“TACIT KNOWLEDGE”

There is a fully automatic plant, manufacturing chocolates, in the moffusil districts of Pune.
All the operations are automatic, and you could put the entire plant on an auto –pilot- mode, as it were. Except for one operation, where the temperature, for the finished product, has to be manually, controlled and adjusted.
A little extra temperature and the product will be rock- hard, not fit for human consumption. A little less of it and the chocolate will be messy. It will be too gooey, for packing and storing... No shelf life.
How to solve the problem?
There is a country lad, Mahadu, who has been with the plant, right from its inception. He has learnt the solution by trial and error methods; perhaps, and is a master at setting the right temperature, for the process. If he is not available to set the temperature at the “Right degree”, the entire in- process material is wasted.
It is not that, he is secretive, or is reluctant to impart the skill to others. Some knowledge is just individual-oriented; and it cannot be verbalized. Hence it is incommunicable and vests with the person only.
Mahadu is an invaluable person for the chocolate plant.

INSIGHTFUL LEARNING.

Michael Polanyi, a Hungarian medical scientist, says
“ You know much more than you can ever say.” i.e. some of your own knowledge also, cannot just be expressed in words.
True for many of us. But more so, for a lot of Mahadus like the operator.
This he termed as TACIT KNOWLEDGE.

TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE

There are two types of knowledge:
• Explicit
• Implicit
Explicit is the one, which is available in books, documents, research papers. It can be accessed and acquired by anyone; who wants to seek it. Community of scholars develops scientific knowledge and it is validated. The scientific community while narrating experiences gives labels, (language, words,) to these and a scientific discipline is adhered to, in recording the data. Explicit is formal, can be articulated, as it is language oriented, information based. Conveying and capturing is easy for all, It is
documented and database oriented.


The ‘other is implicit which is individual based. Knowledge gained by imitation and observation only. It is incommunicable and has to be brought out in the open, verbalized and then scrutinized, improved on.
Some of the tacit knowledge is culturally transferred, e.g... Mother passing on the family traditions to the son, he learns by observation and imitation...
A hammer man in a forge shop, says,
”Now is the right time to hit the hammer, if you want a good forging”.
This is not textbook oriented, learning.
Tacit knowledge is experiential, and know-how based, it consists of hunches, insights, instincts, impulses, imaginations, etc; it defies articulation.
Tacit is communicated by a “one to one” dialogue, belief-systems perspectives, mentoring, apprentice- ships, interns, communities of practice, develop; this domain of knowledge. .

When knowledge is verbalized its transfer is easier.

UNCONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE

There is some behavior, which is developed for a certain environment only. When the environment changes; the knowledge which was contextually relevant for the environment is; dysfunctional. But the ones who are half-baked scholars, perpetuate the same knowledge, which is already obsolete, and are gloriously unaware about it. This is termed as the “unconscious incompetence”.
In the educational field, such incompetence is disastrous. If it is conscious incompetence it is tolerable, as; at least there is a hope, of some corrective steps towards improvement of the competence level. Unconscious incompetence is incorrigible. The fellow is of the firm belief that this idiocy is “KNOWLEDGE”.


USE OF TACIT KNOWLEDGE

Take the case of Mr. Sundaram a maintenance supervisor in a cement plant. There are a number of machines in this continuous running plant. It is essential that the key machines which are the back bone of the plant, run uninterruptedly, Examples are the milling machine, pounding limestone to powder, or the crusher, pulverizing iron ore, and coal, etc. Even if one of these fails, then the work of the factory, is grounded to a halt. Ideally these should work all the 24 hours and possibly at least 360 days of the year; leaving about a week, for the annual maintenance.
The preventive and predictive maintenance of the key machines is an area, which few can afford to neglect. The capital investment is too high, to duplicate all the key machines.
Mr. Sundaram, maintenance supervisor friend of ours, like the rest of about 1200 employees; daily passes through the plant, by, all the machines. All the rest, scurry through the din of the monstrous machines. But Mr. Sundaram can decipher a signal of a faulty bearing from the deafening noise. None else can.
Sure enough, when the machine is opened up for the routine maintenance, a faulty bearing is noticed by all the engineers, and replaced promptly. But for his tacit knowledge, developed over a period, it could be a very costly proposition; for the management, to allow idle time of a key machine.

INSTITUTIONALIZING KNOWLEDGE.

The job of the management ‘is to ensure that such knowledge is perpetuated and institutionalized.
There are many such Mahadus and Sundarams in every unit, they take the knowledge with them when they leave and it is lost, forever.
In an era, where knowledge is the main resource which generates wealth for the organization, one can ill afford the loss of such precious knowledge, and expertise.

The task of the management ‘is to ensure, that this knowledge is captured and institutionalized.
The job does not end there, it has to be made explicit and then again the internalization scheme has to be initiated. The new knowledge has to be made a second nature of the organization.

CULTURE, IMPLICIT BEHAVIOUR

It is said that culture is an implicit behavior. A refined individual has a culture, and his behavior displays it, naturally. No cerebration is required for him to behave in a certain manner. When new knowledge has to be embedded in the culture of an organization, a similar process has to be undertaken.
A case will illustrate the point.
In an Internal combustion engine, the valves repeatedly make an impact on the cylinder block, which is of steel. In order to enhance the life of the cylinder block, which would have worn faster due to the constant friction with the valves, a valve- seat- insert, of a harder metal is fitted in a porthole on the block. It is generally of Nickel chrome or some such harder metal than the steel. In order that the inserts do not come off the port holes in the block, there are close tolerances provided i.e. the inner diameter of the port hole and the outer diameter of the valve-seat- insert have an interference fit ,so that they do not fall off, in the operation of the engine.
The standard practice was to hammer the insert, in place, in the steel cylinder blocks. No damage done.
Now with the lightweight aluminum engine blocks, of the second-generation engines, the hammer- master practice won’t work. If hammered in place, for fitment, the aluminum-block, which is a softer metal, will give way, and the insert will simply fall off.
There is a new practice developed.
They now shrink the insert in dry ice; the porthole in the aluminum block is heated with a gas flame; so it expands a wee bit and the insert is gently placed in the porthole. It smugly sits there due to the close tolerances, and the mini contraction and expansion, as detailed above.
This new knowledge and skill has to be internalized by the assembly fitter. However it is very difficult to wean him away from his hammer and you can well know the result if he used one.

THE PRESENT SCENE

In the chocolate factory now, they have formed a team of qualified engineers around Mahadu. The young engineers are corelating the actions and the outcome.
Some data is emerging from this exercise, which will be useful for the progeny.

M. S. Ranade,
mranade@vsnl.com
PUBLISHED IN INDIAN EXPRESS ON THURSDAY, 27TH MARCH, 2003.