Knowledge Management at Schaeffler Group since 2000

With its three strong brands - INA, LuK and FAG - the Schaeffler Group stands for a pronounced customer focus, innovative power and the highest possible quality. In 2007, approximately 66,000 employees at over 180 locations worldwide achieved sales totaling of 8.9 billion euros. The group belongs to the leading suppliers of the rolling bearings industry worldwide and is a recognized partner of nearly all automobile manufacturers.

The presentation will cover the KM journey since 2000 and main areas for Knowledge Work and KM at Schaeffler Group,  conditions and cooperation with other disciplines

• The Schaeffler Intranet – world-wide KM platform
• The Schaeffler Taxonomy – unified and shared language for knowledge
• Schaeffler Networks of Competence to share knowledge
• Schaeffler Wiki – Collaborate, capture, document and share know how
• Schaeffler Expert Debriefing – Transfer of knowledge and experiences before leaving the Schaeffler Group
• International Knowledge Transfer projects
• See case study

Mr. Paul Seren, Head of KM at Schaeffler Group

Mr. Seren studied Aerospace Engineering and joint Schaeffler Group in 1990. He started working within the CAD-Application Design Development & became Head of Software Development for Document Management Systems at COI GmbH, part of the Schaeffler Group. Before assuming the role as Head of KM, he was Managing Director of the COI GmbH. Since 2001 Mr. Seren has been responsible for the development and implementation of Knowledge Management.

Registration Form

Topic: FIRST WEBINAR – SCHAEFFLER GROUP

Date: Wednesday 25 November 2009 – 10AM GMT for 1 hour

Investment per person: 100 EURO – INTRODUCTORY FEE. Additional credit card charges of 3% for Visa/MasterCard, 5% for AMEX/Diners. Credit card will be charged in equivalent Australian dollars. Invoice / receipt issued on registration. Introductory fee for participation in the first Webinar is 100 Euro including costs for the Webinar Visual presentation on the web (phone audio extra – local call)

Please fill out the form below to register for the Workshop, or, alternatively
FAX TO: Bruce Searles:  +612 9482 4093
Phone: +61 418 267 794

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT SCHAEFFLER GROUP KM

Corporate Knowledge Management – Alibi only, or a serious approach oriented towards value-adding processes?

• The KM-Hypes are long over, the purely tool-orientation of KM and the wish to freely share knowledge gives way towards pragmatic and focused solutions.
• A process-oriented KM approach supports knowledge workers right in their daily work.
• Experiences from the long road from “Intranet-Webmaster” towards “KM Services to support the business”

"Knowledge Management" is a contradiction: You can’t manage knowledge! Even less by a so-called "Knowledge Management Department"

• But managers can create a framework for knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing within their own environment!
• Knowledge management is first of all a management task
• The KM approaches at Schaeffler Group also use established HRM tools like management training, MbO, employee feedback to sensitise and align the orientation of managers towards knowledge

Experiences from integration KM orientation into HRM instruments.

KM Case Study Webinars

“The amount of practical KM sharing was phenomenal, and I only realise the extent thereof now as I report back to my colleagues on what I have learned and revisiting the presentations in the tour manual” – Riaan Joubert, Knowledge Management Champion, Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited.

This is just one of the many positive feedbacks from delegates, KM Champion speakers and hosts alike after the very successful Knowledge Management Tour of Germany from 26 to 30 April 2009. All 18 delegates from 13 countries reported that they would recommend a similar study tour to others. Delegates originated from Austria, Republic of China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Germany and South Africa. (See Tour report)

The Tour was sponsored by the Asian Productivity Organisation with strong support from Ms. Duangthip Chomprang, APO Program Officer. Supporters included the Global Benchmarking Network (GBN), the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and bpir.com.

The following comments were received from Ms Duangthip Chomprang, APO Program Officer - Excellent program, impressive line of experts and practitioner-champions and unsurpassed professionalism from the organisers/partners and insightful journey into the German KM story!

The Tour schedule, hosts and speaker organizations are shown on the map.

The Webinar presenters will be drawn from the organisations shown on the map adjacent.

Post Tour Webinars

In order to share the KM experience more widely and in view of the Global Financial Crisis and restrictions on travel budgets we are proposing a series of Webinars featuring our own KM expert Dr Peter Heisig, eureki along with selected presenters from the April 2009 KM Tour itself. The Webinars will have the following interactive features:

• Total duration for each Webinar 1 hour, with follow up Questions and Answers and report
• Setting the KM scene by Dr Peter Heisig – 5 min
• Presentation by company presenter – 35 min
• Explore in-depth the KM experience – Questions and Answers – 15 min, including Questions from the presenter
• Wrap up comments – 5 min
• Follow up of Answers to additional questions off line (answers to all participants) – 1 week
• Report of outcomes of Webinar to all participants – 2 weeks later
• Each Webinar will be co-facilitated by Bruce Searles, Benchmarking Partnerships, Australia and Terry Pilcher, BCS Management Services, UK
• Supporters slide during Webinar to acknowledge organisations who have attracted members and customers to participate
• Benchmarking Code of Conduct protects the confidentiality of all knowledge exchanged to the participating organizations
• Case study report after the Webinar to be reviewed by all participants “by exception” prior to sale – Webinar participants receive a free copy

Introductory fee for participation in the first Webinar is 100 Euro including costs for the Webinar (presentation and sound) on the web (phone audio extra).
Webinars to commence in November 2009.

What we Learned during the KM Tour

Most of our hosting companies have lived the KM journey since 1998/2000 and "survived"! So they have experienced the ups and downs of KM so we were able to learn how we can survive the KM journey and provide significant benefits for our organisations in the long term.

We visited different companies from small business to large corporations and the public sector. We experienced different approaches in new product development (Blaupunkt-BOSCH Group, Airbus, ATLAS Elektronik, Schaeffler), KM for Mergers & Acquisitions (Siemens), KM world-wide (GTZ), and small businesses Burgel with their KM network and Reinisch using Intellectual Capital Statements to improve their intangible success factors. We saw Web 2.0 (Siemens) and semantic knowledge maps (ATLAS) and experiences with Expertise Transfer (Airbus, ATLAS), which addresses the consequences of the retirements of the baby boomers in the next years.

In Frankfurt/Main we had an exchange session with around 30 members from the German Association of Knowledge Management including organisations like Umicore. BRANTA, BMWi, Siemens, Ashurst, Clariant, FAZ, Fraport,IPK Fruanhofer, Lufthansa, Merck, Neckermann, Nationalbibliothek, etc.

We learned how to link KM to Innovation in enabling transfer of concepts from one discipline / team to another. We also learned how KM contributes to productivity, profitability and sustainability of organizations, particularly when they assess and close gaps in their human, structural and relationship capital. However the direct link to KPI results (cause and effect) is a matter for further research. The companies we visited can certainly demonstrate the benefits for KM for individuals in saving them time, costs and frustration.

KM can definitely enhance organisational, team and individual capability and must be linked to the organisation’s strategy for most success in deploying the strategic plan. The strategic benefits of KM were obvious like at Airbus (30 year product lifecycle), Bosch (innovation and problem solving in design), gtz (global human aid programs with teams in various countries) and Burgel (innovative marketing).

Certainly, technology is only an enabling factor for KM; the real players and beneficiaries are the people who have the tacit knowledge which you cannot write down and make accessible by means other than appropriate and timely communication between people.

To keep KM sustainable in larger organisations it should be supported by a centralized KM team – but these people do not do the KM – they just facilitate it and provide the training and tools. Most importantly the KM facilitators should also encourage the sharing of success stories for sustaining the KM effort. The people who do the KM are the experts in their particular field. For smaller businesses Intellectual Capital is vital and also we learned there is more benefit from innovatively collaborating with potential competitors than closing your doors to the rest of the world. Some of the tools used by the larger organizations are certainly appropriate for use by smaller organisations.

Benefits for Presenters

Presenters at each Webinar will have the opportunity to share their best practices and be asked searching questions from a range of perspectives and industries in the knowledge that nothing will be published without their opportunity for their prior approval. Presenters will also have the opportunity to ask questions of the audience on issues of concern to them. A person from each presenting organisation can participate in other Webinars on the same topic at no fee to us. Previous presenters have advised that they also receive the international prestige of being recognized by people from other countries and creates the impetus for self-reflection in preparing for the presentation and after the questions from others.

Next Steps: KM Study Tour Asia 2010

We are planning a KM tour in Asia for next year and other activities to share and learn best practices in KM in the meantime. Please contact us if you would like to participate and let us know your key learning needs and what you can share too. Referring to the picture below taken at our first hotel in Bremen (with a Star Wars theme) – from left to right - Dr Peter Heisig – peter.heisig@eureki.org; Bruce Searles – bruce@benchmarkingpartnerships.com.au, Brenda and Terry Pilcher – BCSMgt@aol.com ; and Ms. Duangthip Chomprang, APO Program Officer.

Program of Webinars

We are currently planning an ongoing series of webinars featuring the German KM Champions we visited last April – See Tour report

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