Knowledge Management and the Eight Wastes
Lean and knowledge management practices are used in both service and manufacturing industries. Both lean and knowledge management have been called trends or fads yet there are organizations who may not even recognized they are using these practices to save time, money, or improve what they produce or provide to their customers. Knowledge management practices can have a positive effect on the workforce when used reducing attrition and supporting corporate knowledge retention. In fact, Gallup reported in 2017 that organizations, where engagement of employees through knowledge management was taken into consideration, had 67% less turnover than their competition.
Knowledge management, specifically human-centric knowledge management, or knowledge management conducted as part of human interaction and decision-making, can be used combat the eight wastes: Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Non-Utilized Talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, and Extra Processing.
The technological aspects of knowledge management such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, or robotic process automation, can be used to combat the eight wastes as well, but they still require human interaction, decision-making, discussion, and review to implement those changes in technology. No matter how perfect the technological aspects are there are budgetary aspects to consider and in some cases, may be cost-prohibitive.
Human-centric knowledge can be adapted from one part of the organization throughout all departments, eliminating silos, to standardize processes, share lessons learned and best practices, and help grow the business by reducing wastes throughout the business.
In this session, we will:
1) Define knowledge management to start from a solid base of understanding of the practice of knowledge management,
2) Define the basics of each of the eight wastes
3) Discuss how human-centric knowledge management practices can be used to reduce or eliminate each of the eight wastes.
