Case Study: The Sunbeam Owners Spares Club
Sunbeam was a marque of advanced cars built by various companies from 1901 to 1981. Initially a manufacturing company making their own cars, they eventually remodelled other production cars until they became a marque of the Rootes company until it was broken up and sold to Peugeot and Renault in the 1980s. Sunbeams were considered glamorous - driven by movie stars, the first British car to win a Grand Prix, the holder of a number of land speed records - the marque has a devoted following of enthusiasts.
Unfortunately, spare parts and manuals are hard to find for these cars, a problem compounded by the fact that depending on which year a model was made, there was a different car manufacturer and source model. These original car companies are now mostly defunct as well, so in 1993 a group of amateur Sunbeam enthusiasts formed the 'Sunbeam Owners Spares Club' to pool their resources. They hired a storage area to hold all the spare parts and charged a joiner's fee for new members to defray costs. Members can get photocopies of technical documents, or buy spare parts such as bearings and seals from the Club when they are needed.
A serious problem they face is that the organisers of the Club are getting older, and want to take a less active role in running the Club, while the newer members (despite their enthusiasm) are not as knowledgeable about what model of what car needs what part. In addition, the mechanics who worked on Sunbeams in local garages and specialty auto-centres are all retiring, so the Club organisers are very keen on making videos of them doing standard overhauls of the motors, gearbox, steering, brakes and suspension with a view to making the knowledge more widely available.
The Club have a large number of photographs, and they also have schematics that have come originally from the manufacturers. All of this information is being kept on a spreadsheet, which is maintained by the founders of the Club in rotation on their different computers. They have often had a problem working out which one is the latest version, and this has caused problems with lost parts etc in the past.
The Sunbeam Owners Spares Club want to make an inventory system that ties together the car parts, the documentation and the videos (which are not yet made). They also want to make the entire resulting system searchable from the Internet, and link up with other groups who are interested in the Sunbeam marque around the world.
As they don't have much idea how to go about all this, they have asked you to carry out a knowledge audit, with a view to eventually recommending possible solutions.
To Do:
Complete ALL of the questions below for the case study. Please use the question numbers (e.g. 1a, 2b, etc) in your answer.
Preliminary investigation
1. Carry out the preliminary investigation of the organisation and yourself in relation to it, as follows:
a) Give an initial appraisal of the organisation's aims and preparedness for a knowledge audit. In your assessment, consider specifically whether it is: mature viable holistic self-aware, as discussed in Topic 6. Note that while you should consider the items in the checklist in carrying out your appraisal, you do not need to address each of the items in detail here.
b) Give an assessment of your own preparedness in undertaking the knowledge audit for the organisation. In carrying out your assessment, make use of the issues of expertise, ontological structure, background knowledge, opinions and prejudices, and tacit components of knowledge, as discussed in Topic 6. What areas of knowledge do you need to research to bring yourself up to speed?
c) Give your assessment of whether it is worthwhile proceeding with the knowledge audit, and why, based on your findings above.
Assuming it is worthwhile proceeding with the knowledge audit (hint: it is worthwhile!) continue to the next part of the assignment.
Knowledge Audit
2. Commence the knowledge audit by identifying the knowledge gaps and blockages in the organisation, as follows:
a) Consider each of the ten checklist issues listed, and assess from the case study whether the organisation addresses them well (needing no further attention), adequately, or whether there is a problem. Justify your assessment in each case. Take some time to do this part of the assignment thoroughly.
b) Where you consider that more information would be needed to properly identify the knowledge gaps and blockages, outline your strategy for finding out this information.
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c) Include a list of sources you have consulted in carrying out your investigation so far (for example: books, journals, Internet sites). Give the complete reference using Chicago/APA format.
3. Summarise the organisation's KM goals, and state which issue you consider to be the organisation's most pressing problem in achieving its goals, explaining your reasons.
Fixing the Knowledge Gap: Planning
4. Now commence the 'Fixing knowledge gap' phase by identifying the broad nature of the solution required, as follows:
a) Wherever you have identified the organisation has a problem in the checklist of issues, suggest the nature of the solution required to address the issue (bridge the knowledge gap). This solution needs to be in broad terms only: you are not recommending particular vendor products as yet.
b) Include a list of sources you have consulted in carrying out your research for this stage. Give the complete reference using Chicago/APA format.
Fixing the Knowledge Gap: Solutions
5. Having identified the knowledge gaps and broad plan for fixing them for the organisation, now proceed to recommend a solution it can implement.
a) Briefly describe the extent of IT infrastructure (hardware, application software, operating system, networks) already present in the day-to-day running of the organisation. (Some of this information may be stated in the case study, for the remainder you should make an educated estimate and explain your reasoning.) This infrastructure is what your proposed solution will have to work with (by building on/ extending/ replacing).
b) Summarise the requirements for a Knowledge Management System for the organisation, and create a list of suggested software packages that will build on the existing infrastructure and assist the organisations in reaching its KM targets.
c) Describe any potential problems that could arise with implementing your solution in the organisation. What would you do to avoid or minimise these problems?
d) List the sources for your solution. Give the complete reference using Chicago/APA format.