A MINOR PROJECT REPORT ON KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AT TATA STEEI COMPANY SUBMITTED IN THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE AWARD

OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF: Ms. Amandeep Kaur Assistant Professor, RDIAS SUBMITTED BY: Name of the Student: Niraj Sharma Enrollment No. 03580301711 BBA, Semester 3RD Batch 2011 - 2014

RUKMINI DEVI INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES NAAC Accredited, A Grade Category A+ Institute High Grading 81.7% by Joint Assessment An ISO 9001:2008 Certified Institute Approved by AICTE, HRD Ministry, Govt. of India Affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi 2A & 2B, Madhuban Chowk, Outer Ring Road, Phase-1, Delhi-110085

Table of Contents Student declaration Certificate of the guide Acknowledgment Executive summary List of table of content i ii iii iv v Page no. Chapter I Plan of the Study 1.1 1.2 1.3 Introduction to topic Objective of the study Literature review And/or Theoretical Background

Chapter II Company Profile Chapter III Research Methodology 3.1 Purpose of the study 3.2 Method of data collection 3.3 Limitations Chapter IV Data Analysis and Interpretation Chapter V Findings & Conclusions Chapter VI Suggestion/ Recommendation BIBLIOGRAPHY

STUDENT s DECLARATION
This is to certify that I have completed the Project titled KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AT TATA STEEL

COMPANY---------- under the guidance of Ms. Amandeep Kaur in the partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the degree of Bachelor in Business Administration from Rukmini Devi Institute of Advanced Studies, New Delhi.

This is an original work and I have not submitted it earlier elsewhere.

Name of the Student: Niraj Sharma Enrollment No.: 03580301711 Class & Section: BBA-3RD

CERTIFICATE OF GUIDE

This is to certify that the project titled KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AT TATA STEEL COMPANY--------------- is an academic award of work the done by AMANDEEP of Bachelors KAUR------------- in Business submitted in the partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Administration from Rukmini Devi Institute of Advanced Studies, New Delhi. under my guidance and direction. To the best of my knowledge and belief the data and information presented by him / her in the project has not been submitted earlier elsewhere.

Name of the Faculty: Ms. Amandeep Kaur Designation of the Faculty RDIAS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I offer my sincere thanks and humble regards to Rukmini Devi Institute Of Advanced Studies, GGSIP University, New Delhi for imparting us very valuable professional training in MBA. I pay my gratitude and sincere regards to Ms. Amandeep Kaur, my project Guide for giving me the cream of his knowledge. I am thankful to her as he has been a constant source of advice, motivation and inspiration. I am also thankful to her for giving suggestions and encouragement throughout the project work. I take the opportunity to express my gratitude and thanks to our computer Lab staff and library staff for providing me opportunity to utilize their resources for the completion of the project. I am also thankful to my family and friends for constantly motivating me to complete the project and providing me an environment which enhanced my knowledge.

Name of the Student: Niraj Sharma Enrollment No.: 03580301711 Class & Section: BBA 2nd Shift

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The organization being chosen to carry out such knowledge management process analysis is the steel industry and the organisation company in focus is amicably regarding steel manufacture. Thus, management processes in business organizations involves the reality behind every process and is considered as a daily cycle in dealing to various issues and concerns of the organisation as it depends on the managements actions and its respected change of nature in dealing with effective knowledge management as directed at overcoming anger and resentment evolving into a program that supports acceptance and internalization. As a consultant commenting on the organizational management process choosing TATA STEEL organisation as the focal point for discussion and analysis for this project, my role to the organisation is to have a clear emphasis dealing to the external and internal changes drivers and other essential points needed for the realization of purpose for this project for the senior management of the TATA providing factual information that will be able to give a better substantive management models as well as concepts. Tata Steels knowledge management initiative is driven by its corporate KM group which attempts to cover all possible opportunities of knowledge generation in and outside the steel works. Tata Steel defines its value chain as a connected series of internal and external organizations, resources, and knowledge streams involved in creation and delivery of value to end customers. It includes the organizations suppliers and customers. In fact, one of the organizations strategic goals is to develop value-creating partnerships with customers and suppliers.

CHAPTER-1 PLAN OF THE STUDY

Introduction to Knowledge Management

Knowledge management is the explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge and its associated process of creating, gathering, organizing, diffusion, use and explanation. It requires turning personal knowledge into corporate knowledge than can be widely shared throughout an organization and appropriately applied. In other words we can say that knowledge management is the process to make the best use of the knowledge that is available to an organization creating new knowledge, increasing awareness and understanding in the process. Knowledge management can also be defined as capturing, organizing and storing knowledge and experience of individual worker and groups with in an organization. Knowledge management basically be done by two ways like: 1. Sharing existing knowledge better:- Making implicit knowledge more explicit and putting in place mechanism to move it more rapidly to where it is needed. 2. Innovation:- Making the transition from ideas to commercialization more effective. Enterprise knowledge management Enterprise knowledge management is concerned with strategy, process and technologies to acquire store, share and secure organizational understanding insight and core distinction. Knowledge management at this level is closely tied to competitive advantage, innovation.

Knowledge Management Roles and Organizational Structure

Knowledge management activities may be centralized in a Knowledge Management Office, or responsibility for knowledge management may be located in existing departmental functions, such as the Human Resource (to manage intellectual capital) or IT departments (for content management, social computing etc.). Different departments and functions may have a

knowledge management function and those functions may not be connected other than informally. Knowledge ManagementEmerging Perspectives Yes, knowledge management is the hottest subject of the day. The question is: what is this activity called knowledge management, and why is it so important to each and every one of us? The following writings, articles, and links offer some emerging perspectives in response to these questions. As you read on, you can determine whether it all makes any sense or not.

What is "knowledge"?
Arent we managing knowledge already? Well, no. In fact, most of the time were making a really ugly mess of managing information. In practice, the terms information and knowledge are often used interchangeably by business writers. Lets choose a simple working definition and get on with it: Knowledge has two basic definitions of interest. The first pertains to a defined body of information. Depending on the definition, the body of information might consist of facts, opinions, ideas, theories, principles, and models (or other frameworks). Clearly, other categories are possible, too. Subject matter (e.g., chemistry, mathematics, etc.) is just one possibility. Knowledge also refers to a persons state of being with respect to some body of information. These states include ignorance, awareness, familiarity, understanding, facility, and so on. There are many thoughtful and thought-provoking definitions of "knowledge" including the important distinctions Gene Bellinger et al. make in "Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom". Nevertheless, Nickols provides a good, sensible, functional definition, and it is sufficient for our purposes. Nickols two kinds of knowledge parallel Michael Polanyis often-quoted distinction between explicit knowledge (sometimes referred to as formal knowledge), which can be articulated in language and transmitted among individuals, and tacit knowledge (also, informal

knowledge), personal knowledge rooted in individual experience and involving personal belief, perspective, and values. (Polanyi, Michael. The Tacit Dimension. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. See also Karl E. Sveibys online description, "Tacit Knowledge." In traditional perceptions of the role of knowledge in business organizations, tacit knowledge is often viewed as the real key to getting things done and creating new value. Not explicit knowledge. Thus we often encounter an emphasis on the "learning organization" and other approaches that stress internalization of information (through experience and action) and generation of new knowledge through managed interaction. In the opinion of the editors of Knowledge Praxis, quibbles about fine distinctions in the meaning of knowledge are just not very important. (See Rant #1: Thinking objectively about subjective knowing) It doesnt matter whether a written procedure or a subject matter expert provides a solution to a particular problem, as long as a positive result is achieved. However, observing how knowledge is acquired and how we can apply knowledge whether tacit or explicit in order to achieve a positive result that meets business requirements thats a different and very important issue.

Need of Knowledge Management

Why do we need to manage knowledge? Ann Macintosh of the Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute (University of Edinburgh) has written a "Position Paper on Knowledge Asset Management" that identifies some of the specific business factors, including:
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Marketplaces are increasingly competitive and the rate of innovation is rising. Reductions in staffing create a need to replace informal knowledge with formal methods. Competitive pressures reduce the size of the work force that holds valuable business knowledge. The amount of time available to experience and acquire knowledge has diminished. Early retirements and increasing mobility of the work force lead to loss of knowledge.

There is a need to manage increasing complexity as small operating companies are trans-national sourcing operations. Changes in strategic direction may result in the loss of knowledge in a specific area.

Its not just a Fortune 500 business problem. Small companies need formal approaches to knowledge management even more, because they dont have the market leverage, inertia, and resources that big companies do. They have to be much more flexible, more responsive, and more "right" (make better decisions) because even small mistakes can be fatal to them.

Roadblocks to adoption of knowledge management solutions

There have been many roadblocks to adoption of formal knowledge management activities. In general, managing knowledge has been perceived as an unmanageable kind of problem an implicitly human, individual activity that was intractable with traditional management methods and technology. We tend to treat the activities of knowledge work as necessary, but ill-defined, costs of human resources, and we treat the explicit manifestations of knowledge work as forms of publishing as byproducts of "real" work. You cant solve the problems of Information Age business or gain a competitive advantage simply by throwing more information and people at the problems. And you cant solve knowledge-based problems with approaches borrowed from the product-oriented, print-based economy. Those solutions are reactive and inappropriate. Applying technology blindly to knowledge-related business problems is a mistake, too, but the computerized business environment provides opportunities and new methods for representing "knowledge" and leveraging its value. Its not an issue of finding the right computer interface although that would help, too. We simply have not defined in a rigorous, clear, widely accepted way the fundamental characteristics of "knowledge" in the computing environment.

Semantic networks. Semantic networks are formed from ideas and typed relationships

among them sort of "hypertext without the content," but with far more systematic structure according to meaning. Often applied in such arcane tasks as textual analysis, semantic nets are now in use in mainstream professional applications, including medicine, to represent domain knowledge in an explicit way that can be shared.
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Relational and object databases. Although relational databases are currently used

primarily as tools for managing "structured" data and object-oriented databases are considered more appropriate for "unstructured" content we have only begun to apply the models on which they are founded to representing and managing knowledge resources.
o

Simulation. Knowledge Management expert Karl-Erik Sveiby suggests "simulation" as

a component technology of knowledge management, referring to "computer simulations, manual simulations as well as role plays and micro arenas for testing out skills." (Source: Email from Karl-Erik Sveiby, July 29, 1996 )
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Organizational science. The science of managing organizations increasingly deals with

the need to manage knowledge often explicitly. Its not a surprise that the American Management Associations APQC has sponsored major knowledge management events. Thats only a partial list. Other technologies include: object-oriented information modeling; electronic publishing technology, hypertext, and the World Wide Web; help-desk technology; full-text search and retrieval; and performance support systems.

Categorization of knowledge management approach

The term "knowledge management" is now in widespread use, having appeared in the titles of many new books about knowledge management as a business strategy, as well as in articles in many business publications, including The Wall Street Journal. There are, of course, many ways to slice up the multi-faceted world of knowledge management. However, its often useful to categorize them. In a posting to the Knowledge Management Forum, Karl-Erik Sveiby identified two "tracks" of knowledge management:

Management of Information.

To researchers in this track, according to Sveiby, " knowledge = Objects that can be identified and handled in information systems."
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Management of People.

For researchers and practitioners in this field, knowledge consists of " processes, a complex set of dynamic skills, know-how, etc., that is constantly changing." Sveibys characterization is on target, but it may not capture the full flavor of the important distinctions in approaches to organizational knowledge management. At Knowledge Praxis, we have adopted a three-part categorization: (1) mechanistic approaches, (2) cultural/behavioristic approaches, and (3) systematic approaches to knowledge management.

Mechanistic approach to knowledge management

Mechanistic approaches to knowledge management are characterized by the application of technology and resources to do more of the same better. The main assumptions of the mechanistic approach include: Better accessibility to information is a key, including enhanced methods of access and reuse of documents (hypertext linking, databases, full-text search, etc.) Networking technology in general (especially intranets), and groupware in particular, will be key solutions. In general, technology and sheer volume of information will make it work.

Assessment: Such approaches are relatively easy to implement for corporate "political" reasons, because the technologies and techniques although sometimes advanced in particular areas are familiar and easily understood. There is a modicum of good sense here, because enhanced access to corporate intellectual assets is vital. But its simply not clear whether access itself will have a substantial impact on business performance, especially as mountains of new information are placed on line. Unless the knowledge management approach incorporates methods of leveraging cumulative experience, the net result may not

be positive, and the impact of implementation may be no more measurable than in traditional paper models.

Cultural approaches to knowledge management

Cultural/behavioristic approaches, with substantial roots in process re-engineering and change management, tend to view the "knowledge problem" as a management issue. Technology though ultimately essential for managing explicit knowledge resources is not the solution. These approaches tend to focus more on innovation and creativity (the "learning organization") than on leveraging existing explicit resources or making working knowledge explicit. Assumptions of cultural/behavioristic approaches often include:
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Organizational behaviors and culture need to be changed dramatically. In our information-intensive environments, organizations become dysfunctional relative to business objectives. Organizational behaviors and culture can be changed, but traditional technology and methods of attempting to solve the "knowledge problem" have reached their limits of effectiveness. A "holistic" view is required. Theories of behavior of large-scale systems are often invoked. Its the processes that matter, not the technology. Nothing happens or changes unless a manager makes it happen.

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Assessment: The cultural factors affecting organizational change have almost certainly been undervalued, and cultural/behavioristic implementations have shown some benefits. But the cause-effect relationship between cultural strategy and business benefits is not clear, because the "Hawthorne Effect" may come into play, and because we still cant make dependable predictions about systems as complex as knowledge-based business organizations. Positive results achieved by cultural/behavioristic strategies may not be sustainable, measurable,

cumulative, or replicable and employees thoroughly "Dilbertized" by yet another management strategy may roll their eyes. Time will tell.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

Objective of this Study is: To understand properly the concept of knowledge management. How this knowledge management is helpful in the organization for the development of the employees. To find out how much the concept of knowledge management is successful in different organization. This paper acts as a foundation upon which people can provide the know how when performing business activities or develop new business outcomes.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
The value of today's enterprise is increasingly measured by the way it creates, uses and reuses knowledge to add value to products and processes, and to improve relationships with customers. While technology alone will not deliver knowledge management for your organisation, many of our customers use an Objective solution to form the foundation of their knowledge management strategy.

Some customers use it to improve the quality of customer service delivery - by giving service delivery staff secure access to the corporate knowledge base and extending that access to customers themselves.

Through the finding and suggestions organizations can take advantage of this study to enhance the knowledge management. Not only in organization but also in Schools and Colleges this knowledge management can be applied. Others use Objective knowledge management in the research and development of new products - to reduce duplication of effort and speed time to market. And some organisations use knowledge management to provide accountability of information and decision making processes together with compliance with industry or legislated regulations.

There is a broad range of thought on Knowledge Management with no unanimous definition current or likely. The approaches vary by author and school. For example, Knowledge Management may be viewed from each of the following perspectives:

Techno-centric: Focus on technologies, ideally those that enhance knowledge sharing/growth.

Organisational: How does the organisation need to be designed to facilitate knowledge processes? Which organizations work best with what processes?

Ecological: Seeing the interaction of people, identity, knowledge and environmental factors as a complex adaptive system.

In addition, as the discipline is maturing, we see an increasing presence of academic debates within epistemology emerging in both the theory and practice of knowledge management. UK and Australian Standards Bodies both have produced documents that attempt to bound and scope the field, but these have received limited acceptance or awareness. Schools Of Thought In Knowledge Management There are a variety of different schools of thought in Knowledge Management. For example the Intellectual Capital movement with Professor Nick Bontis, Professor Leif Edvinsson and Tom Stewart (formerly of Fortune Magazine, currently of Harvard Business Review), a body of work derivative of information theory associated with Prusak and Davenport. Complexity approaches associated with Snowden (see Cynefin). Narrative with Denning, Snowden, Boje and others. One school takes forward the ideas of Popper (McElroy & Firestone). They are many and various and it would be invidious for an encyclopedia to list one without covering the others. Readers are commended to the reading list. Key concepts in Knowledge management Tacit versus explicit knowledge A key distinction made by the majority of knowledge management practitioners is Nonaka's reformulation of Polanyi's distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge. The former is often subconscious, internalized, and the individual may or may not be aware of what he or she knows and how he or she accomplishes particular results. At the opposite end of the spectrum is conscious or explicit knowledge - knowledge that the individual holds explicitly and consciously in mental focus, and may communicate to others. In the popular form of the distinction tacit knowledge is what is in our heads, and explicit knowledge is what we have codified. Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) argued that a successful KM program needs to, on the one hand, convert internalized tacit knowledge into explicit codified knowledge in order to share

it, but also on the other hand for individuals and groups to internalize and make personally meaningful codified knowledge once it is retrieved from the KM system. The focus upon codification and management of explicit knowledge has allowed knowledge management practitioners to appropriate prior work in information management, leading to the frequent accusation that knowledge management is simply a repackaged form of information management. Critics have however argued that Nonaka and Takeuchi's distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge is oversimplified, and even that the notion of explicit knowledge is selfcontradictory. Other commonly used types of knowledge include embedded knowledge (knowledge which has been incorporated into an artifact of some type, for example a tool has knowledge embedded into its design) and embodied knowledge (knowledge as learned capability of the bodys nervous, chemical & sensory systems). These two types, while frequently used, are not universally accepted, any more than is the distinction between tacit and explicit. The latest wave of Enterprise 2.0 social computing tools provide a more unstructured approach information exchange and the development of new forms of community within and without the organisation. However such tools are still based on text and are thus explicit in nature. Knowledge capture stages Knowledge may be accessed, or captured, at three stages: before, during, or after knowledgerelated activities. For example, individuals undertaking a new project for an organization might access information resources to learn best practices and lessons learned for similar projects undertaken previously, access relevant information again during the project implementation to seek advice on issues encountered, and access relevant information afterwards for advice on after-project actions and review activities. Knowledge management practitioners offer systems, repositories, and corporate processes to encourage and formalize these activities.

Similarly, knowledge may be captured and recorded before the project implementation, for example as the project team learns lessons during the initial project analysis. Similarly, lessons learned during the project operation may be recorded, and after-action reviews may lead to further insights and lessons being recorded for future access. Different organizations have tried various knowledge capture incentives, including making content submission mandatory and incorporating rewards into performance measurement plans. There is controversy over the whether incentives work or not in this field and no firm consensus has emerged. Ad hoc knowledge access One alternative strategy to encoding knowledge into and retrieving knowledge from a knowledge repository such as a database, is for individuals to access experts on an ad hoc basis, as needed, with their knowledge requests. A key benefit of this strategy is that the response from the expert individual is rich in content and contextualised to the particular problem being addressed and personalized to the particular person or people addressing it. The downside is, of course, that it is tied to the availability and memories of specific individuals in the organisation. It does not capture their insights and experience for future use should they leave or become unavailable, and also does not help in the case when the experts' memories of particular technical issues or problems previously faced change with time. The emergence of narrative approaches to knowledge management attempts to provide a bridge between the formal and the ad hoc, by allowing knowledge to be held in the form of stories.

CHAPTER- 2 COMPANY PROFILE

Industry Profile
India's rapid economic growth is being built on a frame of steel. Soaring demand by sectors like infrastructure, real estate and automobiles, at home and abroad, has put India's steel industry on the world map. Dominating the Indian horizon is steel giant Tata Steel, whose takeover of the UK-Dutch steel company Corus is the country's biggest buyout. Meanwhile, the LN Mittal-owned Mittal Steel acquired French steel company Arcelor to create the world's number one steel company, Arcelor Mittal; and Korean steel giant POSCO is pumping money into mines and steel plants in Orissa to emerge as one of the biggest steel plants in the state.

Steel Production
The International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) ranked India as the seventh largest steel producer in the world with an overall production of about 40 million tonne (MT) in 2006. Apparent worldwide steel demand is forecast to grow to between 1,040 and 1,053 MT in 2006 from a total of 972 MT in 2004. This is a growth of 4-5 per cent over the two-year period. However, according to IISI, the cost of raw materials and energy was to continue to represent a major challenge for the world's steel industry. Production of finished carbon steel has registered an increase of 10.1 per cent -- from 40.237 MT to 44.300 MT -- during April-February 2007 as compared to the corresponding period last year. Export of finished carbon steel also increased 9.3 per cent during this period -rising from 3.934 MT to 4.300 MT. India's steel production during April 2006-February 2007 grew 10.1 per cent at 44.3 MT as against 40.237 MT in the corresponding period of previous fiscal. For April 2006-February 2007:

Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) produced 11.402 MT of saleable steel, up 5 per cent over the same period of the previous fiscal. For the month of February 2007, SAIL produced 0.993 MT of saleable steel and operated at 104 per cent capacity utilisation.

National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) produced 23.79 MT of iron ore, up 16.6 per cent year on year. During February 2007, NMDC mined 2.94 MT ore and operated at 144 per cent capacity utilisation.

Crude steel production of Tata Steel Ltd for 2006-07 crossed five MT; production of hot metal touched 5.55 MT, crude steel 5.05 MT and saleable steel 4.93 MT. Production of pig iron and finished (carbon) steel (in million tonnes) Category Pig Iron Finished Carbon Steel 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 5.285 33.671 3.764 36.957 3.228 40.055 2005-06 2006-07 (April-Aug 06) (Prov.) 3.856 42.636 (Prov. estimated) 1.690 18.000

STEEL TUBES INDUSTRY

The US$ 47.7 million steel tubes industry is poised for a 30 per cent growth in the wake of a growing demand in the infrastructure and construction sector, mainly in scaffolding in buildings. The sector has grown dramatically in the recent past at a record 20 per cent, owing to several infrastructure projects lined up by the government and the private sector. The use of steel rods and bars in stadia, railway stations, multiplexes and gas pipelines has been replaced with steel tubes, fuelling further growth potential for the tube industry. The infrastructure development ahead of the Asian Games scheduled in 2010 will drive the demand for steel tubes immensely.

CONSUMPTION
Already, India's consumption of stainless steel is much higher at 14 per cent, compared to the global consumption of six per cent in the last 15 years. Domestic consumption of finished (carbon) steel is on the rise, driven by a boom in the automobile sector and a nation-wide

thrust on infrastructure and real estate. During April and October 2005-06, domestic consumption of steel stood at 21.25 MT as compared to 19.53 MT in the corresponding period of the previous year.

A shower of steel plants

From the biggest players like SAIL and Tata Steel, to mid-level players like Bhushan Steel and Welspun, the next four years are a time to ramp up. SAIL, a state-owned public sector undertaking and India's largest steel manufacturer, is planning to increase its annual production of 12 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 22.5 mtpa by 2011-12. Tata Steel proposes to increase its steel making capacity to 33-34 mtpa by 2015, besides increasing the capacity of its Jamshedpur plant from 5 mtpa to 10 mtpa. In addition, the Tatas are planning to set up a 12-mtpa greenfield project in Jharkhand, a 6-mtpa plant in Orissa and another 5 mtpa capacity unit in Chhattisgarh. Mittal Steel has announced a 12-mtpa greenfield steel project in Jharkhand and a 12-mtpa greenfield steel plant in Orissa.

Orissa ahead
Dominating investments in steel and iron-ore mining is the state of Orissa. The state is endowed with large reserves of iron ore and convenient access to the sea through the port of Paradeep. Orissa has signed around 45 memoranda of understanding (MoU) for setting up steel capacities aggregating 60 million tonnes within the next few years. Leading the pack is Korean steel giant POSCO which is setting up a 12-mtpa steel plant near Paradeep in Jagatsinghpur. The project will have an integrated steel plant and will also develop infrastructure and iron ore mines. POSCO is also investing in a dedicated railway line from the steel plant to Paradeep port, an ideal point to ship out processed (carbon) steel to its main market, China. Other players who are setting up steel capacities in Orissa include Tata Steel, Jindal Stainless, Jindal Steel & Power, Bhushan Steel, Uttam Galva, Visa Steel and Welspun, among others.

According to the Ministry of Steel, the Government of India's target for the steel industry stands at 110 million metric tones by 2019-20, an achievable number if all the MoUs come through. Over 102 MoUs have been signed by different state governments, adding up to 103 million tonnes (MT) in steel capacity and investments of over US$ 5,994 million. Out of the total investment commitment, about US$ 17.9 billion forms the foreign direct investment component coming from two large steel projects: POSCO in Orissa and Mittal Steel in Jharkhand.

An Iron-Clad steel policy

The Government has approved the National Steel Policy (NSP) 2005 whose long-term goal is to ensure that India has a modern and efficient steel industry, capable of standing up to international competition and catering to the growing domestic demand for steel. This in turn has led to sustained growth in the steel sector.

Global forlays
Indian steel producers are eyeing and buying when it comes to the international markets. The regulatory environment, too, has changed for the better. Not only is it enabling the industry to stretch out to foreign shores, the country's steel industry is getting renewed global attention.

Tata Steel has been given the green signal by the South African government to start construction on its US$ 103 million ferrochrome steel plant at Richards Bay in the country's KwaZulu-Natal region.

After acquiring Singapore's NatSteel last year, Tata Steel now plans to buy Thailand's Millennium Steel PCL for US$ 400 million as part of its US$ 23 billion expansion programme over the next 12 to 15 years.

The acquisition of the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus makes Tata Steel the world's fifth largest steelmaker, adding 19 MT of steel-making capacity.

Jindal Steel is close to picking up a stake in Thailand's largest stainless steel producer.

The country's fourth-largest steelmaker, Essar Steel, will partner two state-run Vietnamese companies to build a us$ 527 million plant in that country. The company has a 0.4 MT production facility in Indonesia, apart from the 4.6 MT plant in India.

The UK-based speciality steel and engineering group, Caparo's new facilities are coming up in Chennai, Pitampur, Bawal, Noida and Gurgaon.

Mumbai-based Essar Global has agreed to buy Canada's Algoma Steel for US$ 1.63 billion in the second largest Indian acquisition ever of a North American company. The deal will give Essar, India's fourth largest producer of the metal, a foothold in a lucrative developed market.

Steel going strong

According to London-based Iron and Steel Statistics Bureau (ISSB), India's Tata Steel, which recently acquired Anglo-Dutch firm Corus Group, has been ranked the world's sixth largest producer of the alloy with an output of 24 million MT. India-born business tycoon Lakshmi Mittal-controlled Arcelor Mittal has emerged as the largest producer with total production of 118 million metric tonnes in 2006, after Mittal Steel acquired European giant Arcelor SA for US$ 38.3 billion in the industry's biggest ever transaction. Significantly, in the country ranking, India is ranked at the seventh position, with a total output of 44 million MT (up eight percent from previous year). As India surges ahead in building infrastructure and catapulting its industry to new economic highs, investments in steel will pave the way ahead.

INDIAN STEEL INDUSTRY a story of continuing progress

Role In the changed policy environment based on the tenets of economic liberalization and global integration, the role of the Ministry of Steel has also changed significantly. In the postderegulation years, the Ministry has seen a significant expansion in its role as a nodal agency for facilitating the process of transformation of this pioneering Indian industry with a history dating back to the beginning of the last century. The economic reforms have brought with it immense opportunities for market-led growth of this industry once a bastion of state control. On the supply side, deregulation meant access to domestic private capital and low cost overseas funds, advanced technology and cheap inputs. On the demand side, the new policy regime meant opportunities to sell steel in an expanding domestic market and, most importantly, to the large global market. The Ministry of Steel has directed its efforts towards fostering the growth of this industry based on the principles of competitiveness and economic efficiency. At the same time, much of its efforts have also been directed at curbing unfair competition from domestic and overseas sources. Similarly, it has also made efforts to help the industry in overcoming the structural rigidities, the scarcities of essential inputs, infrastructure-related constraints and other market-distorting forces commonly experienced by the developing countries in the course of industrialization.

Performance
The Ministry of Steel, in its present incarnation, has striven to provide an effective interface between the industry and the various economic agencies government departments, financial institutions, providers of input materials and essential services, multilateral agencies and others. In its capacity of the administrative ministry for steel and other allied industries, it has sought to bring about a fair deal as far as railway transportation and power supplies to the constituent producers are concerned. With the passage of the Asset Securitization Bill, the Ministry is also ready to assist the ailing members of the industry in their financial restructuring by facilitating meaningful interaction with the financial institutions (FIs). The public sector steel giant, SAIL, has already put into operation an ambitious programme of

modernization, financial restructuring and manpower rationalization in active collaboration with the government. Such rationalization exercises along with other measures of productivity improvement and cost economy has brought about a huge improvement in the profitability of SAIL, which recorded the highest ever profit of Rs 255 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal. Similarly, the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) has posted the best ever cash profit of Rs. 272.46 crore and a net profit of Rs. 160.12 crore during the first quarter of this fiscal. This is highly commendable considering its substantial loss of the past year.

Constraints
In the post-WTO scenario issues related to trade actions and non-tariff barriers have assumed immense importance. The steel industry worldwide has been subjected to wide-ranging nontariff barriers both fair and unfair. As a matter of fact, steel as an internationally traded commodity has attracted the second highest number of such punitive measures next only to chemicals. The manifold benefits of an open, democratic and rule-based multilateral trading arrangement such as the WTO cannot be underrated by any means. But such advantages apart, the Indian steel industry has suffered on two counts.

Company Profile: Tata Steel

Established in 1907, Tata Steel is Asia's first and India's largest private sector steel company. Tata Steel is among the lowest cost producers of steel in the world and one of the few select steel companies in the world that is EVA+. Tata Steel, formerly known as TISCO (Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited), is a steel company based in Jamshedpur, India. Its main plant is located in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, though with its recent acquisitions, the company has become a multinational with operations in various countries. The registered office of Tata Steel is in Mumbai. In the year 2000, the company was recognised as the world's lowest-cost producer of steel. The company was also recognised as the world's best steel producer by World Steel Dynamics in 2005. The company is listed on BSE and NSE Its captive raw material resources and the state-of-the-art 5 MTPA (million tonne per annum) plant at Jamshedpur, in Jharkhand State, India give it a competitive edge. Determined to be a major global steel player, Tata Steel has recently included in its fold NatSteel, Asia (2 MTPA) and Millennium Steel (now Tata Steel Thailand) (1.7 MTPA) creating a manufacturing network in eight markets in South East Asia and Pacific rim countries. Soon the Jamshedpur plant will expand its capacity from 5 MTPA to 7 MTPA by 2008. The Company plans to enhance its capacity, manifold through organic growth and investments. The Company's wire manufacturing unit in Sri Lanka is known as Lanka Special Steel, while the joint venture in Thailand for limestone mining is known as Sila Eastern.

Tata Steel's products are targeted at the quality conscious auto sector and the burgeoning construction industry. With wire manufacturing facilities in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand, the Company plans to emerge as a major global player in the wire business.

History
Tata Steel was established by Indian Parsi businessman Jamsetji Tata in 1907 (he died in 1904, before the project was completed). Tata Steel introduced an 8-hour work day as early as in 1912 when only a 12-hour work day was the legal requirement in Britain. It introduced leave-with-pay in 1920, a practice that became legally binding upon employers in India only in 1945. Similarly, Tata Steel started a Provident Fund for its employees as early as in 1920, which became a law for all employers under the Provident Fund Act only in 1952. Tata Steel's furnaces have never been disrupted on account of labour strife and this is an enviable record of sorts. In an industry infamous for its cyclic nature and a history of rise and fall of economies pivoted on steel, Tata Steel has managed to adapt itself to every circumstance, including challenges of rapid technological change, to retain its strategic dominance in the Indian market and to finally evolve into an multinational with aspirations for a global positioning. Tata Steel's antiquity dates to the time when it used to supply special steels to the Allied Forces for manufacturing rails, combat helmets and jerry cans.

Management
Ratan Tata is the Chairman and B Muthuraman is the Managing Director of the company. Dr. Tridibesh Mukherjee and Mr. Arun Narayan Singh are Deputy Managing Directors of the company. Tata Steel is a limited company registered in India under the Companies Act, 1956. Recruitment of officers to Tata Steel was traditionally done mainly through the TAS test. The company has an internal rating system to distinguish five levels of management from IL1 (top management) to IL5 (managerial). Management consultancy provided by firms like Arthur D. Little and Booz Allen Hamilton in the late nineties led the company to adopting a more "flat"

hierarchical structure and completely revamping of its supply chain, process and vendor management systems. However, the company continues to cherish loyalty to the Tata Group and most officers in the senior-most management positions are those who have spent most, if not all, of their careers with either Tata Steel or the Tata Group. The Tata Group distinguishes itself from other business houses by laying strong emphasis on employee welfare and social upliftment in each of their enterprises and all companies in the Tata fold pledge to these principles and pay royalty to Tata Sons for using the "Tata" logo.

Production

Tata Steel annually produces 9 million tonnes of steel. It's turnover in fiscal year 2005-06 was Rs 17,144 crores (consolidated turnover was 22,518 crores). The company's operating profit (PBT) in the same year was Rs 5,932 crores while its PAT was Rs. 3734.62 crores; it produced a record-breaking 5.0 million tonnes of salable steel in its Jamshedpur works that year. Tata Steel's products include hot and cold rolled coils and sheets, galvanised sheets, tubes, wire rods, construction rebars, rings and bearings. In an attempt to 'decommoditise' steel, the company has introduced brands like Tata Steelium (the world's first branded Cold Rolled Steel), Tata Shaktee (Galvanised Corrugated Sheets), Tata Tiscon (re-bars), Tata Bearings, Tata Agrico (hand tools and implements), Tata Wiron (galvanised wire products), Tata Pipes (pipes for construction) and Tata Structura (contemporary construction material). The company has launched the Customer Value Management initiative with the objective of creating complete understanding of customer problems and finding solutions jointly. The company's Retail Value Management addresses the needs of distributors, retailers and end

consumers. The company has also launched India's first steel retail store - steeljunction - for making steel shopping a happy and memorable experience.

CURRENT & FUTURE PLANS: INDIA

The Company has embarked upon setting up three green field steel plants in eastern India:

12 MTPA* plant in Jharkhand 6 MTPA plant in Orissa 5 MTPA plant in Chhattisgarh Jamshedpur Steel Works will become a 7 MTPA unit by 2008. *MTPA = million tonnes per annum

Overseas:

Iran Bangladesh

Tata Steel is rapidly expanding its production capacity and plans to produce 100 MTPA (million tonnes of steel per annum) by 2015. It acquired Singapore's NatSteel in August 2004, which added 2 million tonnes to its installed annual capacity. Tata augmented its steel making capacity in Jamshedpur by 1 MTPA in September 2005. In February 2005, Tata Steel acquired the steel-making operations of Singapores NatSteel Ltd., winning access to its operations in seven countries, including two steel processing plants in China and a capacity addition of 2.0 MTPA. In the same year it acquired Thailands Millennium Steel PCL that also had a capacity of 1.7 million tonnes p.a.In March 2007, it acquired two steel making units in Vietnam through its subsidiary NatSteel Asia, thereby inching forward to take 4th spot in world steel companies ranking. Tata Steel's greenfield projects included proposals to setup a 6 MTPA plant in Kalinganagar, Orissa, a 12 MTPA plant in Tontopossi, Jharkhand, a 5 MTPA plant in Chattisgarh in addition to plants in Bangladesh and Iran. Of all these projects, only work at Kalingangar is presently underway despite some controversy relating to agitation by tribals in the area. On 2 January 2006, 13 tribal protestors were killed. Initially the company made no comment on this incident and it was only after a public outcry that a spokesman came forward to deny any

responsibility in the matter. The tense situation in Singur took a rather ugly turn when in December 2006 the charred body of an 18-year-old woman, Tapasi Mallick , allegedly raped and then murdered, was recovered from the field of a fenced-off site owned by the Tata plant. This sparked further tensions with villagers who alleged that the victim was raped and murdered by men employed by Tata to guard the controversial land. The project in Bangladesh is presently mired in disputes related to the pricing on natural gas. Officially, however, Tata Steel remains committed to all these projects. Another 2.4 MTPA augmentation of capacity has been taken up in the existing Jamshedpur works (to be completed by 2008). Tata Steel is also scouting for coal blocks in Australia,and iron ore mines in South Africa to meet its increasing requirements. It has already acquired coal equity in Australia. Community outreach and environment managment While the Company is focused in the pursuit of its operational goals, it is also committed to being a good corporate citizen. Tata Steel extends support to the economically underprivileged not by charity but by strengthening and empowering them with expertise and knowledge. Its community outreach programmes covers the Tata Steel managed city of Jamshedpur and over 600 villages in and around its manufacturing and raw materials operations. Its steel works, mines and collieries and civic services in Jamshedpur are ISO 14001 certified for Environment Management. The Company's steel works is the first in the world to be conferred the SA 8000 certification for work conditions and improvements in the workplace. It's Ferro Alloys and Minerals Division is also SA 8000 certified. According to the UNEP and Standard & Poor's survey, the Corporate Sustainability Report filed by Tata Steel, according to the Triple Bottom Line Reporting Initiative, is the strongest by any corporate in the emerging economies and the Top Reporter in corporate India.

AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

World Steel Dynamics has ranked Tata Steel as the world's best steel maker (for two consecutive years) in its annual listing in February 2006. Tata Steel has been conferred the Prime Minister of India's Trophy for the Best Integrated Steel Plant five times. It has been awarded Asia's Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise award in 2003 and 2004.

CHAPTER- 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH METHODOLGY
For conducting the present study the following methodology has been used. This is basically done on the bases of secondary data because we dont do any practical activity in this we take the secondary data and analyze it. Secondary data from books, Internet, magazines etc. Secondary Data: - Secondary Data would be taken web sites of Tata Steel and different different web sites of related to Knowledge Management and Tata Steel company and magazines. Purpose of the study: I have taken this project to understand the various ways through which the company able to provide good quality and satisfaction of their consumer & customer. Now a day every marketer assumes that Consumer is king and consumer satisfaction is most important thing for successful business. Because marketing is one which starts with an interpretation of consumers need and desire, both qualitatively, and quantitatively, follows through all the business activities involved in the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers, and ends with the services necessary to aid consumers in getting the expected utility from the product he has purchased. So I have chosen this topic (Knowledge Management in Steel Industry)

Knowledge Management In Tata Steel

Tata Steel decided to embark on formal KM initiative in the year 1999. The beginning was made in July99 to place a Knowledge Management (KM) programme for the company to systematically & formally share and transfer learning concepts, best practices and other implicit knowledge. The emphasis on knowledge management was clearly demonstrated in 1999 while coining the vision statement of the company which read Tata Steel enters the new millennium with the confidence of learning and knowledge based organization.. Then followed the new vision statement, co-created by the employees in 2001 (Fig. 1) which again identified Manage Knowledge as one of the main pillars in strategy to become EVA+ by 2007. This clearly indicated the thrust Senior Management wanted on an initiative like KM. The essence of Knowledge management is to capture the available abundant knowledge assets either in form of tacit (experience, learning from failure, thumb rules, etc.) or explicit (literature, reports, failure analysis etc.), to organize and transform the captured knowledge, and to facilitate its usage at right place and at the right time.

PHASES OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Starting from a small sapling in 1999, the KM system of Tata Steel underwent a lot of improvements, and changes. In the process, it passed through many learning phases to reach its current state. The various phases of KM spiral at Tata Steel are shown in Fig 2. In its latest phase, the Knowledge Management has been identified as one of the main enablers to make Tata Steel self reliant in technology which will enable the company become a global player in near future.

Stakeholders in KM

Tata Steel aims at capturing knowledge from various working groups and outside agencies who play a major role in day-to-day functioning. The major stakeholders covered under KM being: Senior Management Officers Employees (Supervisors & Workmen) Customers Supplier Experts (In & outside company) Opportunity of knowledge transfer Tata Steels knowledge management initiative is driven by its corporate KM group which attempts to cover all possible opportunities of knowledge generation in and outside the steel works. The primary sources being: Day-to-day operation Learning from failure Published Papers by employees (National and International publications) Task Force/Consultant/Technical Groups Engineering Project Knowledge Sharing across the value chain Tata Steel defines its value chain as a connected series of internal and external organizations, resources, and knowledge streams involved in creation and delivery of value to end customers. It includes the organizations suppliers and customers. In fact, one of the organizations strategic goals is to develop value-creating partnerships with customers and suppliers. Tata Steel developed two programs in particular to help manage knowledge across its value chain: the customer value management (CVM) program and its supplier value management (SVM) program. Improvement Activities

Knowledge generated through Suggestions, Small Group Activity,etc. Instruments of Knowledge Transfer Tata Steel follows three strategies for managing organizational knowledge (Fig 2). Knowledge can be contributed either by an individual (codification) or a team or a group of people (Personalization). The first two strategies enable capture and systematic storage of knowledge, whereas the third strategy (Knowledge Diffusion) derives the benefit of replicating best practices identified in the repository and thereby eliminating the re-invention of wheel.

The above strategies ensure knowledge sharing across the entire value chain from customer to the supplier. Some of the instruments through which the above strategies are deployed are: Knowledge Contribution by an individual (I): All contributions are first sent to a set of subject matter experts to check their relevance, correctness of information and utility to the company before being available in portal for public usage. Ask Author (I): A user can put forth his/her queries to the author regarding any

particular Knowledge Piece through this route. Ask Expert (I & II): A panel of experts is identified area-wise to answer queries of users from all corner of Tata Steel. This feature directs the query to the relevant expert and thus helps the questioner in seeking his answer. The queries also remain open for other users to attempt a reply. Knowledge Usage (III): Any employee can bring about intangible/tangible savings in related work areas by using an existing knowledge asset. Communities of Practice (II): To encourage knowledge sharing behavior in an informal manner, across the boundaries of departments and divisions, various Communities of Practice or Knowledge Communities are formed. Each knowledge community further consists of certain sub-communities which attempts to focus on smaller functional areas. The knowledge communities continuously look for new bench marks, identify gaps, set targets and strive to achieve them through experiments and best practice deployment. In the process, the new knowledge gathered is collected in the form of various K-Products, such as, Best Practice Identification, Trial of new products, Experiments and Best Practice deployment. Content Management (I): The knowledge repository of Tata Steel is not only huge in size, but also is rich in content - thanks to the contribution of more than 15,000 employees. However, constant effort is put in to keep the knowledge base current and contemporary. In order to do this, old knowledge pieces are archived and knowledge on similar subjects are distilled. In the process of knowledge distillation, members are encouraged to compile knowledge pieces available in related areas and hence prepare a consolidated one which will contain all relevant information at one place. Other activities of Knowledge Communities (II & III) : The diverse community structure requires knowledge sharing among the members to ensure proper knowledge diffusion. Hence communities organize inter and intra community meetings at regular intervals chaired by senior officials to discuss and share knowledge on aspects that affects both the parties. These communities also organize seminars by inviting well-known in various fields.

Involving shop-floor employees in KM: A large number of employees in Tata Steel are deployed at the shop-floor. In a century old company, these employees really possess a wealth of knowledge. In order to capture the tacit knowledge from shop floor and to facilitate horizontal deployment of the same at all other locations, a new initiative named as Knowledge Manthan (means churning) has been started in 2004. Realizing the rich dividend from its Knowledge Manthan initiative the Knowledge management group has extended the idea of involving grass-root employees by launching yet another initiative named MASS in the year 2005. Many of the ideas captured through Manthan are now being deployed through MASS. KM Portal @ Tata Steel

On the corporate intranet a KM Portal has been developed to communicate all KM related matters across the company. It provides an online knowledge repository to the users who can submit, search and use knowledge pieces available on it. The portal also provides a virtual forum where employees can invite and involve other fellow employees or lead experts (specific to interested areas) to discuss and solve the problems faced by them. Relevant Indian and international standards, quality system manuals, standard practices and procedures also feature for ready reference of users.

Awards & Accolades Tata Steel has won many laurels for its endeavour and initiatives towards creating a culture of managing knowledge. It was the winner of MAKE Asia award for

the year 2003 and 2004 (finalist in the year 2002). In 2005, Tata Steel won the first MAKE India award. It has also earned a distinction among Indian companies to be selected twice as a best practice partner by American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) for its KM process. Tata Steel has embarked aggressively on the journey of becoming Global Leader with customer driven excellence, integrity and ethical behavior in all our transactions. The rate of success in achieving and exceeding the global standards will be directly proportional to how fast we deploy our knowledge, that we have acquired over last 100 years in minerals and metals business, besides that from customers, partners and other stakeholders, to each unit and person of Tata Steel and thereby expanding the pockets of excellence to cover entire organization. In this endeavor knowledge management initiatives and the modest success that we have had over last few years instills us with confidence of achieving our aspirations. Amit Khanna, Head Knowledge Management, Tata Steel.

CHAPTER-4 DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

Like water, this rising tide of data can be viewed as an abundant, vital and necessary resource. With enough preparation, we should be able to tap into that reservoir -- and ride the wave -- by utilizing new ways to channel raw data into meaningful information. That information, in turn, can then become the knowledge that leads to wisdom. Before attempting to address the question of knowledge appropriate management, to develop it's some probably perspective

regarding this stuff called knowledge, which there seems to be such a desire to manage, really is. Consider this observation made by Neil Fleming[fle96] as a basis for thought relating to the following diagram.
o o o o

A collection of data is not information. A collection of information is not knowledge. A collection of knowledge is not wisdom. A collection of wisdom is not truth.

The idea is that information, knowledge, and wisdom are more than simply collections. Rather, the whole represents more than the sum of its parts and has a synergy of its own. We begin with data, which is just a meaningless point in space and time, without reference to either space or time. It is like an event out of context, a letter out of context, a word out of context. The key concept here being "out of context." And, since it is out of context, it is without a meaningful relation to anything else. When we encounter a piece of data, if it gets our attention at all, our first action is usually to attempt to find a way to attribute meaning to it. We do this by associating it with other things. If I see the number 5, I can immediately associate it with cardinal numbers and relate it to being greater than 4 and less than 6,

whether this was implied by this particular instance or not. If I see a single word, such as "time," there is a tendency to immediately form associations with previous contexts within which I have found "time" to be meaningful. This might be, "being on time," "a stitch in time saves nine," "time never stops," etc. The implication here is that when there is no context, there is little or no meaning. So, we create context but, more often than not, that context is somewhat akin to conjecture, yet it fabricates meaning. That a collection of data is not information, as Neil indicated, implies that a collection of data for which there is no relation between the pieces of data is not information. The pieces of data may represent information, yet whether or not it is information depends on the understanding of the one perceiving the data. I would also tend to say that it depends on the knowledge of the interpreter, but I'm probably getting ahead of myself, since I haven't defined knowledge. What I will say at this point is that the extent of my understanding of the collection of data is dependent on the associations I am able to discern within the collection. And, the associations I am able to discern are dependent on all the associations I have ever been able to realize in the past. Information is quite simply an understanding of the relationships between pieces of data, or between pieces of data and other information. While information entails an understanding of the relations between data, it generally does not provide a foundation for why the data is what it is, nor an indication as to how the data is likely to change over time. Information has a tendency to be relatively static in time and linear in nature. Information is a relationship between data and, quite simply, is what it is, with great dependence on context for its meaning and with little implication for the future. Beyond relation there is pattern[bat88], where pattern is more than simply a relation of relations. Pattern embodies both a consistency and completeness of relations which, to an extent, creates its own context. Pattern also serves as an Archetype[sen90] with both an implied repeatability and predictability. When a pattern relation exists amidst the data and information, the pattern has the potential to represent knowledge. It only becomes knowledge, however, when one is able to realize and understand the patterns and their implications. The patterns representing knowledge have a tendency to be more self-contextualizing. That is, the pattern tends, to a great extent, to create

its own context rather than being context dependent to the same extent that information is. A pattern which represents knowledge also provides, when the pattern is understood, a high level of reliability or predictability as to how the pattern will evolve over time, for patterns are seldom static. Patterns which represent knowledge have a completeness to them that information simply does not contain. Wisdom arises when one understands the foundational principles responsible for the patterns representing knowledge being what they are. And wisdom, even more so than knowledge, tends to create its own context. I have a preference for referring to these foundational principles as eternal truths, yet I find people have a tendency to be somewhat uncomfortable with this labeling. These foundational principles are universal and completely context independent. Of course, this last statement is sort of a redundant word game, for if the principle was context dependent, then it couldn't be universally true now could it? So, in summary the following associations can reasonably be made:

Information relates to description, definition, or perspective (what, who, when, where). Knowledge comprises strategy, practice, method, or approach (how). Wisdom embodies principle, insight, moral, or archetype (why).

Now that I have categories I can get hold of, maybe I can figure out what can be managed.

A Brief History Of Knowledge Management

An overarching theory of knowledge management has yet to emerge, perhaps because the practices associated with managing knowledge have their roots in a variety of disciplines and domains. Special thanks to Karl Wiig for supplying us with a pre-publication copy of "Knowledge Management:Where Did It Come From and Where Will It Go?" which will appear in The Journal of Expert Systems with Applications. This section draws heavily on that work but supplies only a small part of that value. A number of management theorists have contributed to the evolution of knowledge management, among them such notables as Peter Drucker, Paul Strassmann, and Peter Senge

in the United States. Drucker and Strassmann have stressed the growing importance of information and explicit knowledge as organizational resources, and Senge has focused on the "learning organization," a cultural dimension of managing knowledge. Chris Argyris, Christoper Bartlett, and Dorothy Leonard-Barton of Harvard Business School have examined various facets of managing knowledge. In fact, Leonard-Bartons well-known case study of Chaparral Steel, a company which has had an effective knowledge management strategy in place since the mid-1970s, inspired the research documented in her Wellsprings of Knowledge Building and Sustaining Sources of Innovation (Harvard Business School Press, 1995). Everett Rogers work at Stanford in the diffusion of innovation and Thomas Allens research at MIT in information and technology transfer, both of which date from the late 1970s, have also contributed to our understanding of how knowledge is produced, used, and diffused within organizations. By the mid-1980s, the importance of knowledge (and its expression in professional competence) as a competitive asset was apparent, even though classical economic theory ignores (the value of) knowledge as an asset and most organizations still lack strategies and methods for managing it. Recognition of the growing importance of organizational knowledge was accompanied by concern over how to deal with exponential increases in the amount of available knowledge and increasingly complex products and processes. The computer technology that contributed so heavily to superabundance of information started to become part of the solution, in a variety of domains. Doug Engelbarts Augment (for "augmenting human intelligence"), which was introduced in 1978, was an early hypertext/groupware application capable of interfacing with other applications and systems. Rob Acksyns and Don McCrackens Knowledge Management System (KMS), an open distributed hypermedia tool, is another notable example and one that predates the World Wide Web by a decade. The 1980s also saw the development of systems for managing knowledge that relied on work done in artificial intelligence and expert systems, giving us such concepts as "knowledge acquisition," "knowledge engineering," "knowledge-base systems, and computer-based ontologies.

The phrase "knowledge management" entered the lexicon in earnest. To provide a technological base for managing knowledge, a consortium of U.S. companies started the Initiative for Managing Knowledge Assets in 1989. Knowledge management-related articles began appearing in journals like Sloan Management Review, Organizational Science, Harvard Business Review, and others, and the first books on organizational learning and knowledge management were published (for example, Senges The Fifth Discipline and Sakaiyas The Knowledge Value Revolution). By 1990, a number of management consulting firms had begun in-house knowledge management programs, and several well known U.S., European, and Japanese firms had instituted focused knowledge management programs. Knowledge management was introduced in the popular press in 1991, when Tom Stewart published "Brainpower" in Fortune magazine. Perhaps the most widely read work to date is Ikujiro Nonakas and Hirotaka Takeuchis The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation (1995). By the mid-1990s, knowledge management initiatives were flourishing, thanks in part to the Internet. The International Knowledge Management Network (IKMN), begun in Europe in 1989, went online in 1994 and was soon joined by the U.S.-based Knowledge Management Forum and other KM-related groups and publications. The number of knowledge management conferences and seminars is growing as organizations focus on managing and leveraging explicit and tacit knowledge resources to achieve competitive advantage. In 1994 the IKMN published the results of a knowledge management survey conducted among European firms, and the European Community began offering funding for KM-related projects through the ESPRIT program in 1995. Knowledge management, which appears to offer a highly desirable alternative to failed TQM and business process re-engineering initiatives, has become big business for such major international consulting firms as Ernst & Young, Arthur Andersen, and Booz-Allen & Hamilton. In addition, a number of professional organizations interested in such related areas as benchmarking, best practices, risk management, and change management are exploring the relationship of knowledge management to their areas of special expertise (for example, the

APQC [American Productivity and Quality Council] and ASIS [American Society for Information Science]).

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: A CROSS- DISCIPLINARY DOMAIN

Knowledge management draws from a wide range of disciplines and technologies.
o

Cognitive science. Insights from how we learn and know will certainly improve tools and

techniques for gathering and transferring knowledge.

o

Expert systems, artificial intelligence and knowledge base management systems

(KBMS). AI and related technologies have acquired an undeserved reputation of having failed to meet their own and the marketplaces high expectations. In fact, these technologies continue to be applied widely, and the lessons practitioners have learned are directly applicable to knowledge management.
o

Computer-supported collaborative work (groupware). In Europe, knowledge

management is almost synonymous with groupware and therefore with Lotus Notes. Sharing and collaboration are clearly vital to organizational knowledge management with or without supporting technology.
o

Library and information science. We take it for granted that card catalogs in libraries

will help us find the right book when we need it. The body of research and practice in classification and knowledge organization that makes libraries work will be even more vital as we are inundated by information in business. Tools for thesaurus construction and controlled vocabularies are already helping us manage knowledge.
o

Technical writing. Also under-appreciated even sneered at as a professional

activity, technical writing (often referred to by its practitioners as technical communication) forms a body of theory and practice that is directly relevant to effective representation and transfer of knowledge.

Document management. Originally concerned primarily with managing the accessibility

of images, document management has moved on to making content accessible and re-usable at the component level. Early recognition of the need to associate "metainformation" with each document object prefigures document management technologys growing role in knowledge management activities.
o

Decision support systems. According to Daniel J. Power, "Researchers working on

Decision Support Systems have brought together insights from the fields of cognitive sciences, management sciences, computer sciences, operations research, and systems engineering in order to produce both computerised artifacts for helping knowledge workers in their performance of cognitive tasks, and to integrate such artifacts within the decisionmaking processes of modern organisations.

Knowledge management as a business activity

There are two primary aspects:
o

Treating the knowledge component of business activities as an explicit concern of business reflected in strategy, policy, and practice at all levels of the organization. Making a direct connection between an organizations intellectual assets both explicit [recorded] and tacit [personal know-how] and positive business results.

In practice, knowledge management often encompasses identifying and mapping intellectual assets within the organization, generating new knowledge for competitive advantage within the organization, making vast amounts of corporate information accessible, sharing of best practices, and technology that enables all of the above including groupware and intranets. That covers a lot of ground. And it should, because applying knowledge to work is integral to most business activities. Knowledge management is hard to define precisely and simply. (The definition also leapfrogs the task of defining "knowledge" itself. Well get to that later.) Thats not surprising. How

would a nurse or doctor define "health care" succinctly? How would a CEO describe "management"? How would a CFO describe "compensation"? Each of those domains is complex, with many sub-areas of specialization. Nevertheless, we know "health care" and "management" when we see them, and we understand the major goals and activities of those domains.

Business strategies to knowledge management

As you explore other explanations of knowledge management Bo Newmans Knowledge Management Forum is a good starting point youll detect connections with several wellknown management strategies, practices, and business issues, including
o o o o

Change management Best practices Risk management Benchmarking

A significant element of the business community also views knowledge management as a natural extension of "business process reengineering," a fact underscored by the recent announcement that John Wileys Business Change and Reengineering will become Knowledge and Process Management in March, 1997. There is a common thread among these and many other recent business strategies: A recognition that information and knowledge are corporate assets, and that businesses need strategies, policies, and tools to manage those assets. The need to manage knowledge seems obvious, and discussions of intellectual capital have proliferated, but few businesses have acted on that understanding. Where companies have take action and a growing number are doing so implementations of "knowledge management" may range from technology-driven methods of accessing, controlling, and delivering information to massive efforts to change corporate culture.

Opinions about the paths, methods, and even the objectives of knowledge management abound. Some efforts focus on enhancing creativity creating new knowledge value while other programs emphasize leveraging existing knowledge

CHAPTER-5 FINDINGS & CONCLUSION

FINDINGS
1. Tata Steel have long appreciated the value for knowledge to enhance their products

and customer service. My analysis indicates several reasons why the level of interest has grown dramatically during recent years in Tata Steel, These and other benefits , have resulted from an explicit focus on corporate knowledge as a strategic resource in Tata Steel:

Globalization and competition Tata Steel rely on knowledge to create their strategic advantage. With available knowledge widely dispersed and fragmented, organizations often waste valuable time and resources in 'reinventing the wheel' or failing to access the highest quality knowledge and expertise that is available.

Knowledge can command a premium price in the market - Applied know-how can enhance the value (and hence the price) of products and services. Examples are the 'smart drill' that learns how to extract more oil from an oil field

Restructuring and downsizing - Without effective mechanisms in place to capture knowledge of experienced employees, organizations make costly mistakes or have to pay again for knowledge they once had on tap.

Sharing of best practices - Companies save millions a year by taking the knowledge from their best performers and applying it in similar situations elsewhere. Successful Innovation - Companies applying knowledge management methods have found that through knowledge networking they can create new products and services faster and better

2.

Tata Steel and its managers are predicting some resistance from employees who may

feel threatened by the fact that they are sharing knowledge among so many.

In Tata Steel Knowledge is largely cognitive and highly personal, while management involves organisational processes, knowledge is increasingly recognized as a crucial organisational resource for the company, that gives market leverage.

My research shows that Tata Steel adopt two broad thrusts in applying knowledge management: a. Sharing existing knowledge better - making implicit knowledge more explicit and putting in place mechanisms to move it more rapidly to where it is needed; b. Innovation - making the transition from ideas to commercialization more effective 3.

Knowledge management programmes in Tata Steel typically have the following Appointment of a knowledge leader - to promote the agenda, develop a framework Creation of knowledge teams - people from all disciplines to develop the methods and skills

activities:

Development of knowledge bases - best practices, expertise directories, market intelligence etc. Enterprise intranet portal - a 'one-stop-shop' that gives access to explicit knowledge as well as connections to experts Knowledge centers - focal points for knowledge skills and facilitating knowledge flow Knowledge sharing mechanisms - such as facilitated events that encourage greater Most of Company work is information based. Organizations compete on the basis of knowledge. Products and services are increasingly complex, endowing them with a significant information component.

4.

sharing of knowledge than would normally take place I observations that Tata Steel add:
o o o

In brief, knowledge and information have become the medium in which business problems occur in Tata Steel . As a result, managing knowledge represents the primary opportunity for achieving substantial savings, significant improvements in human performance, and competitive advantage.

Tata Steel do know a lot about how people learn.The body of literature about managing intellectual capital is growing. but Tata Steel accept that the nature of business itself has changed, in at least two important ways: 1. Knowledge work is fundamentally different in character from physical labor. 2. The knowledge worker is almost completely immersed in a computing environment. This new reality dramatically alters the methods by which we must manage, learn, represent knowledge, interact, solve problems, and act. 5. In Tata Steel Knowledge management programs lead to greater innovation, better customer experiences, consistency in good practices and knowledge access across a global organization, as well as many other benefits, and knowledge management programs may be driven with these goals in mind.Considerations driving a Knowledge Management program might include:

Making available increased knowledge content in the development and provision of products and services Achieving shorter new product development cycles Facilitating and managing organizational innovation Leverage the expertise of people across the organization Benefiting from 'network effects' as the number of productive connections between employees in the organization increases and the quality of information shared increases

Managing the proliferation of data and information in complex business environments and allowing employees rapidly to access useful and relevant knowledge resources and best practice guidelines

Facilitate organizational learning Managing intellectual capital and intellectual assets in the workforce (such as the expertise and know-how possessed by key individuals) as individuals retire and new workers are hired

A convincing sales pitch from one of the many consulting firms pushing Knowledge Management as a solution to virtually any business problem, such as loss of market share, declining profits, or employee inefficiency.

CONCLUSIONS
Knowledge Management in Tata Steal supports the development and use of customer driven, Internet based collaborative tool sets. Employee of Tata Steal are provided with consultation and training on how to involve knowledge management processes in their job practices. Custom application development, hosting, and data base support are provided for select Mangers of different different department. Standardized collaborative tools are available for use by any companys department. Internet tools include community of practice formats, survey tools, centralized document management and storage, and discussion areas.Tata Steal provides technical and consultive support for the Issues program of their employees. This Internet based application allows any Tata steel member to ask a question or describe a problem which will be answered by a subject matter expert. Questions and answers are posted for the benefit of all the Company staff.

CHAPTER- 6 RECOMMENDATION

SUGGESTIONS
If Tata Steel want to ensure the legacy of their companies, they need to protect their interests by documenting the knowledge of their employees. Too many agencies are watching their investments go down the drain simply because they didn't safeguard their people investments with knowledge management. Employee knowledge without documentation can be the kiss of death to owners and stakeholders. If a company has a wealth of knowledge about what it processes and sells, Tata Steel should find an intelligent way to manage it. Tata Steel should create a process book on every project which company. That can be their way to retain knowledge and I don't think that's too outlandish.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Elisa Bertino, Latifur R. Khan, Ravi Sandhu, and Bhavani Thuraisingham, Secure Knowledge Management: Confidentiality, Trust, and Privacy, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and CyberneticsPart A: Systems and Humans, vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 429-438, May 2006 2. Jean French, Keeping the Competitive Edge: Securing Knowledge management Systems, www.computersecurityconference.com/Papers2007/CSC2007French.doc. 3. S. Upadhyaya, H. R. Rao, and G. Padmanabhan, Secure knowledge management, in Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management, D. Schwartz, Ed. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Inc., 2005. 4. http://www.tatasteel.com. 5.Jerry Ash,state of the art among early adopter of knowledge management, Knowledge Inc.,August 1997, www.kwork.org.