Labcore Insight Project And Knowledge Management

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A Project and Knowledge Management System

3M Case Study

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Background

• 2004—major customer complaint• 2006—major manufacturing issue• Local technical resources added ~2005

– Analytical lab, statistical consulting, manufacturing technology

• Lots of capabilities, and lots of work—needed tool to help drive… – Project management– Collaboration– Knowledge retention

• But not just a lab system….drive for total integration

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What were our options?

• Lotus Notes (DB, Team Room, EC Tools…)– No searching, rigid, hidden, minimal standards

• LIMS, i.e. GALIMS—3M solution– Lab projects only

• Knowledge management– Managing help desks

• Project management– Too rigid, management focused, hour counting

• Collaboration tools– Too loose, less structure

• Develop it ourselves?• Chose P-Wave’s LabCore product

– Good mix of collaboration tools and content management– Extendable to our needs

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Guiding Design Principles

Project Worker-Focused Toolsets

Project PackageCollaboration

CustomizedWorkflows

and Content

Standard lookand feel

My Projects Status and Rollup Knowledge Archive

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Insight Project Management System

High level view• My projects• My Tasks• My Templates• All Projects• Admin• Search• Settings

Individual project view• Details• Tasks• Discussion• Files• Reports

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Going from Pain to Solutions

Pain

• Scattered Information

Solutions

• One-stop shop

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Scattered Information

TasksCharterDiscussion

Files

LN E-mails*

Integrated Tables*

Reports

Hourly Charges*

Informal Info

Meeting NotesStatusQuestionNotebook

User pain: Pieces of the project are scattered in many places Solution: One -stop shop

Project Package

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Going from Pain to Solutions

Pain

• Scattered Information

• Tedious inclusion of project info

Solutions

• One-stop shop

• Multiple entry routes, even hosting the editor

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Tedious inclusion of project info

User pain: It’s just not convenient to add information to a project siteSolution: Multiple ways to add information

Files attached within the system

Files attached using normal “share drive” function

Integrated MSWord-like Report writer

Simple informal info entry points

Send E-mail and attachments to a project*

Integrated MSExcel-like tables*

Project Manager

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Going from Pain to Solutions

Pain

• Scattered Information

• Tedious inclusion of project info

• Unclear “to do” lists

Solutions

• One-stop shop

• Multiple entry routes, even hosting editor

• “My Lists”, reporting, and prioritization

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Unclear “to do” lists

User pain: People’s to-do lists and priorities not easily viewableSolution: “My Lists”, reporting, and prioritization

• User customizable grouping, filtering*, and order

• Visual indicators for timing

• Export to Excel

• Prioritization tool

• Break a project up into its pieces, assign people and timing

• Each task has its own mini-workspace

• Gantt display option*

• Group and filter* by user-defined scenarios

• Customizable reports*

P f Importance,Timing, Feasibility,Scope

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Going from Pain to Solutions

Pain

• Scattered Information

• Tedious inclusion of project info

• Unclear “to do” lists

• Manual status roll-ups

Solutions

• One-stop shop

• Multiple entry routes, even hosting editor

• “My Lists”, reporting, and prioritization

• Built-in contents, automated roll-ups

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Manual status roll-ups

User pain: It’s manual work to get and communicate project statusSolution: Add it to the project foundation,and then roll it up

Hopper *Ideas* and Submitted Projects

My Dashboard *Select fields, groups* for display

i.e. timing, status, percent complete, $ value…

“Mega Dashboard” *

Higher level look across business

Launch by business* or project lead

Auto Roll-up*

Prompting Mechanism*

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Going from Pain to Solutions

Pain

• Scattered Information

• Tedious inclusion of project info

• Unclear “to do” lists

• Manual status roll-ups

• Multiple documentation methods and standards

Solutions

• One-stop shop

• Multiple entry routes, even hosting editor

• “My Lists”, reporting, and prioritization

• Built-in contents, automated roll-ups

• Customized project templates, but standard foundation

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Multiple documentation methods and standards

User pain: Each project type has its own “MO”Solution: Customized project templates, but standard foundation

• Ready to populate

•Content and Layout* that fits the need

• Still uses common look, feel, fields

• Customized report templates will be available as well*

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Going from Pain to Solutions

Pain

• Scattered Information

• Tedious inclusion of project info

• Unclear “to do” lists

• Manual status roll-ups

• Multiple documentation methods and standards

• Multiple project repositories without hierarchies and relationships

Solutions

• One-stop shop

• Multiple entry routes, even hosting editor

• “My Lists”, reporting, and prioritization

• Built-in contents, automated roll-ups

• Customized project templates, but standard foundation

• Project-within-a-project and project linking

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Multiple project repositories without hierarchies

User pain: A single project might have its pieces in several placesSolution: Create project-within-a-project and project linking

• Support multiple levels of project hierarchy*

• Projects can be related—find one, find many

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Going from Pain to Solutions

Pain

• Scattered Information

• Tedious inclusion of project info

• Unclear “to do” lists

• Manual status roll-ups

• Multiple documentation methods and standards

• Multiple project repositories without hierarchies and relationships

• Lost project knowledge, reinvention

Solutions

• One-stop shop

• Multiple entry routes, even hosting editor

• “My Lists”, reporting, and prioritization

• Built-in contents, automated roll-ups

• Customized project templates, but standard foundation

• Project-within-a-project and project linking

• Drive for tools that users like, searchability

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Lost project knowledge, reinvention

User pain: Work was done before, but no traces remain reinvent itSolution: Drive for tools that users embrace, searchability

• Google-like, fully indexed

• New search story currently in development: input fields, output fields, reporting, saved searches.

• Validate user stories

• Feedback sessions

• 442 tickets entered –mostly user difficulties. PWave very responsive to fix them

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Overall Results

• ~250 lab projects in 1st 7 months!

• Not being done 2 years ago

• Positive user feedback on system

• Real productivity and performance benefits

• Utilizing archived knowledge

• Expanding usage to other project types