Difference between revisions of "Preservation"

Revision as of 14:22, 9 July 2014

Template:Consolidation stage

Definition

Preservation is The process of keeping knowledge in its original state

Summary

Preservation belongs to maintenance processes. Template:Knowledge process navigation

Purpose

To preserve organisation's most explicit knowledge in archival form. As an organization matures, the preservation of implicit and tacit knowledge will become more dominant, leading to preservation of process knowledge (work flow).

Within the KM context, it is obvious that nuclear KP plays a vital role. Preserving existing nuclear knowledge, specialist expertise, and in general preventing the loss of vital technical and historical information is starting to be recognized as strategically important to the nuclear industry, in particular for nuclear facilities. As such, the development of KP approaches and tools based on innovative approaches, including the use of modern information technology, are becoming a necessity.

Organizations that do not pay attention to KP may face negative consequences (such as suffering losses or even worse, bankruptcy) if critical knowledge required by an organization is not preserved. In the case of the nuclear industry, if critical knowledge associated with regulation, construction, design, maintenance, operation and decommissioning is not preserved it can lead to incidents, accidents and other significant events. An example is the Okiluto-3 EPR NPP currently being constructed in Finland. The project experienced construction and welding problems because critical knowledge associated with methods and quality assurance had been lost among local contractors in Finland. This resulted in delays in construction.

One of the questions being raised concerning the 'nuclear renaissance' is the availability of critical knowledge required to forge large pressure vessels and steam generators. Recent surveys of suppliers indicate this capability has been lost in many countries because there was a long period of time in which no new reactors were built. It is believed that organizations which pay attention to KP and make it a part of their objectives tend to keep a competitive edge. This is likely the reason that more mature organizations are now concerned about the preservation of institutional memory. An underlying benefit of KP is that it helps to improve work processes and therefore aids in transforming a regular organization into a ‘learning organization’.

Depending on an organization’s level of KM maturity (i.e. the phase of development in KM processes), it may need to embark on KP as a means of preserving critical knowledge to secure its future.

Source: Comparative Analysis of Methods and Tools for Nuclear Knowledge Preservation

Connection to other main categories

To see how this process is connected to KM challenges, benefits and tools, please refer to Portal:Maintenance.

Contribution to the management system

Recommendation

Common perspectives on knowledge preservation

• The archival perspective: this view of KP is based on objectives and processes associated with traditional digital or paper based documents or records of archival and storage processes and systems (such as library and records services in many organizations);
• Business process re-engineering (BPR) and the transaction theory perspective: this view of KP emphasizes on-line information systems (also referred to as OMS) such as enterprise application software (EAS),enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, information systems (IS), information and communications technology (ICT), and information management systems (IMS) collectively. These systems enable integrated work flow and cross-functional processes in organizations and support institutional memory by capturing and preserving the transactional history of work flow and business processes within a firm;
• Human resource and organizational learning perspective: this view of KP focuses on those programmes, processes, and initiatives within a firm that ensure human resource capability is maintained and core competencies are sustained (such as formal training programmes and supporting methods, processes, and technology that facilitate tacit knowledge retention via knowledge transfer and sharing mechanisms);
• Project based perspective: this view of KP focuses on the processes and tools needed to ensure adequate capture of design detail and rationale, project records and documentation, and to safely preserve this information in a repository that will be accessible (and hopefully maintainable) in the future. Most project groups focused on design and engineering use this view. The knowledge preserved will be important and utilized throughout the life cycle of a facility;
• Production process data perspective: this view of KP focuses on operational history data (e.g. data collected from real time monitoring and control systems, system health monitoring data, laboratory information systems, on-line monitoring systems, statistical process control systems, etc.) and is used to support information and knowledge needed for sustained equipment or production reliability, economics and safety;
• Design basis information maintenance perspective: this view of KP focuses on the ongoing maintenance and configuration management of design data, requirements, constraints, assumptions and rationale, change history, etc., as changes are required to maintain a plant (such as maintenance of design manuals, drawings, licensing submittals, safety requirements, safety cases, equipment qualification records, etc.).

It is not uncommon for individuals within an organization that has not implemented any coordinated, company wide KP policies and programmes to view KP quite differently (and sometimes quite narrowly), depending upon which of these processes primarily involve them, and the associated perspectives.

Source: Comparative Analysis of Methods and Tools for Nuclear Knowledge Preservation

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Challenges of preservation

Primary objective of KM

Main objective of KM

First, the nuclear industry is a maturing industry within which recent high attrition rates have highlighted the vulnerability of nuclear organizations (In the context of this report, a nuclear organization is any organization the primary activities of which are directly related to nuclear energy and/or nuclear material, such as NPP fuel fabrication and/or reprocessing, nuclear research and/or research reactor facilities, radioactive waste management organizations, etc.) to the loss of critical tacit knowledge, indicating that measures aimed at knowledge retention are needed. There is concern in the industry over the ‘pipeline’, or supply, of new and adequately skilled workers due to a lack of university level programmes specifically targeting nuclear knowledge and skills. There is also the recognition that it takes many years of on-the-job training to build the competencies and expertise needed to perform in many positions within the nuclear industry. Second, many ageing nuclear facilities will soon require either refurbishing or decommissioning, and this need will arise at the same time that new projects are being planned and launched, creating a high demand for specialized nuclear skills. Third, there is recognition that licensing basis information, including design basis information, and plant configuration information is critical to the continued safe and economic operation of many nuclear facilities (meaning such material must be kept up to date, accurate and correct). Finally, there is a keen awareness that other industries are doing more in the area of KP and have thus been benefiting from these initiatives and best practices.

Nuclear facilities and institutes constitute a particularly challenging environment from a KP perspective. Some of the issues faced by the nuclear industry include:

• A complex technology base and infrastructure (i.e. both from a design basis perspective and from an operations and management perspective);
• Lengthy technology and facility life cycles;
• Regulatory requirement that change over time;
• Highly capital intensive assets;
• A reliance on multidisciplinary technologies and expertise;
• Competing operational objectives involving safety, economics, and production;
• Potentially high hazards that must be systematically managed to remain demonstrably and tolerably low risks;
• The ongoing need for coordination of complex physical and human systems.

Furthermore, stringent requirements for safety, environmental qualification, nuclear quality assurance, nuclear security and non-proliferation safeguards, as well as equipment/design configuration management must be met, all within the context of a regulated industry environment.

For example, KP in nuclear facilities is complicated by the need to maintain knowledge over many decades and thus ensure the safety of longer term nuclear waste fuel management facilities. Another example is the need to establish and respect creative and flexible intellectual property license arrangements that allow owner–operators, design organizations, multilateral research organizations, and technical support organizations to innovate and share technical information on reactor designs (which are highly proprietary). Existing designs must be maintained, modified and adapted over time to ensure reliability and safety, to extend equipment life, or to introduce improvements offered by new technology. Thus proprietary designs and design information must be shared amongst these parties and must evolve over time. This involves legal issues regarding knowledge utilization, transfer and generation. Finally, everything is further complicated by the threat of cyber attacks. Knowledge flows or stores must also address the increased need for security. For these reasons, the role of KP within the nuclear industry is both particularly important and particularly challenging and underscores the need for an improved KP strategy. Nuclear KP is relevant to all nuclear organizations and supporting bodies (nuclear power plants, nuclear research institutes, research reactors, nuclear programmes and research in universities, nuclear regulators, nuclear design organizations, and nuclear support service organizations).

Source: Comparative Analysis of Methods and Tools for Nuclear Knowledge Preservation‎