Assessment Of Knowledge Management Practices On Product Process Improvement For Dire Dawa National And Ture Cement Factories In Ethiopia

Abstract

Knowledge management in organizations reflects the identification and use of collective knowledge whereas knowledge management practices refers to practical aspects of knowledge management, given that manufacturing is the organizations nature of business, there is a link between knowledge management practice and operational benefits. knowledge management practices improved their industries operational activity in a variety of ways, such as reducing the design cycle time, lead time, cost, reducing time product-to-market, and improving the quality of product. This study identified knowledge management practices that exercise in cement factories, policy and culture that is available in cement factories and ICT facility that is currently available in Dire Dawa national and Ture cement factories and also examines the relationship between knowledge management practices and organizational productivity. Then adapted different concepts from pre designed allied Knowledge management models to design Knowledge management framework for product improvements tailored to Ethiopian cement factories context. Qualitative and quantitative approach was used to investigate the existing gaps that may likely be initiated by different contextual attributes. To carry out this investigation a descriptive research method was used. Purposive and simple random sampling was used for selected143 office employees from the 500 total populations. Questionnaire, interviews and observation check list were used to gather data. The result of present study showed that knowledge creation, knowledge capture, knowledge share and knowledge application are knowledge management practices that exercise in selected cement factories. Principle and organizational written document use as the base of knowledge management policy in the factories and organization used knowledge management practices for business process achievement. The relationship between productivity and available knowledge depends on people, ICT facility and organizational existing policy available in the factories. The limited functionality of ICT facility, the non availability of knowledge management policy and limited capacity knowledge expert are problems that hinder implementation of knowledge management practices in the factories. Moreover the results of the present study revealed a statistically significant correlation (P≤ .01 with 0.000 sig values) between knowledge management practices and organizational product process. The data was analyzed and finally knowledge management framework was design and developed for organizational productivity.