Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

Eva-Maria Kern et al
Figure 1: Relationship between business processes and knowledge management processes
Business processes provide input for and absorb output from knowledge management processes and
vice versa. The superordinate goal <strong>of</strong> knowledge management processes is to provide business
processes with <strong>the</strong> knowledge required for <strong>the</strong>ir execution (H<strong>of</strong>fmann et al. 2002). Thus, knowledge
management processes shape <strong>the</strong> organizational knowledge base in terms <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> quality, <strong>the</strong> nature,
<strong>the</strong> domains and <strong>the</strong> disposability <strong>of</strong> its contents while being strongly determined by <strong>the</strong> contents and
to some degree <strong>the</strong> needs <strong>of</strong> business processes. This is ano<strong>the</strong>r aspect why knowledge
management processes should be designed and managed in a value oriented way (Abecker et al.
2002).
As knowledge management is at <strong>the</strong> same time a facilitator <strong>of</strong> business processes and a cost factor
itself, it should be designed and applied well reflected in terms <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> achievable value. As shown
above, <strong>the</strong> knowledge intensity <strong>of</strong> a process step can be a suitable criterion to decide on <strong>the</strong> effort for
and design <strong>of</strong> knowledge management. In order to deduce a consistent toolbox meeting <strong>the</strong>
requirements <strong>of</strong> value orientation, <strong>the</strong> next section <strong>of</strong> this paper is to examine <strong>the</strong> established method
<strong>of</strong> value stream mapping for its suitability as a basis for a value-integrating analysis and design <strong>of</strong>
business processes.
3. Traditional value stream mapping
Value stream mapping is an established method for business process optimization, originated in <strong>the</strong>
production environment. In times <strong>of</strong> its development, labor was considered as <strong>the</strong> decisive factor for
value creation. Hence, value stream mapping in its original form focuses especially on this production
factor. The o<strong>the</strong>r traditional production factors capital and land are taken into account ei<strong>the</strong>r allusively
or by means <strong>of</strong> an adaptation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> original method. Until now, only knowledge did not get any
systematic consideration in it.
The idea behind value stream mapping is to direct a company’s attention to its value stream. For
products as well as for services <strong>the</strong> value stream covers all activities – both value-creating ones and
non-value-creating ones – which are part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> production process beginning with <strong>the</strong> delivery <strong>of</strong> raw
material and ending with <strong>the</strong> shipment <strong>of</strong> finished goods. This supports <strong>the</strong> orientation to <strong>the</strong>
customer´s value regarding <strong>the</strong> principles <strong>of</strong> flow, pull and perfection to systematically avoid waste
and to preventively eliminate <strong>the</strong> causes <strong>of</strong> waste.
For mapping <strong>the</strong> current state <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> predefined value stream <strong>the</strong> material and information flows are
represented by arrows. In combination with <strong>the</strong> boxes representing individual process steps and
containing typical process variables (e.g. cycle time), and inventories, <strong>the</strong>se arrows depict <strong>the</strong> entire
value stream (figure 2).
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