COE NEWS

Vol. 1 No. 4

Newsletter of the Center for Strategic Developmentof Science and Technology
Winter, 2004

Introducing a JAIST-COE Project:
Knowledge Management for Creation ofScientific Technology in AcademicLaboratories
Professor Eiichi Tamiya (tamiya@jaist.ac.jp),
School of Materials Science, and Research
Professor Quamrul Hasan (hasan@jaist.ac.jp),
Center for Strategic Development of Science andTechnology, JAIST, Japan

Guest Column:
Knowledge Management Systems andBusiness Processes
Professor John S. Edwards(j.s.edwards@aston.ac.uk),
Aston Business School, Aston University
United Kingdom
Both academic and practical interest in knowledge
management (KM) has continued to increase
throughout the last decade. The activities involved
in knowledge management include creating,sharing, retaining, refining, and using knowledge.

In the last decade, there has been increasing pressure on
academic laboratories to produce practical results. The
last ten years also have seen a growing interest in
knowledge management, a management discipline
believed to enhance organizations’ innovative capabilityby the sharing and creation of knowledge. While mostcases on knowledge management refer to the businesssetting; we believe that the introduction of knowledge
management practices can also enhance knowledge
creation and knowledge sharing within and between
research units.

The distinction between tacit and explicit
knowledge is widely acknowledged. However, it ismost important to realize that tacit and explicit
knowledge are not mutually exclusive concepts.
Rather, any “piece” of knowledge has both tacitand explicit elements. Some of the tacit knowledge
may be made explicit, but some cannot be. A
common example of the latter is the mostimportant part of the knowledge required to ride abicycle. The relationship between these categories
is shown in Fig.1.

This research project is being conducted at a Japanesepublic graduate university – The Japan Advanced
Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) – under aCenter of Excellence (COE) program aiming at bringing
the performance of research laboratory up to a worldclass level in productivity using Knowledge Sciencetools.

EXPLICITTACIT, COULD BE
MADE EXPLICITTACIT, COULD
NOT BE MADEEXPLICIT

This study represents a cooperative effort between theSchool of Knowledge Science, doing research on
knowledge management and systems, and two researchlaboratories operating jointly in the School of Materials
Science, doing basic and applied research on materials
science. The goal of this study is to enhance materials
science students’ capabilities so that they become
successful creators of new scientific and technologicalknowledge.

Figure 1： The relationship between tacit andexplicit knowledge
Continued, page 2

Continued, page 2

Inside This Issue
page 4:COE-Strategic Center Activities
Highlighits and News
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JAIST-COE News
Newsletter of the Center for Strategic Developmentof Science and Technology

Winter, 2004

Introducing a JAIST-COE Project (con’t)
Since the project is relatively young, started onlyseveral months ago, the preliminary results areassociated with a generalized awareness andparticipation of the students in the project.
However, we are expecting to obtain more
concrete results, i.e., quantifiable improvementsof scientific production, in the near future. The
results will be reported later. The goals andobjectives of this project are shown in Figure 1.

A group of seven graduate students volunteered
for the project. As one of the steps taken so far,
we introduced a formal and periodic written
reporting system that motivates students to thinkstrategically about their experiments, helps themto improve their communications skills, andenables students to self-evaluate their skills andsupervisors to evaluate the students’ skills aswell as monitor their progress and developments
in a formalized way.
Goal 1
Beginning research
students understandand practice thefundamentals of theresearch process

Objective 1
The students answer
key questions, forexample- Why am I
doing this experiment?
Is it the rightexperiment? What are
the applications?

Goal 2

Goal 3The students become
independent in theirresearch activities,
including replying to keyquestions when asked

The students can see,understand andsuccessfully make links
between science andtechnology, and hopefully
they become technology
creators

Objective 2

Objective 3

The students
communicate
experimental know-how
explicitly and effectively

The students
demonstrate scientificand technologicalcreativity

Time Horizon
Figure1. The Project –Knowledge Management for Creation of Scientific Technology in Academic Lab – Goal and Objective.

Guest Column (con’t)

on knowledge management into practical,
implementable reality. We have identified four stages
in an organization’s KM life cycle:

Effective knowledge management in an organizationneeds to consider both tacit and explicit knowledge,
and therefore a knowledge management system (adeliberate, conscious attempt to manage knowledge,
usually in the context of a particular organization)needs to encompass people, processes, technology and(potentially) structure.

Stage 0Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3This seems easy enough on paper, but the challenge formanagers is to translate the increasing body of theory

Unaware of the need for KM
Aware of the need for KM but not actively
doing it. May confuse KM with information
managementDoing some KM but not strategically acrossthe whole organization
Doing KM strategically and reviewing itContinued, page 32

JAIST-COE News
Newsletter of the Center for Strategic Developmentof Science and Technology

Winter, 2004

Guest Column (con’t)-Business processes need to be measured. Withoutsome form of measurement as a comparison,knowledge cannot be validated.
- While the parts of a business process are important,the overriding requirement is that the overall
process works. True knowledge of the organizationmust take an holistic view.
These relationships are outlined in Figure 2.

Our own current research suggests that far fewerorganizations, at least in the United Kingdom, are atstage 3 than might be supposed from the literature. We
are revisiting organizations that we studied previously,
and several of those who were at Stage 1 have notprogressed beyond it in the two or three years since ourprevious visits.
We advocate a view of the organization in terms of its
business processes as the best way to do this. Note that
we have found that non-profit making organizations,even police forces or hospitals, are happy to use theterm business process, even though in strict terms they
are not “businesses”. This view gives a demand-side
view of knowledge, which is complementary to themore common supply-side view of knowledge thatstems, for example, from the school of definitions
based on data leading to information leading toknowledge.

Innovation adds an extra challenge, because it involves
trying to create new knowledge where none exists
before. Although we advocate an emphasis on businessprocesses, we certainly do not agree with the position
often found in the business process re-engineering
literature that all processes need radical change. We do,nevertheless, agree that the possibility of change needs
to be considered in all processes.
However, an organization must be careful not to lose
the good elements of the old ways when introducing
new systems or ways of working. The need is tocombine the best of the old with the best of the new.

PROCESSFFUUNNCCINPUTS
TT
I
IO
ONN

Task

FF
U U
Task
N NC CTask
TOUTPUTS
TI
IO O
Task N NTo sum up, we do not wish to propose a single way inwhich to implement a KM system, because it must becontext dependent. We would, however, respectfully
suggest the following elements.

CUSTOMERS-Task

Figure 2: Business process view

We have identified five reasons for thinking of KM interms of business processes:- Business processes have identifiable customers,
whether internal or external. Knowledge is of little
relevance unless put to use for a customer of somekind.
- Business processes cut across organizationalboundaries. Knowledge does not need to, and infact does not, respect the artificial boundaries
within an organization.
- Business processes consist of a structured set oftasks or activities. Choosing the appropriate way tostructure these tasks or activities is an importantpart of the knowledge.

Take note of the context.
Use business processes as an anchor for yourthinking.
Use KM systems as appropriate.
Bring the people along together with your plans.
“Quick wins” may help, but not if they
compromise the longer-term objectives.
Manage the implementation to yield the benefits
that are anticipated – do not simply assume they
will happen; but also, watch out for any
unanticipated benefits, especially if the change has
been radical. The process itself may turn out tohave been more important than the outcome.

Finally, be open to ideas, whatever their source, but
combine the best of the new with the best of the old.
(Dr. John S. Edwards is Professor of Operational
Research and Systems. He has been at Aston since 1978
and is active in research and lecturing in the Business
School. He is currently Convener of the Operationaland Information Management Group, and Chair of theBusiness School’s Technology Strategy Group. His
research interest is in how people use models andsystems to help them do things).

3JAIST-COE News
Newsletter of the Center for Strategic Developmentof Science and TechnologyWinter, 2004

COE-Strategic Center Activities Highlights
November 10-12, 2004: The Sixth JAISTInternational Forum on Technology Creation Basedon Knowledge Science: Theory and Practice andKSS 2004 was held at Ishikawa High-Tech.
Conference Center, Tatsunokuchi, and Kanazawa Art
Hall, Kanazawa, Japan, organized by the JAIST COE
Program-Technology Creation Based on Knowledge
Science. The COE Program Leader Professor Yoshiteru
Nakamori introduced the whole program. Two papers
were presented on Knowledge Management for Scienceand Technology: “Research and Development inAcademic Laboratories,” and “Creative Space andCreative Environments” by Research Professor
Quamrul Hasan and Research Professor Andrzej P.
Wierzbicki respectively.

January 3-6, 2005: A paper was presented at theHawaii International Conference on System
Sciences on “Knowledge Creation and Integration:
Creative Space and Creative Environments” byResearch Professor Andrzej P. Wierzbicki (co-author
Professor Yoshiteru Nakamori).
January 17-18: A paper was presented in theInternational Workshop – The Grammar ofTechnology Development, University of Tsukuba,
Tokyo Campus on “Informed Systems Approach,Decision and Creativity Support” by Research
Professor Andrzej P. Wierzbicki.
Weekly-Monthly: Project meetings or Colloquia,
depending on the project, at JAIST.

November 24, 2004: A COE seminar was held at
JAIST on “A Vision of New Era of Knowledge
Civilization,” co-presented by Research Professor
Andrzej P. Wierzbicki and Professor Akio Kameoka,
Vice President of JAIST.

Upcoming Event
November 14-17, 2005: The First World Congress ofthe International Federation of Systems Research tobe held at Kobe International Conference Center, Kobe,
Japan, co-sponsored and organized by JAIST COE
Program-Technology Creation Based on Knowledge
ScienceDecember 13-15, 2004: A paper was presented in theFirst iKMS (International Conference onKnowledge Management), Singapore on “Improving
University-Industry Knowledge Partnerships for
Scientific Research and Development Projects” byResearch Professor Quamrul Hasan.

COE-Strategic Center News

December 18, 2004: A lecture (chaired by Professor
Eiichi Tamiya from School of Materials Science,JAIST) at the MOT School in Kanazawa was given
on “A Successful R&D Example and Personal
Experience: An Innovative Technology/Product for a
Global Market” by Research Professor Quamrul Hasan.

Research Professor Andrzej P. Wierzbicki and Professor
Yoshiteru Nakamori obtained Best Paper Award for theirpaper “Knowledge Creation and Integration: Creative
Space and Creative Environments” in the Decision
Technologies for Management Track, HawaiiInternational Conference on System Sciences, January
3-6, 2005.

JAIST-COE News is published by the Center for Strategic Development of Science and Technology, Japan Instituteof Science and Technology, 1-1 Asahidai, Tatsunokuchi, Ishikawa 923-1292. For more information about the JAISTCOE and its activities, contact coe-secr@jaist.ac.jp, tel. (+81) 761 51 1838 or go to the link:
http://www.jaist.ac.jp/coe/index.htm

Questions, comments, and article proposals can be sent to the Editor Prof. Quamrul Hasan via email:hasan@jaist.ac.jp, tel. (+81) 761 51 1787

Articles in this newsletter are based on a variety of sources. Signed articles reflect the views of the author. Unsigned
articles are prepared by the editorial staff, which is solely responsible for their content.

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