KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN TOTAL PRODUCTIVE MAINTENANCE (TPM) - UK BASED EXPORTING COMPANY.
Introduction
TPM
tools limited is a UK based exporting company whose area of specialization is
in exporting specialized hand tools of high quality towards African countries
especially those that are English speaking. The specialization is in such tools
as the tile cutters, wrenches as well as frame saws among others.
Correspondence between the UK productions and the market, which is mainly in
Africa, is through agents which are situated within the market countries and
which links the management from the mother country. Moreover, the management
gets information from customers on the state of the market through emails and
mails whenever they visit the countries or through the agents who represent the
companies within the countries. Nevertheless, it is to be noted that the
information given by customers through the mails or letter are often contradicted
with the information given by the agents representing the countries and this
points to a major information breakdown.
Knowledge management problem
In
reference to knowledge management as being the capacity of an organization to
adopt and use knowledge for achieving organizational objectives, it involves
capturing, sharing, developing as well as the effective use of knowledge from
an organization. This communication barrier between the management and the
customers at the ground level therefore presents the main knowledge management
problem that TPMT faces in its operations. There needs to be effective
communication between the management, the employees as well as the customers at
the end of the supply chain. Customers communicate with an organization on the
levels of satisfaction as well as the need to improve on particular areas of
production. This therefore shows that information flow is a basic feature that
every business must work on. The case study however reveals that information
given by the customers is often distorted when it reaches the management
through the agents hence the potential ineffectiveness in addressing customer
concerns from the destination countries.
Web 2.0
Organizations
however adopt various tools for communication such as through direct
correspondence via telephone, personalized emails, agency correspondence as
well as person-to-person communication among others. It is to be noted that
information technology has increasingly shaped the modes of communication
adopted within an organization and this explains the emergence of such
communication mechanisms as through websites, social media as well as through
teleconferencing services. Recent developments have seen the development of a
specialized web which is referred to as ‘Web 2.0’ and which allows
communication between many people on the same web platform. Web 2.0
technologies, which are the most modern technologies for use in such a venture
as this, allow ease of communication between organizational management,
employees as well as the customers. Suppliers as well as other persons involved
within the supply chain management also take advantage of the ease of
communication through eth web 2.0 inventions and this improves the performance
of the organization. At the time when dot com era was overtaken, technological advancement
in web development brought about new web applications whose main feature was
online interactive pages. This simply took the name Web 2.0 and as referred to previously, the web
based system allows increased interactions by people from the same web page. Therefore, it represents varying ways through which web pages
are designed and adopted for use. Moreover, it incorporates other features as
instant messaging, group diaries, virtual offices that are hosted, video and
audio conferencing as well as address books which all aid in effective
communication. Paramount to notable advantages with this technology is that
people would adopt a virtual community through which communication and
interactions would be through social media. Therefore, the members to such a
virtual community would be in a position to communicate, exchange materials,
share information as among other practices which were not enabled by previous
versions of web pages. E-library, e-learning as well as interactive social
media platforms adopt the new web development applications for ease of
convenience and economies. Nevertheless, increased awareness has in the recent
past seen the technology gain popularity among firms playing the information
sector, journalism as well as within entertainment industries across the globe.
It adopts internet as the main necessity, just as was previously used by other
web versions but has higher appliances such as phones, tablets, laptop computers
and notepads among others.
Advantages of Web 2.0 to TPMT
It
is to be noted that Web 2.0 has brought about great revolution in modern day
communications and interactions across different geographical localities. Virtual
communication has been in the rise with the designing and adoption of the
technology with physical communication being in the verge of being overtaken
and forgotten in business transactions.
a)
Communication
efficiency: Ease of interactions and
communication through the virtual platform aids in good management of such an
organization. Customers at the destination countries where the organization
exports its products to get easy means to communicate direct to the management
on which ever the concern they would like addressed as well as on commendation
to the organization. Such platforms as social media provide rather cheap means
through which customers and the organizational management would interact and
this would reduce instances of information distortion between either party in
the communication. The technology through which the web 2.0 web version relies
on is therefore very effective in
addressing the challenge of physical distance as well as communication through
provision of virtual interactive platforms, which require little technical
expertise.
b)
Marketing:
The entire process involved between the
production of products by the producer and the consumption by the final
consumer sums up marketing process, which comprises a wide range of processes
that include proper identification of consumer needs and wants, and formulating
mechanisms to meet the needs, and satisfy the wants. Marketing has been seen to
satisfy needs and wants by giving information to target groups as well as
bringing the products to their reach. In reference to knowledge management, marketing
involves effective capturing, sharing, developing as well as the effective use
of knowledge from an organization to gain customers for the products. The
technologies of Web 2.0 have been in the recent past adopted as effective tools
for organizational management of information, which is not limited to marketing
knowledge.
c)
Cost:
As a profit making organization, TPMT have an obligation to adopt the
most cost effective means of management of organizational information in order
to maintain low profile of operational costs for profit making. Web 2.0 has
been shown to be easier and effective in passing information from a person to
another as it is applied within such simple appliances as the telephone. The organization
would have no need to use the rather expensive mechanisms as mails and letters,
which are cumbersome and take long time in response.
Challenges
i.
Over
exposure of organizational information: It
is a concern in the modern era that social media places so much information
open to all people in the internet which threatens levels of secrecy and
security of an individual or such an organization as TPMT. Hackers as well as
such other intruders whose motives would be bad threaten the well-being of such
an organization through the ease of access to the sensitive information exposed
through the web.
ii. Hacking:
Hackers and such intruders invade the systems
of an organization through malware or specialized programs, which would rely on
such information, share across the social media platforms. Therefore, the cyber
crime should be an urgent matter to consider while investing in and adopting
internet use in organizational management. Malicious software has been in use
even with the previous version of web application and is equally a potential
threat to the welfare of any individual or organization operating computerized
systems. The software in use include viruses which gain access to computer
systems of an organization and corrupt the stored information or copy it and
replicate it which over exposes it to unintended persons. The result would be
very disastrous to any organization hence the concern that web 2.0 increases
the threat of hacking.
iii.
Installation costs: technology advancement is very expensive to
any organization especially on setting up the infrastructure. As a relatively
small organization, TPMT faces a challenge in raising adequate capital in
resources for which to install physical infrastructure necessary for
instituting web 2.0. Relatively larger organizational enjoy benefits of
accumulated capital for installation of complex systems of IT such as the
system of web 2.0.
Proposed knowledge management system
As
has been revealed through the discussion above, TPMT limited is a relatively
small organization as shown by the few employees who serve as agents within ten
countries of supply as well as the periodic hiring of others to serve within
the five other countries whenever need arises. This is the main reason why
effective communication is a challenge between the organization management
based in the United Kingdom and the customers within the African countries,
which are the target markets for the tools. One outstanding feature in the
overall picture of this organization is that the management of the supply chain
has particular challenges, which needs to be addressed through adoption of an
effective knowledge management system, which will link together the customers,
agents, management and all other parties that are involved within the supply
chain. The above discussion has revealed that emerging trends in organizational
management of knowledge and information is through cloud computing as well as
through the interactive web 2.0 services. With just a pool of six permanent
employees who include the three owners in the UK, the organization is very
small to operationize fully-fledged cloud computing system and such hiring such
services proves to be the main proposal of this paper. These services will be prerequisite
to the organization adopting the online processes of information management and
sharing of knowledge through the Web 2.0 technologies. It is however necessary that this organization invests
in the system, as it will enable the management directly communicate with the
customers in relatively cheaper means such as through social media. Besides,
marketing and advertisement of the tools in the English speaking countries
would be effective through such technologies. The parts of the organization,
which will be supported through the particular information technology, are such
departments as data storage departments, marketing departments, as well as
human resource departments. The departments would be effective in performance
through adoption of IT because they involve much of data, which can be easily
stored online for ease of access and safety. Nevertheless, departments
responsible of manufacturing, warehousing, value adding as well as transporting
the products would not require such services directly because of the nature of
the products involved. However, interactions through the system adopted would
ease the process of ordering by customers as well as management of activities
involved in the supply chain.
The
particular assumption that is made in the recommendation of adopting the hired
system of cloud computing and Web 2.0 is that initial cost of installation of
the infrastructure for such services is enormous for the organization to
manage. Moreover, we assume that by the virtual of the target market being
English speaking, communication over such platforms as the social media is easy
and that little skills and knowledge are required in operating the system to
all persons in the 21st century.
Conclusion
The
TPMT organization has been shown to operate from UK but with market segment in
African countries, which speak English. Due to its small size, employing many
people has been a challenge and thus only a few people are employed to serve in
UK and in the African countries. However, due to the limited number of
personnel, communication between customers ad management is hindered which
necessitates the organization to adopt effective tools for communication.
Goodyear
ReplyDelete