Hi Eli,

Below is some info that might help.

KMWorld’s LaShawn Fugate Interviews Burgoyne Hughes of GE Healthcare, Senior Manager of Call Center Operations. KCS methodology is used for maintaining their equipment, through service requests. I hope this helps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiB-amLhTIM

Hi Eli,

Some great points have been made, by some very knowledgeable people. +1 for their points.

When we (Klever) talk about KCS, we say that it is about creating a knowledge-first culture where people *want* to share knowledge, and leave it in a better place every time they interact with it. And this must be simple, joyful and in their workflow.

The short answer: There is really no difference between 'internal' and 'external' in the way I understand you are applying it (complex machinery and optimization). KCS has a very nice licensing model built into framework that allows for very granular visibility and control all as part of the workflow that you develop. This can be internal, external or a combination of both (as is most common).

A key part of knowledge is learning and applying what you learn, so that is where the process optimization happens. This happens at the tactical level (taking care of break/fix) as well as strategic (bake learning into the hardware/software/firmware).

We have worked with clients with expensive hardware. Examples of the kind of knowledge artifact/workflow that can be created, based on understanding the needs of the customer/partner, employees and business:

• "If X happens then there is a Y percentage change of a failure happening in Z timeframe. Trigger based on knowledge the following: Check the contracts, check for parts, auto dispatch a note to the field technicians and customer success/sales teams to schedule an appointment for a swap out well before Z happens."
• "Drop a report to manufacturing showing error rates are higher under these circumstances."(They may not know the real world implications of things that are outside spec.)
• "Drop a report to sales showing how different use cases trigger the need for different types of training based on the customer personas." 

The 'very expensive machines and operational interruptions being of serious consequences' has parallels in the work of finance, cloud computing and cyber security off the top of my head. (Very expensive/scarce human resources that have massive possibly multi billion dollar implications if not done right. KCS will handle this quite well. Optimizing processes is an inherent part of the process, as automating a mess only makes it messier faster. This usually means getting measures aligned across the org if you really want results. (I can share a story where the new CEO put a 'customer sat' measure that almost broke customer sat because of how different groups interpreted what that meant in terms of their own group. It was at a company with complex, expensive machinery.)

Happy to chat more if that helps. www.scheduleonce.com/philv_extra

Peace,

Phil

phil@...
A bit more about the self-paced training we offer for our licensed derivative of KCS: https://kleverinsight.com/online-self-paced-training-knowledge-kcs/

Eli, can you clarify what you mean by "internal purposes"? In KCS the knowledge captured benefits both internal and customer-facing goals. The typical recommended approach is actually starting internal only and once the knowledge has been validated/verified, it is published/shared with customers. This approach varies across implementations and sometimes across teams, but that's how KCS works overall. 

You can find the official KCS documentation here, and you can find use KCS case studies in this page.

Hi Eli,

I don't know any examples (nor articles or case studies) of KCS applied to maintenance, but I can post your question in the Slack channel of the KCS member community. It might take a few days before I get any response.

Best, Carla

On Sat, May 21, 2022 at 8:21 AM Eli Miron <emiron@...> wrote:

Hi All,

"Knowledge-Centered Service is about providing real-time customer support and maintaining documentation as part of the process.

It’s a methodology and set of practices that treat knowledge as the single most important asset of the support team."

 

Many manufacturing firms use sophisticated, very expensive machines and operational interruptions are of serious consequences.  I am looking for articles or case studies on implementing the KCS methodology for internal purposes such as maintenance.

Eli