Outline of presentation

1.      Introduction
2.      Best practice
3.      Best practice development and learning
4.      ICT and collaborative manufacturing
5.      Finding and discussion
6.      Conclusion

1.      Introduction2.      3.      4.      ICT and collaborative manufacturing5.      Finding and discussion6.      Conclusion

Introduction

The business environment today is collaborative.

Best practice is a firm-specific knowledge, developed through collaboration between employees based on experience learned from such practice.

We want to find out if, and how, knowledge development is enhanced by computer-represented best practice.

This can have relevance to “intelligent” production systems where organizational knowledge is represented through ICT, leading to combining experience from operative business processes.

Best practice

Collaboration is often related to the nesting of heterogeneous information systems for the purpose of “sharing information between business processes across internal or external partners in the value chain network.

The purpose of BP is to operate a business process in the most effective and efficient manner known to the organization.

However, BP, without the understanding of knowledge development and collaboration, may not cause superior performance.

Best practice development and learning

Voss et al , claims that best-practice success depends on the link between best practice and learning, understanding, and performance. Learning is the process required for acquiring knowledge ,while organizations learn “by encoding inferences from history into routines that guide behaviors".

Experiential learning leads to knowledge development. This experience needs to be externalized.The next step in the cognitive process is to have the knowledge codified (p. 342) and transferred as experience to the manager responsible for the process (process owner, or gate keeper.

 Large companies are escalating their investments on ICT to the point of over-investing

Best-practice development typically comprises systematic collection, evaluation and refinements of experiential knowledge from operations applying similar technology for the purpose of delivering same processes or products.

ICT and collaborative manufacturingtle

An essential element in the application of ICT as a medium for improvements to their work processes is the employees’ ability to apply the technology.

For ICT to support the enhancement of new knowledge the technology must become second nature to the employees applying it. This can be achieved through the ongoing interaction with the technology so that “structures become routine (and) taken for granted” .

Findings and discussion

We are conducting a longitudinal, explorative, case study.

ICT-literacy is a requirement for participating in the development of new best practice through the support of computer-knowledge.

Conclusions

Intrafirm best practice development is a collaborative manufacturing process.

In order for the production company to improve current practice, one is dependent on the ability by the employees to develop new practice from experience.

Such experience is based on ones ability to learn .

Collaborative processes can lead to adjustments of work-processes and business model.