ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the importance of knowledge management and outsourcing as tools for harnessing the creativity of others and for organizational growth. Knowledge management is the collection of processes that govern the creation, dissemination, and utilization of knowledge in order to achieve business performance improvement and, in one form or another, it has been around for a long time. Company executives may be wondering just how the effective management and use of knowledge will create additional profit. Knowledge is stored in the individual brains of staff members and is encoded in organizational processes, documents, products, services, facilities and systems. A computer systems manufacturer with remote plants, launched a company-wide best practices and knowledge sharing initiative to analyse project costs, cycle times and flows in its operations, and other knowledge-intensive elements in its value chain. Techniques such as work study, concurrent engineering and investment appraisal assisted the achievement of the objectives.
