Just-in-Time Delivery of Knowledge at a Technology-Oriented Enterprise

The term Just-in-Time (JIT) can be defined as a production or inventory scheduling technique found within the more complex production logistics disciplines. JIT knowledge management (KM) is an endeavour to provide the right knowledge at the right time to the right person. This requires insight into the knowledge demand and supply process as well as the time horizon applicable to the knowledge required. JIT KM seeks an optimisation of the matching process between demand and supply of knowledge within enterprises, i.e. it endeavours to translate the logistic concept of JIT to the KM field. In addition to JIT KM the concept of real-time KM is introduced as an alternative, since present research indicates that the implementation of JIT KM presents major challenges in terms of cost and development effort, restricting its use to mission critical applications. A more generic application of JIT KM needs to be developed and it is contended that real-time KM fits the requirements of enabling the enterprise to be agile in respect of its ability to respond to knowledge demands and to be sensitive to future knowledge requirements.