Abstract

Consolidation and maintenance of knowledge basis are considered important, but are not treated adequately as a tool to enable changing in common practices inside a company. Trying to keep the experience of a company in a "former document" is not a trivial practice. Reports, calculation sheets and manuals are often considered reference documents for future consulting in projects and technical support services. Trying to extract the main points, and make them available in a fast and easy manner to the technician, is still a challenge. The loss of specialists interrupts the improvements originated from experience feedback and inhibits innovation. This prevents maturation of the technical staff and thus the growth of an institution. The strength of an institution is based on a solid external recognition of the potentialities of its staff and the capacity to improve solutions based on its past experiences. This paper presents the development of a methodology and a standard environment to consolidate the knowledge of specialists related to instrumentation, control and automation activities, focusing on the design and technical consulting demands inside a petroleum refining company. The environment for knowledge management takes advantage of the facilities of the Corporate Intranet to extend this environment to all technicians of the company. This knowledge management system has been operating since February 2002 in Petrobras, the Brazilian Oil Company, Brazil.

Introduction

Business operates in a fiercely competitive environment where the key to survival is strategic management of knowledge [Desouza, 2001]. This knowledge comes in many forms. Database, trade secrets, the know-how of employees, patents, copyrights and process are just a few examples of the intellectual assets that enterprises hold. As Davenport and Pruzac (1998) define: "Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experiences, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating new experiences and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of workers. In organization, it is often embedded not only in documents or repositories but also in organizational routines, processes, practices and norms." Nevertheless, company's knowledge is not concentrated. Knowledge workers spend much of their time searching for data a

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