Case study: The Sunbeam Owners Spares Club Sunbeam are the world's third oldest car company, which produced a number of rather advanced streamlined cars during the course of its production run, which ended about 50 years ago. The Sunbeam marque no longer exists, and so spare parts and manuals are hard to find for these cars. A group of amateur enthusiasts has formed the 'Sunbeam Owners Spares Club' to pool their resources and knowledge. They have hired a shed to hold all the spare parts and charged a membership fee for new members to defray costs. Members can get photocopies of technical documents, or buy spare parts such as bearings and seals from the Club when they are needed. They can also chat to other members who are knowledgeable about Sunbeam cars. A serious problem they face is that the organisers of the Club are getting older, and want to take a less active role in running the Club, while the newer members (despite their enthusiasm) are not as knowledgeable about Sunbeam (what model of what car needed what part, etc). In addition, the mechanics who worked on the cars are also getting old and retiring, so the Club organisers are very keen on making videos of them doing standard overhauls of the motors, gearbox, steering, brakes and suspension with a view to making the knowledge more widely available. The Club have a large number of photographs, and they also have schematics that have come originally from the manufacturer. All of these are in paper form, and the information about them is kept on a spreadsheet, which is maintained by the founders of the Club in rotation on their different computers. They have often had a problem working out which one is the latest version, and this has caused problems in the past. The Sunbeam Owners Spares Club want to make an inventory system that ties together the car parts, the documentation and the videos (which are not yet made). They also want to make the entire resulting system searchable from the Internet, and link up with other enthusiast groups who are interested in the Sunbeam marque around the world.

QUESTIONS: a) Describe THREE (3) KM-related problems that the organisation faces. In each case explain how the situation has arisen, and the problem that it is causing for the organisation.

b) For EACH of the three problems you have identified, recommend a different tool or technique from the list below that you think would be best to address the problem. In your answer you should describe:

i. where and how the tool or technique would be used,

ii. the specific KM benefits that use of the tool or technique could accomplish, and

iii. any challenges that you might encounter when using the tool or technique

List of tools/techniques: Elicitation of tacit knowledge using interviewing Workflow diagrams Lessons learned and best practices Communities of practice (CoP) Organisational knowledge taxonomy Social network analysis using sociograms Formal knowledge repository Social media (such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc) Card sorting Knowledge audit Knowledge continuity plan

c) Which of the tools or techniques you have recommended do you think would be of most benefit to the organisation, and why?

YOUR ANSWERS: (a) The KM problems the organisation faces, and how they have arisen.

Problem 1

Problem 2

Problem 3

(b) Tools/techniques to address the problems. Tool/technique to address Problem 1: _________________________________

i. Where and how it should be used

ii. The specific benefits it could accomplish

iii. Any challenges you might encounter when using it

Tool/technique to address Problem 2: _________________________________

i. Where and how it should be used

ii. The specific benefits it could accomplish

iii. Any challenges you might encounter when using it

Tool/technique to address Problem 3: _________________________________

i. Where and how it should be used

ii. The specific benefits it could accomplish

iii. Any challenges you might encounter when using it

(c) Tool/technique you think would be of most benefit, and why.