Assessment Task 1: KCA Knowledge Management Report Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive knowledge management plan for Kimberly-Clark Australia (KCA), analyzing its current state and proposing strategies to improve sales and revenue. The report is divided into two parts: Part A examines KCA's key forms of knowledge, benchmarking processes, and the need for knowledge creation and sharing. It also includes an overview of KCA's strengths and weaknesses in its knowledge management system. Part B presents a dataset analysis, including sensitivity analysis, long-term and short-to-medium-term trend analysis, and break-even analysis. The analysis informs the development of an executive summary, introduction, objectives, and a detailed knowledge management plan, focusing on knowledge creation, harnessing, sharing, and management processes. The report aims to help KCA make informed decisions, set appropriate prices, and implement strategies to enhance its market position and financial performance. The report also highlights the importance of employee engagement and continuous improvement in the organization's knowledge management system, and its impact on the organizational goals.

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Assessment Task 1

Table of Contents
Part A.........................................................................................................................................................1
Part B.........................................................................................................................................................5
Part a......................................................................................................................................................5
Dataset for Marketing and Statistics........................................................................................................5
Sensitivity Analysis....................................................................................................................................6
Long-Term Trend Analysis......................................................................................................................6
Short to Medium-Term Trend Analysis..................................................................................................7
Break-Even Analysis.................................................................................................................................8
Part b....................................................................................................................................................10
Executive Summary.................................................................................................................................10
1. Introduction.....................................................................................................................................10
1.1 Aim............................................................................................................................................10
1.2 Objective...................................................................................................................................10
1.3 Need for Knowledge Management.........................................................................................10
1.3.1 Purpose.............................................................................................................................10
1.3.2 Outcome............................................................................................................................11
2. Summary of Data Analyses (Part A) and Trends..........................................................................11
3. Knowledge Creation (What knowledge needs to be created).......................................................11
4. Knowledge Harnessing and Sharing (How the knowledge will be used).....................................11
5. Knowledge Management Processes (How the knowledge will be created)..................................12
6. Staff Learning and Development Needs and Plans.......................................................................12
7. Knowledge Management Resources...............................................................................................12
8. Perceived Constraints and Contingency Measures.......................................................................12
9. Evaluation of Knowledge Management System............................................................................13
References................................................................................................................................................14

Part A
It is very important for Kimberly-Clark Australia (KCA) to have diverse knowledge, as it
a large organization which has various departments like manufacturing, marketing and selling
the products. Thus, the business operations of Kimberly-Clark Australia revolves around these
areas and its key forms of knowledge are interconnected. Hence, KCA's key forms of knowledge
are listed below:
1) Corporate knowledge
2) Manufacturing knowledge
3) Sales knowledge
4) Marketing knowledge
Corporate Knowledge
This type of knowledge represents the information related to financial data, Human
resource management and information related to management.
Manufacturing Knowledge
This includes the patents and licences on the following:
a) Processes and Technologies
b) Products
c) Supply chain data and information
d) Product and process innovation
Sales Knowledge
It incorporates the knowledge of Customer relationship management (CRM), along with
the knowledge of market share, customer requirements, some knowledge of the current trends
and sales data.
Marketing Knowledge
This includes the knowledge and information about its marketplace, competitors,
consumers, the social issues, customer requirements, community issues and environmental
knowledge.
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The benchmarking process related to knowledge management of KCA are listed below:
1) For following a standard data collection and reporting method in all the plants, the
KCA’s headquarter took initiative to develop the “Common performance
measures.” It focused on the production process, performance and on efficiency
i.e., delay, speed and waste. Thus, the Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KCC)
headquarter checked, and certified the data collection method in all the plants.
2) The globally present plants of KCC are permitted to access the consolidated data
from the database that contains all the information of the equipment which each
person in the plan are operating on. Thus, this access has facilitated the plants of
KCA to benchmark the comparable plants, where it identifies the utilized
equipment and production functions that are similar to each other.
3) All the plants daily provide the performance data, which helps in generating the
plant’s monthly report to show its performance. Thus, this performance report
helps the managers and the team leaders to work on enhancing their plant’s
potential.
4) The improvement of performance is attained by checking the operation of the
team in a global performance basis. Thus, this helps in sharing the knowledge and
techniques used in other plants, to complete the production operations.
5) The experience and feedbacks are exchanged between the operation managers and
the shopfloor workers. Thus it helps in improving on the drawbacks mentioned by
the shopfloor workers, to implement effective change.
6) The delays are reduced by contacting and sharing related knowledge through
carious means of communication and from the KCC’s face-to-face meetings.
The reason behind KCA’s need for constantly creating and sharing knowledge are listed
below:
a) To sustain the increasing competition.
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b) To improve the business’s efficiency and compatibility.
c) To meet the customer expectations.
d) To have efficient utilization of information.
The above mentioned criteria facilitates KCA to share internal and external knowledge with the
organization, retailers and customers. Thus, sharing helps in focusing on the specific areas to
maintain the organization’s name and fame. Because, integration of knowledge is a strategy that
does wonders for the organization.
Mt. Eliza In-house Management Development Program was initiated in 2002, by KCA.
The knowledge management development program is KCA’s approach for providing support,
and to improve the communication and knowledge sharing among the organization’s main
employees. This program gives structured business management training and knowledge, which
provides MBA level qualification. During 2001 in Australia, all the nominees were called by
KCA for participating this program form various organizations. This program has been helpful in
information development and in sharing the learnt practices with the support of the syndicate
team. The syndicate team is provided with a particular problem which deals with KCA. Further,
this team works on the provided problem with its other team members for developing the
solution. The solution is used as a direct practical application to KCA. Thus, the answers to the
problems are provided.
The key benefits of the team approach, towards the knowledge development management
are mentioned below:
1. The team works by following the practiced knowledge sharing method.
2. The management training and experience is utilized by KCA.
3. Sharing knowledge of the team helps in improving the process and discards the future
problems in the organization.
4. Provides reasonable solution for the identified issues in KCA.
5. Enhanced responsiveness to meet consumer satisfaction.
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6. Helps to have better understanding about KCA, with participation in problem solving
tasks. Because, it helps them to understand the effects of their decisions.
Strengths of the System
1. Continuous investment in product marketing and innovation.
2. Effective team management.
3. KCA clearly focuses on the dimensions like delay, speed and waste.
4. It helps in providing innovation from the other similar plants available globally.
5. Effective marketing and advertising of the products to ensure effective brand
identification.
6. Initiates corporate contributions and provides knowledge management development
operations.
7. The knowledge management development program is helpful to get solutions to the
problems.
8. It helps to have teamwork and supports in reorganizing the plant’s maintenance
operation.
9. This ensures to have performance growth.
10. KCA successfully handles the knowledge of sales and marketing.
11. The engagement of employees help in providing progressive business performance.
12. It supports the organization which has very low turnover from the worker. Because, if
the workers consider the organizational knowledge system as a motivational device
then it supports them to improve both professionally and personally.
13. KCA enhances its sales by increase in knowledge and data, by its employees.
14. It helps KCA to increase the demands of knowledge and leads it towards success.
Weaknesses of the System
1) The system is quite complicated.
2) The complexity demands large amount of investments for the employee training.
3) It is not sure that the training can help all the employees to gain knowledge on
management.
4) It is difficult to sustain the performance of the system.
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Part B
Part a
Dataset for Marketing and Statistics
The provided dataset for marketing and statistics is provided below:
Variable values
Sales price per item
Variable cost per item
Monthly fixed cost
Volume of sales
CVP Analysis
Sales
Variable costs
Contribution margin
Fixed cost
Operating cost
Dollar change in profit from
base case
Percent change in profit
from base case
Base Case
150
50
18,000
500 units
75,000
25,000
50,000
18,000
32,000
Sales volume
decrease 6%
150
50
18,000
470 units
70,000
23,500
46,500
18,000
28,500
3,500
10,9%
Fixed costs decrease
30%, Variable costs
increase 6%
150
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12,600
500 units
75,000
26,500
48,500
12,600
35,900
3,900
12,2%
The above data represents that, the volume of sales at the base case is 500 units but, after
the implementation of a strategy where the fixed cost is decreased to 30 percent and the variable
cost is increased to 6 percent, the sales volume has just decreased to 6 percent, i.e., 470 units. On
the other hand, the dollar change in profit from the base case is only 3500 from 3,900, and the
percent change in profit from the base case is only 10,9 percent from 12, 2 percent.
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The above provided data is analysed in the below sections, to take right decision for KCA
and to increase its sales and revenue.
Sensitivity Analysis
Sensitivity Analysis
Unit Price 150
Units Sold 470
Unit Variable Cost 53
Fixed Cost 12600
Net Cash Flow 32990
unit price units sold unit
variable
cost
fixed cost net cash
flow
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
Series1
Figure: Sensitivity Analysis Graph
Therefore, the fixed cost must be managed within $12600 to get the desired net cash.
Long-Term Trend Analysis
Long-Term Trend Analysis
Sales($
)
Cost($
)
Profit($
)
Base case 75000 43000 7000
Sales volume decreased 6% 70500 41500 5500
Fixed cost decrease 30%, variable cost
increase 6%
75000 39100 13900
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sales cost profit
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000
80000
Base case
sales volume decreased 6%
Fixed cost decrease 30%,
variable cost increase 6%
Figure: Long-term trend Analysis Graph
The trending is varying around 70 percent, on a monthly basis.
Short to Medium-Term Trend Analysis
Analyzed for a single unit
Short to Medium-Term Trend Analysis
Sales($) Cost($
)
Profit($
)
Base Case 500 53.6 97
Volume of sales 6%
decrease
470 89 61
Fixed and variable cost 500 78.2 72
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Sales Cost Profit
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
Base Case Volume of sales 6% decrese
Fixed and variable cost
Figure: Short to medium term trend analysis Graph
The trending is varying between 20 to 23 percent, for a single unit.
Break-Even Analysis
Break-Even Analysis
Unit Price 91.29787234
Unit sold 470
Revenue 42910
Cost per unit 53
Variable cost 24910
Fixed Cost 18,000
Profit 0
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Unit Price Unit sold Revenue Cost per
unit Variable
cost Fixed Cost Profit
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
45000
BREAK EVEN ANALYSIS
Figure: Break-Even Analysis Graph
Therefore, to increase the profit, it is required that KCA must set its unit price more than 92.
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Part b
Executive Summary
The Knowledge Management Plan is developed, after the completion of analyzing the provided
data set for Kimberly-Clark Australia. The analysis is carried on the losing market shares of
KCA for its household products segment. This analysis helps to analyze the future sustainability
of KCA. The objective of this report is to help the organization decide an effective marketing
strategy for better and improved sales. Thus, a well-planned Knowledge Management Plan is
provided to increase the sales and revenue of KCA.
1. Introduction
Kimberly-Clark Australia requires an effective Knowledge Management Plan to improve
its sales and revenue. Based on the analysis of the data of KCA, the decision on the Knowledge
Management Plan will be implemented. The Knowledge management ensures that the
organizations can increase its efficiency, decrease its costs and meet the demands of the
customers.
1.1 Aim
The aim of this report is to have understanding of knowledge management plan and
improve KCA’s sales and revenue.
1.2 Objective
The objectives are listed below:
1) To help the organization decide an effective marketing strategy for better and
improved sales.
2) To provide Knowledge Management Plan.
3) To improve the sales and revenue.
1.3 Need for Knowledge Management
1.3.1 Purpose
Knowledge management is referred as the capacity of managing the knowledge.
Moreover, knowledge management comprises of all the activities that concentrate on the
organization’s knowledge gained both from others and from its own experience.
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