to give access to records. These processes have their specific goals sharing one in common: the representation of archival knowledge. In the late 1980 a paradigm shift was announced in Archival Science, especially after the appearance of the new forms of document production and information technologies. The discipline was then invited to rethink its theoretical and methodological bases founded in the nineteenth century so it could handle the contemporary archival knowledge production, organization and representation. In this sense, the present paper aims to discuss, under a theoretical perspective, the archival representation, more specifically the archival description facing these changes and proposals, in order to illustrate the challenges faced by Contemporary Archival Science in a new context of production, organization and representation of archival knowledge.