(125e) Learning and Knowledge Management - the Bottom-Line Connection

How can you generate support and investment for a Learning and Knowledge Management initiative within your organization? The answer is pretty simple?show how learning and KM can improve business performance?.develop a business case which shows how learning and KM can improve the bottom line!! Sounds simple enough, but how can you create a business proposition that will stand up to the scrutiny of your hardnosed business leaders? Most of the benefits typically attributed to learning and KM are classified as ?soft benefits? related to improved productivity. Some hard benefits, related to consolidation of learning tools or outsourcing of training, do exist, but they are rarely sufficient to justify the investment required for a broad reaching learning and KM initiative that can transform your organization and have a significant impact on your bottom line.

However, technology has evolved to where productivity improvements can be ?solidified? and connected to hard bottom line benefits. Integration and collaboration capabilities exist that will enable data, information, and knowledge sharing on a real time basis across a global enterprise, and across multi-enterprise value chains. Technology exists to ?reduce the time to competence? for all levels of an organization. New engineers, operators and technicians, office and clerical workers, new sales reps, all can be brought up to ?productive levels? more quickly, and tools exist that can relate reduced ?time to competence? to hard business benefits.

This presentation will be a discussion and demonstration of how an integrated/collaborative manufacturing environment can be created based on learning and KM concepts to enable learning and knowledge sharing and how it can impact the bottom line. A tool will be discussed that can facilitate developing the business value proposition for this environment.

The conclusion of the presentation will focus on a ?next step? proposal to initiate an industry focused consortium that will enable learning and KM advocates to leverage and learn from one another and to generate industry momentum to enable learning and KM initiatives within our industry and within our individual organizations.