s to distinguish between profitable knowledge and the obsolete one; as well as "divest" the nonuse knowledge (i.e. through externalization) and refresh the organization.
In addition, a huge repository which stores thousands of experiences, facts, and events does not guarantee that the company is or should be a knowledge oriented organization. Take the library of RIC as an example. The library is full of books, from management to fashion. Yet, it does not mean that all students are knowers. Students can read; but transforming words, sounds and pictures in to something having meaning is a different story. Without the ability to be analyzed, understood, applied, developed and disseminated, those experiences, facts, and events are still information, not knowledge at all.
In short, knowledge management system consists of strategies, tools and techniques that can be used to access, process, use, and improve and disseminate the knowledge assets.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - HOW IT WORKS 知识管理系统-它是如何工作的
Knowledge management has been a hot topic. Many authors write about it, many theories and models have been set up. However, in my opinion, Wiig Knowledge Management Cycle is a good model to explain what a knowledge management system is. Accoriding to Wiig, a KM cycle consists of four stages: build, hold, pool and apply knowledge (Dalkir K., 2005, p.39-42).
Build knowledge is the process of creating the knowledge with many activities including obtaining, analyzing, and organizing (of knowledge). For example, at Toyota Motor Corporation, through observing, recording, and analyzing the daily performance of the workers and the machineries, the managers develop new theory about "non-value-adding" wastes in manufacturing process, as well as solutions to avoid these wastes. The sources for capturing knowledge diversify from personal experiences, training, observations, books, media, and so on.
Hold knowledge relates to tools and techniques to embed the knowledge in organization's memory. Sometimes the knowledge is stored in tangible forms (i.e. explicit knowledge) such as reports, milestone, patterns, real objects, recipes; and sometimes it is keep in minds of individuals (i.e. tacit knowledge).
Pool knowledge stage involves collecting knowledge from different sources. There are many ways to pool knowledge: collaborative teams, peers discussions and brainstorms, expert consulting, and so on. After collecting, the knowledge will be assembled and ready to serve the next function: using or applying.
A perfect example for hold and pool knowledge is the ShareNet system of Siemens. ShareNet was an intranet-based knowledge management system which collected and utilized knowledge of individual employees in its network regardless to their geographic locations. ShareNet consisted of chat room, a database and search engine. Through the system, one employee could store his/her thoughts, ideas or critics about a project. Then another Siemens worker can learn about the information through browsing by project, and could contact with the authors for more details (BusinessWeek, 2001).
Apply knowledge: the usage of knowledge strongly depends on what kind the knowledge is as well as who is the knowledge user. Knowledge can be used to perform the routine task in a better way (e.g. Toyota uses its understanding about wastes to reduce unnecessary moves/steps in production and speeds the process), to de
