Relating the topic of knowledge management to manufacturing indeed seems
to be a worthwhile idea. As a researcher at the University of Munich I am
currently working on a thesis which aims at correcting the widespread
notion of the role that the concept of flexibility (which at least at
first glance is not to far from agility ) plays in manufacturing.
Concerning the relation between knowledge and other resources it has to
questioned which of them is the bottleneck for agility. There will
probably be no general answer but a differentiated one with regard to
different forms of 'agilities'. Organizations which exhibit agility in
every conceivable direction will hardly be viable, possibly the idea of
'total agility' might even per definitionem contradict the idea of an
organization. In my view, an enterprise has to create an adequate mix of
'rigidities' and 'agilities' in order achieve its goals. The role of
learning will be to improve the organization's capability to adjust this
mix according to changing circumstances or goals, i.e learning means
agility on a secondary level.
Empirical evidence shows that the mere labelling multi-purpose machinery
as 'flexible' does not guarantee any successes under the often cited
market conditions of turbulence and complexity. The technological view
offers manufacturing flexibility at an operational level. But at that same
time the complexity of planning and controlling procedures increases and
organizations become committed to them once they have undertaken the
effort of their implementation. As a result flexibility on a strategic
level is given up. The more volatile the environment is, the more emphasis
has to be put on higher level flexibilities. E.g. the organization has to
learn how to implement procedures and modify organizational structures
which become more and more complex. And it has to learn how to learn to
implement ...etc. Learning is a multi-stage phenomenon. So the "'ability
to direct and manage human knowledge towards pre-determined, useful
purposes" must also be directed to the useful purposes of improving the
knowledge itself and determining new, even more useful goals.
-- Holger Janssen janssen@bwl.uni-muenchen.de