Plant Services - February 2008 - (Page 58)

Falk Quick Ship - 3.27 x 4.89.qxp 6/20/2007 1:59 PM Page 1 FALKTM DRIVE ONE® NEW 5 Day Quick-Ship! in the plant. The authors point out that because capturing and sharing asset-centric information is a challenge, knowledge management can be useful. They identify the four basic steps in applying knowledge management to hardware and discuss some common difficulties that can arise. These include a mismatch between the available data and what’s needed for effective decision-making, motivation and skills retention. This Web resource can be found by going to www.touchbriefings.com, where you should click on “PDF Files 10” at the bottom of the page. Then, use CTL-F to search for “Hodkiewicz.” Finally, click on the article title. Drive One build centers in USA, Australia, and China now offer standard Quick Ship drives in 5 days or less! Call for details USA: 414-342-3131, South America: 562-231-5647, Europe: 44-1484-401842, Asia-Pacific: 65-6-444-0388, China: 86-21-6497-7890, Australia: 61-2-4962-8000 On the assembly line www.rexnord.com 1-866-REXNORD The pace at which discrete manufacturing must operate if it’s to be competitive might be bearable in the long run if procedures, tools, materials, designs and personnel remained static. But, if you get that line cranking along and then start changing the inputs, you’ve got a potential train wreck on your hands. On the other hand, the judicious use of knowledge-management software can smooth things out. So argue Kasvi, Nieminen, Pulkkis and Vartiainen from the Laboratory of Work Psychology and Leadership at Helsinki University of Technology. In an online article, they explain the reasons why some attempts to introduce knowledge-management software might fail. On the positive side, they also reveal the three things they believe are needed for a successful introduction. They believe the primary goal you should have is some sort of organizational learning. As examples, they offer three case studies of applying knowledge management in the industrial arena. Take a moment to read them by moving on to www.knowledge.hut.fi/projects/itss, where you’ll scroll down and click on “Our abstracts,” then on “Knowledge Management on the Shop-Floor.” Knowledge for green “Environmental Knowledge Management” is an article by Iddo Wernick, a senior research associate at the World Resources Institute in Washington, D.C. The piece appeared in the Journal of Industrial Ecology in early 2002. Before we go on, understand that industrial ecology is a concept of a decidedly green hue that views an industrial system as a particular example of an ecosystem, except that it’s based on capital rather than on natural life and inert resources. Wernick proposes we combine industrial ecology with knowledge management to form a construct called environmental knowledge management for the purpose of improving a plant’s environmental performance. Plants that use activity-based costing or metric-based manage58 www.PLANTSERVICES.com February 2008 http://www.touchbriefings.com http://www.rexnord.com http://www.bio-renewable.com http://www.knowledge.hut.fi/projects/itss http://www.spartanchemical.com http://www.spartanchemical.com http://www.bio-renewable.com http://www.PLANTSERVICES.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Plant Services - February 2008

Plant Services - February 2008 Contents From the Editor Letters The PS Files Up and Running Crisis Corner What Works Asset Manager: Why Six Sigma? Technology Toolbox: Ensuring a Calm Response Cover Story: Best Practices Awards Lubricants: A Slick Success Story Motors: Reliable Torque Compressors: Before You Call for Help Web Hunter: Exploiting Intellectual Capital In the Trenches Product Picks Classifieds Fast Facts Energy Expert: Energy, Climate and Food

Plant Services - February 2008

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