Organizational Knowledge Requirements - Meeting ISO 9001:2015 Clause 7.1.6

[hogheavenfarm]

Re: Meeting ISO 9001:2015 7.1.6 Organizational Knowledge Requirements

One way I document this is through a "Versatility Matrix" (I think this may exist somewhere on this site as a post attachment) - Every employee is listed, along with every shop skill and process, along with certifications (like welding) etc. including CAD, administrative, computer , etc. There is a ranking 1 to 3 for skill level across the columns for each listed 'skill'. I can see at a glance who needs training, where to cross train, and when there is a excessive build up of skills, or a lack of skills. We tailor our training to meet these needs. It is a useful matrix for many things across the board.

 

[BradM]

Re: Meeting ISO 9001:2015 7.1.6 Organizational Knowledge Requirements

Organizational knowledge is a pretty interesting concept and has a nice library of material to borrow on. Here is the link to a paper from 1994. Yes it's long and a bit stuffy. But it is a heavily cited paper, and does an excellent job of covering what is knowledge and how to capture it:

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/23061093/55048957/name/ATT00010.pdf

The first thing I might do is develop an understanding of what is knowledge (vs. information) and tacit knowledge versus explicit knowledge. Next, I would address where this knowledge resides in the organization and where it is stored:

• Do we document on the job training?
• Do we have sufficient measures/feedback loop that training was effective?
• Do we have provisions of transferring tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge and vice versa?

Another approach might be to consider why Organizational knowledge matters:

• It is an asset. It is something the company "paid for" in one form or another.
• It is a competitive advantage. An organization may have a real Value they add based on their organizational knowledge. They certainly don't want to lose it or cut it out of the process.
• "Hollowing Out". Meredith uses this term to describe when an organization outsources so many processes (and the corresponding knowledge) that they "forget" how to be good anymore. They can't create/develop a new competitive advantage, because... they don't know how.
• From a Risk mitigation standpoint, to minimize process interruptions due to loss of knowledge. You have a particular process activity, and only one person knows how to do it. What happens when that person leaves or something happens to them?

I would suggest analyzing/ reviewing the organization where knowledge may accumulate/ be stored. Next, develop a culture where knowledge sharing is encouraged, as it makes all employees more knowledgeable (and thus, more valuable and more marketable). Then develop tools to measure and capture this knowledge; or at least recognize it for its value.

 

[Pancho]

Re: Meeting ISO 9001:2015 7.1.6 Organizational Knowledge Requirements

That is an excellent paper, Brad, thanks for sharing!

It is amazing to me how similar Nonaka's cycle of organizational knowledge creation is to Deming's PDCA. I think they may even be the same thing: another perspective on what Mayfield calls The Engine of Complexity?

 

[BradM]

Re: Meeting ISO 9001:2015 7.1.6 Organizational Knowledge Requirements

That is an excellent paper, Brad, thanks for sharing!

It is amazing to me how similar Nonaka's cycle of organizational knowledge creation is to Deming's PDCA. I think they may even be the same thing: another perspective on what Mayfield calls The Engine of Complexity?

Yea... incredible how much ends up coming full circle back to Deming.

He was an amazing man.

 

[bigqman]

Re: Meeting ISO 9001:2015 7.1.6 Organizational Knowledge Requirements

Thank you very much for instigating this discussion! It was a bit of a jolt to refer to the 2008 and 2015 correlation matrices to cross reference 7.1.6 Organizational knowledge and see "No equivalent (2008) clause".

 

[Solitude]

Re: Meeting ISO 9001:2015 7.1.6 Organizational Knowledge Requirements

Sorry to resurrect this thread.

There is some interesting stuff on here and I am wiser for having read that paper.
I am interested in how people are approaching this requirement and tackling the issue for their organisations. Can anyone offer anything? Thanks.

 

[Kronos147]

Re: Meeting ISO 9001:2015 7.1.6 Organizational Knowledge Requirements

Context of the organization: Small machine shop

Current training and development program: Hire the right people (based on Job Descriptions, resume, engineering exam-on our controlled form-results, and personal interview) and train to a matrix.

The matrix describes the "organizational knowledge" we need to maintain.

Everything else, as we are a small machine shop, is based off what the person knows coming in.

Outside of our ability to control is the Education system, parental child rearing, lack of apprenticeships in America, etc.... in other words, don't overthink it!

Risks- wrong person. Mitigation- Supervision and a 90 day hiring policy (90 day probationary period).

 

[Big Jim]

Re: Meeting ISO 9001:2015 7.1.6 Organizational Knowledge Requirements

Sorry to resurrect this thread.

There is some interesting stuff on here and I am wiser for having read that paper.
I am interested in how people are approaching this requirement and tackling the issue for their organisations. Can anyone offer anything? Thanks.

In the simplest fashion it would be to make sure that you have people on the your staff that know what they are doing and that you find ways to obtain additional knowledge when you become aware of the need.

 

[maggylu168]

Re: Meeting ISO 9001:2015 7.1.6 Organizational Knowledge Requirements

Every company has her own secrets to succeed. Such secrets can be described in a process way with suitable resources. Man's competence is a major part of the resources to succeed in most company, and his/her experiences should be captured as the organization knowledge. However, it is only one source of it. My idea is each organization should identify its best competence to sustain and keep this with its relevant know-how in documented information. Take coca cola as an example. I guess its main organization knowledge is her secret recipe, instead of employee's knowledge.

 

[Solitude]

Re: Meeting ISO 9001:2015 7.1.6 Organizational Knowledge Requirements

Thanks for the comments. I think that I am going to keep this is as simple as possible and the competence angle captures the knowledge the guys who build things need to have to produce acceptable quality product. We keep a design library for technical design elements, and as new technology becomes available, we identify the knowledge we need to integrate into our designs and this gets added to the design library.

Is it wise to document how we go about it? i.e. how do we identify, obtain, store, maintain, review and communicate the knowledge required by the company, or just demonstrate that we do it.