A structured approach to improving organisational knowledge, business processes and management systems

In a commercial environment that is ever changing, organisations have to constantly adapt to remain competitive. To ensure the benefits of change are achieved a coherent and structured approach to implementing change is essential, as disconnected initiatives often fail. This thesis presents a series of eight continuous improvement projects undertaken by a leading engineering design consultancy. The projects use a range of process management and knowledge management techniques to improve specific aspects of the sponsor’s business, in particular how it manages its organisational knowledge, business processes and management systems. To better understand the strengths and weakness of process and knowledge management techniques, in order to see how they can be combined, the techniques are first applied separately on six projects. Based on the lessons learnt from these projects, key aspects of the process and knowledge management techniques used are then combined to create two robust business solutions that have the potential to significantly benefit the sponsor’s business. In developing and implementing the solutions, to the eight specific business issues covered in this thesis, a number of key issues relating to the architecture of successful systems and the organisational change management process involved with implementing these systems are captured. These key points are summarised into recommendations focused at both academic and commercial organisations.