Problems identified from the case studies were then categorised into three major problems, namely; poor quality information; poor communication; and lack of knowledge sharing. These problems were investigated to determine how organisations use their knowledge activities to help them solve these problems. This is shown in
Operational FM team Facilities manager;
Operational FM team Facilities manager and operational team
When is occur? At early operational
stage (after handover) During partially
completed facilities At full operational service delivery
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Table 6.3: Tabulation of case study results related to KM processes
Related KM
1 Acquisition (creation) 2 Organisation & Storage 3 Distribution & sharing Email Intranet Database sharing policy Meetings On-job training Lesson-learned Mentoring Documentation
Poor quality of information
Difficulties in meeting the service
performance x x x x
Poor communication Delay of information
x x x x
Meeting and maintaining the
level of services x x x x x
Services specifications are open
for interpretation x x x x x
Difficulty in identifying the personnel responsible for storing the documents
Notes
1Knowledge Acquisition: Knowledge Acquisition is driven by the types of information that are related to a given organisations‟ business process. Knowledge is acquired from various sources, either through experience, sharing thoughts and feelings during socialisation or getting new knowledge from recorded materials.
2Knowledge Organisation and Storage: Knowledge organisation and storage deals with a process that requires information to be edited, summarised or codified before it is stored in the knowledge base. Processes that are involved in this stage include cataloguing, indexing, filtering, refining or linking related pieces of information with each other.
Knowledge that has been organised is stored in a database and updated when required.
3 Knowledge Distribution and Use (sharing): Knowledge distribution is designed to increase the sharing of information. Knowledge is to be shared and utilised to improve competitive advantage.
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As shown in Table 6.3, more than one approach or activity can be used for solving the problems highlighted. The most appropriate tools and technique(s) for supporting KM processes were discussed earlier (Chapter 4, section 4.4). By combining both practical KM processes in the studied organisation and recommended KM tools to support the KM process, a holistic approach of managing the organisation‟s knowledge in PFI-FM healthcare services can be made. Further discussion regarding the development of the proposed framework on managing facilities knowledge can be found in Chapter 7.
6.3 Towards Framework Development
The literature review conducted in Chapters 2 and 4 highlighted various difficulties encountered in managing information and sharing knowledge in PFI working environment. The literature (in Section 2.4 and Section 4.6) also suggests some solutions to these issues. In the case studies herein, knowledge has been managed through several approaches through knowledge management initiatives based on people and technology-centred activities.
The knowledge management initiatives are used either partially or as a combination in most of the case studies investigated. Thus, none of the case studies followed a complete best practice of KM initiative as discussed earlier in Chapter 4. However, most of the respondents from the case studies realised that managing facilities knowledge will ensure successful service delivery for both in the short and long-term.
All three case studies addressed here are of facilities management service providers in PFI healthcare projects and are related with services-based and maintenance works.
Each maintenance project is loaded with valuable information and involves people whose knowledge and skills has been built over time, along the process. Thus, FM
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organisations realised the importance of knowledge assets to them especially with the long period of maintenance and service delivery in PFI contracts. Knowledge management involves people, processes, technology, techniques (strategy) and also culture (Ahmad et al., 2002; Bhat, 2001) as discussed earlier in Chapter 4. Although it is not a simple question of capturing, storing and transferring information, it is an area worth looking into by FM organisations in order to manage knowledge effectively and sustain their competitive advantage (Bhat, 2001).
6.3.1 Understanding the FM business process
As process is one of the elements in knowledge management, Figure 6.1 will look into the FM business process in PFI healthcare projects at PFI - Use stage taken from the case studies. From Figure 6.1 below, each group of processes is carried out by different groups of people and supported by technology at different processes and stages. Hence, it enables the information and knowledge to be fed back to the previous process. A similar observation was made by Disterer (2002) who stated that
“…each processes produces information and knowledge that is useful for subsequent processes, subject to where and when it needed”.
Figure 6.1 Overview of the FM business process at PFI - Use stage
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As discussed earlier (in Section 6.2.1), all three case studies shared similar FM business processes due to the same business guidelines adopted by PFI consortiums from the Private Finance Unit (PFU), and the Department of Health (DH). The output specifications derived from NHS Standard Service Level Specifications were the main input of this FM business process. However, there are a few important elements in the notion of business process to be included to make a full FM business process model, i.e. people in the organisation, activities, mechanism, goals or output (Ould, 1995) and resources as an input (Harrington, 1991)
The process modelling technique adopted for this study is a technique suitable to illustrate key activities in all case studies organisations involved, including the interaction between them, the mechanism or approach and the information flows. As discussed earlier in Section 5.5, this research adopted IDEF0 process model as a tool to understand the FM business process in all case studies. In mapping the business process, it provides a better understanding of FM business in PFI projects. This is related on the problems related to FM activities along the process and approach to solve the problems and eventually to improve the process.
Figure 6.2 shows the FM business process model at PFI - Use stage using IDEF0 model. More detailed process diagrams of IDEF-0 can be found in Section 7.3.1. The process starts from the Output Specification and Project Agreement agreed between PFI consortium where consist of FM service providers and public sector client (NHS Trust). As quoted by respondent A2, “The Private Finance Unit outlines the specification is used as guidance for all hospital Trust throughout UK …we just follow and only use the Project Agreement (PA) and documentation …Nothing more and nothing less”.
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(i.e. payment mechanisms, schedules etc) Procedures & legislation
statutory
Feedback / Lesson learned (from other similar / previous project
Services to
Figure 6.2: FM Business Process Model at PFI - Use stage (Source: compilation of case studies)
Legend:
‘Input’ arrow are transformed or consumed by the function to produce outputs
‘Control’ arrow specify the conditions required for the function to produce correct outputs
‘Outputs’ are the data or objects produced by the function.
‘Mechanism’ arrow identify some of the means that support the execution of the function (tools and equipment)