Knowledge Management Excellence
Aramco recognized for excellence in Knowledge Management
The company has been recognized by the American Productivity and Quality Center as one of five recipients of its Excellence in KM award.
The American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC), an internationally recognized research firm in benchmarking and best practices, has named Aramco as one of five recipients of its 2022 Excellence in Knowledge Management (KM) award.
APQC recognized Aramco’s capabilities, placing it at Level 5 – the highest of KM maturity.
“Achieving the highest KM maturity level is a testimony of our robust efforts in building a solid foundation within Aramco. The new KM journey has just started and we are looking forward to more accomplishments,” said Ahmad A. Al-Sa’adi, senior vice president of Technical Services.
Aramco’s next KM endeavor will focus on further maximizing business value by adopting state-of-the-art artificial intelligence technologies to automate knowledge discovery and dissemination.
The value of KM
KM has long been considered a way to drive competitive advantage and transformation to a learning organization, but the challenge has been to build and sustain a KM program that drives measurable business value. APQC uses its rigorous Capability Assessment Tool to evaluate programs to identify focus areas and maintain continuous improvement of organizations.
CAT allows organizations to measure and benchmark KM competencies in areas such as governance, leadership, content management, measurements, and others. This KM maturity assessment model has been internationally recognized by more than 500 companies worldwide.
“More than ever before, Aramco realizes how seamless access to knowledge enables innovation, mitigates risk, and helps our organization to achieve operational excellence,” said Anwar M. Al-Zahrani, manager of Aramco’s Operational Excellence Department.
Taking action
In 2018, an internal assessment using CAT showed a low KM maturity level and highlighted areas for improvement. Under the direction of the KM Board, Aramco began a three-year improvement plan to enhance KM governance, development of knowledge platforms, establishment of an outreach program, and embracing digital transformation solutions. T
he new Corporate Knowledge Base is among the key initiatives that has been developed to represent a centralized collaborative platform for all of the company’s organizations to explore, share, and reuse knowledge while capturing business benefits.
“During the past 3 years, Aramco embraced a solid KM transformation strategy with special focus on technology and value realization,” said Khalid Y. Al-Qahtani, KM board chairman.
Also part of the improvement plan was the development of a training program to certify Knowledge Officers (KOs), who act as ambassadors in their organizations for efficient KM implementation. The program provides a full-fledged workshop to practice KM activities, which were developed based on industry recognized best practices. Since its inception, the training was delivered to approximately 300 participants with the plan to continue training more KOs over the next few years.
Late in 2021, an official KM assessment was conducted by APQC following the execution of the aforementioned 3-year improvement plan. As a result, the company achieved an exceptional record by scoring 4.9/5.0, which indicates the highest KM maturity level. This score is a testament of the successful corporate adoption of the KM program in line with the improvement plan and effective leadership.