The Knowledge Management Journey of Israel Aircraft Industry

Firstly, we tell the story of the journey of Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) into Knowledge Management. We show how the plan was embedded in the company’s comprehensive change program which focused on four core values: “Customer”, “People”, “Innovation & Technology” and “One Company”. Knowledge Management has been originally part of the “Innovation & Technology” value – but in time managed to relate to, and support all four values. We then briefly describe the KM plan of the company and its 12 chapters. Several organisational mechanisms to support the implementation of the KM program are discussed, including performance measurement, the KM handbook and the distributed organisational structure of the program. We chose to describe in details one of the modules of the program – Fostering the knowledge of core Competence Centers. A systematic process to define such centers is outlined, and a list of many different ways to support and nourish such competence centers is proposed. This case is concluded with a list of several tips which are especially valuable for large and complex organisations that attempt to address systematically the challenges of effective Knowledge Management. For example, we elaborate on the need to balance well planned and emergent initiatives, central and local resources, comprehensive strategies and step-wise implementation.