Organisational Knowledge Management for Defect Reduction and Sustainable Development in Foundries

Despite many advances in the field of casting technologies the foundry industry still incurs significant lossesdue to the cost of scrap and rework with adverse effects on profitability and the environment. Approachessuch as Six Sigma, DoE, FMEA are used by foundries to address quality issues. However these approacheslack support to manage the heterogeneous knowledge created during process improvement activities. Theproposed revision of ISO9001:2015 quality standard puts emphasis on retaining organisational knowledgeand its continual use in process improvement (ISO, 2014). In this paper a novel framework for creation,storage and reuse of product specific process knowledge is presented. The framework is reviewed taking intoconsideration theoretical perspectives of organisational knowledge management as well as addressing thechallenges concerning its practical implementation. A knowledge repository concept is introduced to demonstratehow organisational knowledge can be effectively stored and reused for achieving continual processimprovement and sustainable development

Southern Skies Distance Education Academic Exchange Project: Building a Community of Practice

In order to combine forces and experiences to overcome current challenges faced by distance education providers in Australia and South America, specifically in Brazil and Argentina, leading distance education institutions from both worlds decided to develop the Southern Skies Distance Education Academic Exchange Project. Funded by the Council on Australia Latin America Relations, this project promoted academic exchange between four Australian universities collaborating as DEHub and four educational institutions in South America: two institutions in Argentina and two in Brazil. This chapter presents the two stages of this exchange project during which visits by representatives from participating institutions were reciprocated. It also highlights some of the challenges faced by the project participants. Finally, it discusses the opportunities that have emerged for further exchange and collaboration amongst the institutions involved