Training

Knowledge as strategic resource becomes even more important now than in the past, because of the turbulent change experienced by a company and its operating environment. Therefore, innovative service companies attempt to bundle the existing knowledge in the company and to use it optimal. Through the accumulation of know-ledge, competencies arise which the competitor has difficulties imitating and which create a competitive advantage. The learning history method can now help to recover implicit knowledge in the company, to improve processes and to strengthen the service competence.

A growing number of companies is focussing on their core competencies which leads to an increasing disintegration of existing value chains. Thus competition takes place not only between companies but also between networks of companies. Within global supply networks companies are intensifying their cooperation with suppliers and customers which creates expanded demand for knowledge exchange among the participating business partners. The management of knowledge as a re-source has to be considered as one of the most important success factors and competitive advantage in an intensified complex and dynamic environment.

The adoption of knowledge within an enterprise to its strategic aims is a requisite for realising these aims. But the necessary knowledge for it can’t be provided in a large amount from outside of an enterprise. So, the knowledge within an enterprise has to be enhanced by certain means of on-the-job training. This article shows some opportunities for e-learning in education and their relevance for on-the-job training. It is based on the experiences in using elearning in courses at the Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Production Management.

By the end of 1998 the Volkswagen AG Board of Executives went ahead with plans to test and implement a knowledge management programme called ww.deck (world wide development and exchange of corporate knowledge). Since early 1999 an interdisciplinary team has worked towards the establishment of a capable and sophisticated knowledge management infrastructure for the Volkswagen Group.