News: Full Story
Integrated Themes on
Knowledge Management in Construction -
InTheKnow
Three new projects have been approved
for funding as part of DTI's 2002/2003
Partners in Innovation (PII) scheme. This
highlights the DTI's recognition of the
importance of Knowledge Management (KM)
to business development. Although all three
projects are fundamentally different and
will be undertaken by different organisations,
there are key synergies between them. The
DTI, and their PII programme managers Davis
Langdon Consultancy (DLC) recognise these
synergies and are keen to ensure that the
different project teams work closely together
and share the results with industry.
One of the projects is from academia -
with Glasgow Caledonian University as the
lead research contractor and co-ordinator.
This will look into the theoretical aspects
of KM and relate approaches from other
industries to UK construction.
The proposed programme of research will
engage partners, users and beneficiaries
from small, medium and large organisations;
as well as clients, contractors and suppliers.
The results will deliver a substantial
and up to date body of knowledge in the
subject area from varying industrial perspectives,
as well as from previous studies of KM
and current KM practice. This will help
identify benefits that can accrue from
effective knowledge management, and will
provide training materials, reports, workshops
and publications that will help raise awareness
of the value of KM and how it can be successfully
developed within construction organisations.
The second project led by Taylor Woodrow's
KM division looks at KM from the perspective
of project management. While there are
typically many different organisations
forming the "Project Team", all
of which are focused on delivering the
product to the Client, the people and organisations
involved frequently do not share the best
practice and lessons learnt. Important
knowledge tends to remain with the individuals
involved. Particularly at site level, the
quality of product can be improved through
knowledge sharing across different sites
and organisations. This can help prevent
reoccurring mistakes, reduce reworking
and minimise waste. This research will
develop a communication model able to support
a KM system capable of transferring best
practice and lessons learnt during the
construction process across a company and
along its supply chain. Additionally, a
training package will be developed to give
practical advice and these outputs will
be underpinned by relevant publications
and a workshop.
The third project co-ordinated by Hemdean
Ltd aims to raise awareness and understanding
of KM in construction, provide practical
help to firms venturing into KM and to
create a 'KM community'. The project will
assemble a Special Interest Group (SIG)
and undertake a series of workshops, which
will help develop a construction-applicable
version of KOPE (self-assessment framework
for measuring KM capabilities, from Henley
Management College, one of the project
partners), and produce a toolkit of KM
resources for construction firms.
All three projects go well together, the
main challenge for DLC is to make sure
that the initial exploratory studies do
not overlap and that the timing for complementary
activities is such that projects can benefit
from each other's findings. The results
of all three projects will provide a base
for creating a KM utility on the ITCBP
website (www.itcbp.org.uk)
under "Integrated Themes on Knowledge
Management in Construction - InTheKnow". Return to news
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