Subject-oriented Knowledge Reconstruction in Organizational Innovation Management

Z.C. Yu, Z.P. Fan

School of Business Administration Northeastern University Shenyang, 110004 China

Abstract- Innovation management of organization virtually is knowledge innovation of organization. In innovation management, organization will meet a large amount of new problems that have never been met before. Hence, how to make the solutions of problems effectively in time by utilizing knowledge in organization memory is the concentrated reflection of organization innovation ability. This paper firstly proposes the idea of subject-oriented knowledge reconstruction, and then gives the reconstruction model and the implementation method by analyzing knowledge flow model. Finally, the paper gives a case study of subject-oriented knowledge reconstruction system for a Chinese manufacturing enterprise, and discusses the advantage and disadvantage of the system in application. Keywords- innovation management, knowledge reconstruction, knowledge management, subject-oriented

I. INTRODUCTION

Innovation Management is a source for an enterprises to create the competition dominance and some factors have been become the main driven power to promote the development of the enterprise, such as technological innovation, products innovation, service innovation, organizational innovation, management innovation, etc. [1-3]. Nevertheless knowledge innovation is essential for all kinds of innovation activities, which means to use the knowledge existing in the enterprise to solve the new problems faced by the organization [4]. Knowledge management has provided the abilities for a enterprise to collect, store and process the knowledge of all kids of professional domain in the enterprise, and the innovation management based on knowledge makes it possible for knowledge increment and renewing, the two important ways for modern enterprises to increase the competitiveness and to improve intelligence assets [5-8].

Organization will face a large amount of new problems that has never been met in the process of innovation management; hence how to form the solutions of problems effectively in time by utilizing knowledge in organizational memory will reflect the innovation ability of the organization [9]. The process of forming the solutions is to classify and search the knowledge of different domains related to the problems according to the subjects, and then to distribute the knowledge to every nodes of organizational innovation activities [10]. The nodes of these innovative activities may be department, post or personnel, which are the main bodies of knowledge

innovation. The corresponding solution is formed by the knowledge innovation activities of these main bodies, which are what meant by the subject-oriented knowledge reconstruction here. The process of subject-oriented knowledge reconstruction has three meanings: 1) it is a knowledge flow process that stimulates the knowledge flowing among all the innovation main bodies. 2) it is a knowledge reuse process that provides utilizing knowledge in organizational memory effectively. 3) it is a knowledge innovation process. The solution formed is the new knowledge that can enrich organizational memory.

Basing on analyzing the knowledge flow model in organizational innovation system, this paper analyzes the characteristics of knowledge in organization, proposes a knowledge system model based on task-filed-subject, the three dimensional knowledge system, and then gives a subject-oriented knowledge describing model. Then the paper analyzes the subject-oriented knowledge reconstruction, and gives a knowledge reconstruction model and describing arithmetic. Finally, gives a case study on the subject-oriented knowledge reconstruction systems for the product innovation of a Chinese manufacturing enterprise, and discusses the problems of the system in application.

II. ANALYSIS OF KNOWLEDGE FLOW MODEL

Knowledge management is the base of knowledge

reconstruction in innovation system, and effective knowledge flow management is the important content of knowledge management. In Country Innovation System(1997), OECD pointed out: “The effective implement of innovation system depends on the degree of knowledge flow”. In innovation system within organization, the flow takes place among those main bodies which perform innovation activities, such as departments, teams, employees, etc. With the usage of information system and some knowledge management system in organization, the flow of explicit knowledge in organization much depends on these information systems, and the flow of implied knowledge much depends on some communication channels, such as face-to-face training, meeting, discussion, video conference, on-line forum and so on [9,10,12].

Knowledge flow model in organization innovation management has three levels: knowledge source, knowledge management and knowledge reconstruction, as shown in Fig. 1.

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1) Knowledge source: In network environment, organization operational activities, management activities and some traditional resources such as fund, personnel and materials have already been changed into data or explicit knowledge by some information systems, such as the system of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Management Information System (MIS), Material Requirement Planning (MRP), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supplier Relationship Management(SRM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Office Automation (OA), Knowledge Management (KM), Content Management (CM), and so on. The implied knowledge existed in experts is stored in implied repository of knowledge network by some techniques, for example expert information storehouse, knowledge map and so on. 2) Knowledge management: This level can provide the ability for organization to manage knowledge, including knowledge acquiring, knowledge organizing and knowledge evaluation.

Knowledge acquiring: knowledge acquiring includes content acquiring function and structure acquiring function. Because content and structure are two parts of knowledge, so knowledge K can be described as

>=< Structure,ContentK . (1) The knowledge which has certain structure information can

be reused and reconstruction. Knowledge organizing: The acquired knowledge is settled

and processed, then is set up memory structure and logic relationship to enable knowledge to be stored, transmitted, processed and utilized conveniently. It includes mainly some functions, such as knowledge representation, knowledge classification, knowledge clustering, etc.

Knowledge evaluation: To evaluate knowledge redundancy, validity of knowledge classifying and the value of knowledge, and then to confirm the farther knowledge management strategy. 3) Knowledge reconstruction: This is the important process for exerting the value of knowledge asserts. Facing the new problems in organization innovation activities, organization can reconstruct knowledge according to the knowledge

resource provided by analyzing domains and subjects of these problems, then submit the solution of these problems.

III. SUBJECT-ORIENTED KNOWLEDGE

There are kinds of innovation activities in organization innovation management. Each activity is an innovation task. Finishing each task needs the knowledge coming from many domains. And, the knowledge in the same domain can be classified according to different subjects [11,12]. According to the three-dimensional knowledge system, as shown in Fig. 2, knowledge describing model is

>=< Subject,Domain,TaskKnowledge . (2)

Task can be described as:

>=< D,UTask . (3) Where, U is the attributes of the task, such as task name, goal, constraint and so on. D is the domain set related with Task .

Domain can be described as

>=< S,RDomain . (4) Where, R is the attributes of the related domains, such as domain name, category and so on. S is the subject set related with Domain.

Subject can be described as >=< K,PSubject . (5)

Where, P is the attributes of the related subjects, such as subject name, category and so on. K is the knowledge of Subject , such as rule, formula, data, method and so on. K is defined in (1).

Task

Domain

Subject

1TSK 3TSK

2TSK . . .

nTSK

1SBJ 2SBJ

6SBJ

7SBJ

4SBJ

3SBJ

5SBJ ...

pSBJ

1DOM

Fig. 2. The knowledge model

3DOM

2DOM mDOM

...

Knowledge acquiring

Knowledge evaluation

Knowledge organizing

Database Explicit knowledge repository Tacit

knowledge of experts

EDI MIS MRP ERP SRM CM KM CRM OA

Fig. 1. The knowledge flow model of innovation management in organization

Knowledge Resource

Knowledge Management

Knowledge Reconstruction

Knowledge Reconstruction

New problems in innovation

activities Solution

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Organization knowledge can be stored in subject-oriented knowledge repository including many tasks, many kinds of subject knowledge in many domains. Let

,,TSK,TSK{TSet 21= }TSK n be a set of n tasks,

and ,DOM,DOM{DSet 21= }DOM, m be a set of

m domains, and ,SBJ{SSet 1= }SBJ,,SBJ p2 be a set of p subjects.

Then, the subject-oriented knowledge repository describing model is

>=< SSet,DSet,TSetKBASE . (6)

IV. SUBJECT-ORIENTED KNOWLEDGE RECONSTRUCTION

Subject-oriented knowledge reconstruction is the process of realizing knowledge flowing, knowledge reuse and knowledge innovation. As shown in Fig. 1, every new problem in innovation activities can be considered as a task that can be accomplished by knowledge reconstruction, and then the solution of this problem is acquired.

The process of subject-oriented knowledge reconstruction is

shown in Fig. 3. Let T be an innovation task, }d,,d,,d,d{D ni 21= is defined as a set of tasks by

domain decompose firstly, where id is the i th domain,

n,,,i 21= . Then the set of subjects as ,s,s{S 21=

}s,,s, mj is formed by subject decompose, where js is

j th domain, m,,,j 21= . In (2), >=< S,D,TK is the knowledge set corresponding to the task T . Because T is an innovative task that never be met in organization, so

TSetT Ï . In (6) knowledge set K is never existing in KBASE . So, it needs knowledge reconstruction.

The arithmetic of knowledge reconstruction is described as following:

( ){ }Ss,Dd,KBASEs,d,TkkK jiji ÎÎÎ>=<= . (7)

where SSetS,DSetD ÍÍ . n,,,i 21= . ,,j 21= .

m, , ( ) KBASEs,d,Tk ji Î>=< is meant to search

the knowledge of id , js and the related knowledge with

id , js that be needed by T in KBASE . All the related

knowledge with id , js for the innovation task T

in KBASE can be searched out by the arithmetic. Then, the knowledge set K is obtained as the solution for innovation task T finally.

V. CASE SUTDY: SUBJECT-ORIENTED KNOWLEDGE RECONSTRUCTION FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION IN

MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISE

In essence, the product design innovation is knowledge innovation [4]. The increment of information and knowledge in products and its manufacturing engineering will be the decisive factor of deciding the competitive power of new products. The product innovation based on knowledge and information network is not only being the important pillar of knowledge economy, but also the most active driven facto [7, 13-17]. If Chinese manufacturing enterprises want to have remarkable competitive power in the global market, it must create the core competence in product innovation. Subject-oriented knowledge reconstruction can help enterprises to fully utilize the knowledge that exists in enterprise, and continuously innovate in the process of product design and innovation [18-20]. In the case described as following, we discuss the application of knowledge reconstruction in a manufacturing enterprise in Shenyang of China, which mainly manufactures production line of anti-rust coating material with 37 staff. Since the equipment needed to be coated by the customers has quite different shape, the enterprise must manufacture different production lines to satisfy the customer’s demand. The main works of the enterprises include design, assembly, installing and adjusting of the production line, but the production of mechanical device is served by an another enterprise specialized in machine parts production. Therefore this enterprise is a manufacturing enterprise with intensive knowledge, and its core competence is to design and develop the new production line.

The subject-oriented knowledge model related to the enterprise and its product innovation is shown in Fig. 4, in which only two main domains, namely structure and performance, is shown. Each domain shows three most important subjects respectively. Nevertheless the practical knowledge models of enterprises may include more domains and some thousands of subjects. And for satisfying the classifying need, there may have also a lot of sub-subjects for nearly each subject.

The operation interface of knowledge reconstruction system designed for the enterprise is shown in Fig. 5. When meeting some problems, the designers can decompose the task into

Subject-oriented knowledge repository

Innovation task Domain decompose

Subject decompose

Reconstruction algorithm

Solution for innovation

task

Subjects Set

Fig. 3. The procedure of knowledge reconstruction

Knowledge Set

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many domains and subjects by the task analyzing guide and reconstruct the knowledge by using the system, and finally, the solution of the problem is being formed.

At present, the main problems in application of knowledge reconstruction are classification and clustering of knowledge, evaluation of reconstructed knowledge and the process of external knowledge etc. [21-25].

1) Classification and clustering of knowledge: In order to improve the validity of reconstruction, classification and clustering of knowledge in advance is needed. Because subject-oriented knowledge in different domain has different knowledge characteristics, so the suitability of these algorithms has some limitation. 2) Evaluation of reconstructed knowledge: What is the validity of the reconstructed knowledge? And whether or not the reconstructed knowledge can be used to solve the problem met? And whether or not the reconstructed knowledge can be added into the repository? All of these problems need suitable evaluation methods that can be automatically used in

evaluation by the system. However, at present, people can only depend on some experts to artificially make a judgment. 3) The process of external knowledge: The product design of manufacturing enterprises more and more depend on cooperation with outside cooperative partners such as customers, suppliers, etc. So, new domains and new subjects will often appear. How to effectively use the new knowledge is a challenging task for knowledge reconstruction system. 4) Utilization of the tacit knowledge: At present, the knowledge reconstruction system mainly uses the explicit knowledge. Effective methods and means of using tacit knowledge in reconstruction process are only few.

VI. CONCLUSION

Knowledge innovation is the essential in organizational innovation management. Knowledge innovation is to create new knowledge by utilizing organizational memory knowledge in order to solve the problems that organization never met. This paper proposed the idea of subject-oriented knowledge reconstruction, and discussed the model and realization method based on analyzing the knowledge flowing model. By a case study of the subject-oriented knowledge reconstruction systems for the product innovation of a Chinese manufacturing company, the advantage and disadvantage for application were discussed.

Subject-oriented knowledge reconstruction is a new research field. So, only preliminary study results are given here. Further study will be focused on subject-oriented knowledge representation methods (XML, Semantic Web, etc.), algorithms of subject-oriented knowledge classification and clustering, evaluation of reconstructed knowledge, etc. for improving the practicability of knowledge reconstruction and the application ability of knowledge assets.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors acknowledge the contribution of Professor F. Q.

Shao and D. Li. The authors would also like to thank the team who are pioneering knowledge management at Northeastern University of China for their contributions to this effort. Financial support from Liming Aero-Engine Group Corporation is gratefully acknowledged.

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Design of production

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Fig. 4. The hierarchy knowledge model

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