Another approach for increasing the return from SMEs is through better knowledge management. This refers to how successful organizations accumulate knowledge all the time, of which formal training plays only a small part.
As part of daily activities, teams review quality data, production statistics, financial reports, and more. They discuss what they did well and what not to do again. Lessons are learned and shared, and this provides a basis for improvement.
The same needs to happen with the expertise of SMEs. When a problem is solved, the knowledge of what was done to solve that problem must be captured by the organization. This prevents recurrence by addressing the “knowing-doing gap,” and if a similar situation arises in the future, the SME shouldn’t need to revisit it.
Businesses have two possible approaches to capturing and cataloging organizational knowledge. They can invest significant time and effort in building their own system, using databases, hiring experts, and writing code, or they can choose a pre-built solution.
A pre-built solution is one where sensors, hardware, and software are integrated into a product that captures and stores data and makes it available for analysis and as a history. Readers may be familiar with the “Toast” SaaS product that provides a ready-made hardware and software solution for restaurants. This saves them the expense and complexity of implementing and integrating components from different vendors. It can also generate large quantities of actionable data on customer likes, dislikes, and needs.
For businesses that need or could benefit from enhanced surface intelligence, the equivalent is BConnect.