دانش ضمنی به‌عنوان ارتقاء دهنده موفقیت یک پروژه

This paper addresses the question of whether tacit knowledge can be an important contributory factor in the successful delivery of automation systems. The theoretical part of the paper deals with explicit and tacit knowledge, in particular with the essential nature of tacit knowledge and its manifestation in project activity. After this two related case studies are presented from the metallurgical industry. In the first case, the lack of tacit knowledge was an obvious reason for the poor economic performance of the project; in the second case, the value of tacit knowledge in the success of the project was probably significant.

It is often assumed that engineering knowledge can be encoded and stored within a narrow concept of information consisting of fully articulated and codified knowledge, such as blueprints, chemical formulae, or computer software (see for example Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). This information can be transmitted without loss of integrity of the message once the decoding rules are known. This way of thinking suggests that prevailing technology strictly defines the bounds of production and that anyone having access to this information can also operate production plants. It is assumed that no special training, know-how or experience are required. Another type of knowledge needed in engineering (tacit knowledge), has not received much attention. There is, however, evidence that the situation is slowly changing and the role of learning by doing, using and benefiting from the experiences of other firms is becoming acknowledged and being incorporated in engineering. The main idea is that these learning processes are partly based on tacit knowledge providing descriptive procedures on how to do something even if one cannot codify it easily or at all. In the purchase and supply operations of companies, this bipartite nature of knowledge has probably not yet been sufficiently understood. In connection with project purchases, attention is directed at written material only. The fact that a great deal of the know-how required in the delivery is tied to knowledge that is not written but realised through the expertise and understanding of project personnel and various organisations, is not taken into consideration. This paper describes the presence and effects of tacit knowledge in the delivery of automation systems. Basing our study on action research, we show how the tacit knowledge of the project personnel can have a noticeable effect on the success of a project.

The dilemma in the utilisation of tacit knowledge lies in that even the user of the knowledge is unable to understand the generation and character of the knowledge well enough to take advantage of it. Therefore, its signi"cance in the success of a delivery project can only be evaluated as far as its main general components are concerned. The case studies on engineering projects related to process automation deliveries provide clear hints to the e!ect that tacit knowledge, based on earlier experiences in a corresponding context, carries a particularly great signi"cance. Hence, one can hypothesise that tacit knowledge gained from experience may be expected to help signi"cantly in the success of delivery projects. The level of communication within a project is signi"- cant to its success. However, if that communication only supplies explicit knowledge it may not guarantee the project's success. It is important that communication between people happens in such a manner that the transmission of tacit knowledge is ample. When a "rm purchases devices and/or systems, the delivery of which calls for engineering activities, it should see to it that both the "rm itself and the supplier have su$cient tacit knowledge based on experience related to the delivery.