Supporting Research and Development Processes 183Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without writtenCURRENT CHALLENGES
FACING THE ORGANIZATION
Challenges During the Project and Current Status
Based on the fact that the project has been initiated under the pressure of an existing
development project, at the beginning the concept could only support this project in the
last phases — transfer of experiences and information. The departments used the transfer
matrix and managed a structured handover. In parallel, the organization established two
technical topic groups (hydraulic systems and electronic systems) and built up the
reporting, information, and feedback groups within the project management software.
Current status is now a broad acceptance of the concept. The employees of the R&D
and construction departments are now aware that they need each other and work more
cooperatively. Company representatives lead this back to team meetings and technical
topic groups, where they sit together and discuss constructively — “work is easier if we
approach a challenge together.” As a tool for measuring this fact, one employee told us
that employees now go for coffee break together. Another result is the involvement of
the service and after-sales department in the development process. Due to the good
experiences with the supporting project management tool, there will be further activities
to improve its functionalities. Information providers, for example, like the possibility of
the tool to check who read the information and who gave feedback. Project-independent
activities (e.g., posters, etc.) have also been implemented and the top-down information
flows.
General Challenges
Companies have to concentrate on their own core competencies to compensate the
pressure arising from the market and the increasing complexity of processes, products,
or surrounding environment. Modern companies are specialized on similar fields and
form work groups, work lines, or even companies for this ones. Specialization in this
context means, on the one hand, highly qualified employees and very special know-how,
but on the other hand, a large amount of communication work. A holistic view and a long-
term plan are necessary to achieve such ambitious goals as knowledge management in
a diversified or spread company.
Today, employees need not only physical material for their daily work, but also an
increasing amount of information and knowledge. Codification of knowledge and
dedicated sharing of this information is used for keeping knowledge within the company
and to support all working steps where this information is needed. This requires also
knowing more than one simple task for a further understanding of the whole process.
Employees must be able to get more than a local view to notice barriers or critical
interfaces to neighbor tasks. This consciousness enables innovation and further
improvements on the process. The same is valid for departments and their organizational
borders.
The more specialized a department, the higher the need for a common understanding
of company goals and project goals. Employees from different departments work
together on different projects and interact in teams. These teams form a special kind of