Final Report Summary - PASSAGE (Passage)
The PASSAGE project, lead by TexClubtec Italy (IT) and four other small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) associations in textile and clothing, namely OMI France (FR), SEPEE Greece (GR), APM Romania (RO) and CCI of Vratsa Bulgaria (BG) has worked from December 2008 to November 2011 to develop an integrated solution, based on an online platform to provide to SMEs guides, tools and methods to identify their know-how, assess its importance, preserve it and valorise it in different ways, in the framework of a more global preventive management of their HRs.
The development of the platform and the solutions of PASSAGE has been sub-contracted to a team of 5 technical partners, lead by IFTH (FR) and comprising ATC (GR), Clotefi (GR), Soltec (IT) and Raliant (RO).
To test the solutions four SMEs have participated to the project: Textile du Maine (FR), Filatura Marchi (IT), NOTA (GR) and Miraje (BG).
The results of the project are grouped within a multilingual PASSAGE online platform, also called capacity building platform (CBP), on one site (see http://www.passage-know-how.eu online), which offers the following tools and functionalities:
1. a strategic auto-diagnostic tool for facilitating the expression of the SME business strategy and the identification of jobs affected by it;
2. a know-how assessment tool for assessing the importance of the know-how detained by the job positions in the company;
3. a documented job profiles database for informing on specific features of jobs under pressure on a given branch of activity, facilitating existing and target job position descriptions (through the use of a 'profiling tool'), including information on existing know-how for activities performed by these job positions;
4. a know-how experts identification matrix for identifying who in a job position detains the best knowledge of know-how and to forecast how long (s)he will remain in the company (forecasted retirement or departure) for planning his/her replacement and the preservation of his/her know-how;
5. a know-how capture toolkit, composed of guides, courseware, a database and an interface offering a set of functions to document, online or offline, in a safe (protected access and fully manageable rules for sharing or not any part of the documentation stored), structured and re-exploitable way any existing know-how;
6. tools to easily and rapidly extract selected parts of know-how documentation for producing easily guides or promotional materials based on it, courses or courseware, or instructions to a sub-contractor on how to proceed to produce a specific order;
7. examples of guides, promotional materials, courseware and enriched with know-how technical sheets;
8. questionnaires to assess the capacity of sub-contractor to perform an order, taking into account their level of know-how for the targeted production.
The PASSAGE partners intend to offer the PASSAGE solution in four packs, in priority to the associations members, but beyond that to any interested association of SMEs (of textile and clothing - but not exclusively), as well as to bigger organisations who detain know-how and may be interested to find solutions to preserve and valorise it. The proposed packs are:
1. an introductory self-diagnostics pack for SME-managers;
2. a human resource (HR) management pack for HR managers;
3. a know-how management pack mainly for consultants, but also for HR managers, production managers, trainers and marketing and sales managers;
4. a know-how valorisation pack, offered as complement of the above and including examples of guides, promotional materials, courseware and enriched with know-how technical sheets; questionnaires to assess the capacity of sub-contractors to perform an order, taking into account their level of know-how for the targeted production.
Project context and objectives:
The objectives of PASSAGE are to support industrial SMEs in better preserving and managing core industrial knowledge and enhancing their competitive position based on a better capitalisation of knowledge-based advantages.
PASSAGE offers answers to four acute problems that SMEs encounter in HR management:
1. losses of critical industrial know-how due caused by workforce attrition, due not only to ageing population (retirement) but also to downsizing and restructuring, linked to the process of migration of production capacities to low wage labour countries;
2. needs of acquiring know-how for mastering new techniques, processes, linked to increased speeds of innovation in any domain;
3. needs to improve their know-how each day to remain competitive;
4. needs to transfer know-how they have to their partners, due to the development of a widely distributed working processes (externalisation of tasks, sub-contracting, enrichment of services to clients with knowledge).
For this, the PASSAGE project developed a web-based 'capability nanagement platform', providing industrial associations and their affiliated SMEs with on-line tools to assess risks of know-how loss, capture, preserve and transfer the existing key industrial expertise and forecast emerging competencies of strategic interest, taking into account the technological evolution and the industrial context.
Why is this initiative critical?
In particular, for the next five to seven years, maintaining a professional, skilled and qualified labour force will be a major issue in thousands of European businesses.
In fact, paralleling the steady aging of the population and the associated retirement wave, some other troubling facts are emerging, such as a growing migration of workers from their country of origin to a higher wage country or lowering investments in manufacturing and research in highly industrialised regions.
This scenario will make it more difficult to reach a satisfactory result in an effort to re-train and keep those strategic skills that can support a far-sighted strategy for this industry. There is a serious risk of losing a scientific, technological and professional heritage that, once lost or wasted, would take many years to regain. The problem is exacerbated when the person is regarded as an expert in its field, either though skills and qualifications or simply through length of time in employment.
Even with regular staff attrition (mostly in sectors facing re-structuring and/or downsizing), most companies will need to find ways of addressing this serious organisational crisis, within a short period of time. The loss of knowledge has implications for HR departments and learning and development professionals, as strategies will need to be developed to enhance knowledge retention, accelerate the learning curve of any new staff as well as attempt to contribute to the existing corporate memory, where it exists.
PASSAGE relies on three competitive advantages:
1. it aims to provide friendly knowledge management solutions to SMEs, on a shared cost basis (accessible at cost and level of complexity);
2. it facilitates formalising implicit knowledge, a need rarely addressed;
3. it facilitates identifying knowledge in context and connecting know-how to enterprise roles and real persons.
The four steps of PASSAGE approach to implement its solution are:
1. Identify, forecast: These functions are supported by dedicated web-based diagnostic and forecast modules.
2. Capture, formalise: PASSAGE provides web-based tools and methods to capture and formalise the industrial knowledge of a company, whether explicit or implicit.
3. Store, manage, preserve: Rights for distributed corporate access can be easily set and collaboration teams for formalisation of know-how easy maintained.
4. Transfer: In the last step, captured knowledge of experienced employees, structured through models and documented with references, technical sheets, multimedia files, is prepared for an efficient transfer to new-comers or industrial partners.
How it works and what does it offer?
The CBP of PASSAGE proposes a series of solutions according to a five steps process:
1. Step 1: Identifying which job positions may be affected by the business strategy. Result: List of strategic job positions and decisions on actions to be taken for each, passed for further examination to HR managers. PASSAGE solution: Strategic auto-diagnostic to be performed periodically; strategic job positions are jobs linked to strategic decisions.
2. Step 2: Identifying know-how detained by jobs affected by the strategic decisions. Result: List of know-how detained (or to be acquired) to perform activities under the responsibility of workers occupying strategic job positions. PASSAGE solutions: PASSAGE job profiles database and tools; to facilitate the description of job positions and identify activities performed including the involved know-how; to identify know-how required to transform an existing job position to a target job position; PASAGE matrix (to identify operations and persons in the company detaining know-how required for performing them).
3. Step 3: Identifying the critical know-how. Result: List of critical know-how detained (or to be acquired) ranked by level of criticality in order to focus further management actions to the most important know-how for the company. PASSAGE solution: PASSAGE know-how criticality assessment tool.
4. Step 4: Organising an exploitable and structured documentation of the know-how. Result: Documented critical know-how detained (or acquired); safe storage (to preserve its confidentiality); structured storage (to facilitate its retrieving); easily manageable and controlled transfer of selective parts of know-how. PASSAGE solution: PASSAGE know-how capture toolkit (guides, courseware, online and offline tools and databases, selective extraction tools).
5. Step 5: Valorising the documented know-how. Companies can valorise, exploit and promote their documented know-how in different ways. Result: Different types of extraction and transfer of know-how; different types of documents produced out of selected parts of captured and documented know-how. PASSAGE solutions: PASSAGE know-how courseware (customisable training modules based on know-how captures); PASSAGE know-how expert guides (selective extractions for promoting company's know-how internally and externally); PASSAGE know-how e-technical files (transmission of instructions to sub-contractors on how to perform an order). The http://www.passage-know-how.eu website is an operational platform to help (even small) European Union (EU) industries to do all above operations by themselves after an initial training and an initial phase of use of the platform with the support of a consultant.
Project results:
Main scientific and technical (S&T) results / foregrounds of PASSAGE are available through the PASSAGE CBP platform (see http://www.passage-know-how.eu online) and described in the corresponding deliverables, each of them.
These results are:
1. the CBP platform itself, described in deliverable D13 (Capability management platform final version);
2. the strategic job profiles description, available as a report in English and French (D2), but also in the form of an online database on the site (see below);
3. mappings per country, available as reports in D3 as D3.1;
4. a documented job profiles database, using the contents of D2 and organised following the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) structure and open to the creation of new references profiles, described in D3 as D3.3;
4. a strategic auto-diagnostic tool for facilitating the expression of the SME business strategy and the identification of jobs affected by it - described in D3 as D3.2;
5. the PASSAGE anticipation matrix (or know-how experts identification matrix), which is described in D4 as D4.1; in the form of an excel sheet it allows to identify the tasks or operations that must be analysed before processing a preservation of know-how, the players likely to transfer know-how on an activity or a given operation (know-how experts) and internally, if this is the choice of the company, people eligible for the transfer of skills;
6. a know-how assessment tool for assessing the importance of the know-how detained by the job positions in the company, described in D4, under D4.2;
7. a know-how capture toolkit, described in D5, containing methodology guides (D5.1) a mock-up of the developed online application (D5.2); it is described in D5.3;
8. tools to easily and rapidly extract selected parts of know-how documentation for producing easily different documents for different usages. This includes a profiling tool to define customised training needs (described in D11) and tools for extracting knowledge to prepare its customised transfer to target audiences (described in D12);
9. examples of guides and promotional materials produced using captured know-how (described in D17.1) and tools to produce them (described in D17.2) courseware (described in D16) and enriched with know-how technical sheets (described in D18);
10. questionnaires to assess the capacity of sub-contractor to perform an order, taking into account their level of know-how for the targeted production (described also in D18).
Potential impact:
It is worth to note that even if currently the contents developed are focused on textile and clothing, the technical solutions as well as the methods set up by PASSAGE leave open possibilities of exploitation for industries outside these sectors and even for public or private services providers.
Indeed, more important than the sector of activity is the existence in the staff of persons detaining a know-how important for the company which is neither largely shared nor easily substitutable and it plays an important role in the smooth delivery of products or services (in terms of quality and productivity) to key clients or market segments.
Also in terms of target organisations it has been observed during demonstration and dissemination activities that the interest grows with the size of the company, its level of expertise and the expected importance of the turnover of its staff in the next future.
The above criteria should therefore guide further possible exploitation to new market segments such as public administration and services (to handle staff reductions), companies with high percentages of old staff or in sectors, other than textile and clothing facing important restructuration threats, even if the initial core target was SMEs of textile and clothing and their associations.
The typology of users examined below is more function-oriented than sector-based defined.
In fact, each type of user corresponds to one of the four packages under which the PASSAGE results have been grouped.
Main target users are entrepreneurs and GL managers of SMEs; HR managers; consultants in know-how managers and company trainers.
Other target profiles having specific interest to use of subsets of these four groups are listed below:
1. Sales and marketing managers: Using the platform, if they are authorised, they can develop, using the facilities provided to select pieces of the documentation stored in know-how databases, know-how catalogues (User Guides) providing new selling arguments to targeted clients and promotion themes to campaigns targeted to specific market segments, insisting on the high level and the specificity of the know-how detained by the company.
2. Purchasing department agents: They can use the questionnaire for sub-contractors to select sub-contractors present on a PASSAGE based platform, based on their specific expertise and know-how, especially for producing products or services.
Example of user scenario: What an HR consultant or manager can do with PASSAGE?
For instance, what are the potential uses for a HR manager?
Use of job profiles section and especially the existing job profile database and the profiling tool for:
1. producing a full description of existing job positions, using already documented profiles and enriching them;
2. benchmarking of an existing job position, towards already documented target job profiles related to this job position;
3. decision making on jobs evolution to make them fit to 'standard' or 'recommended' profiles or business targets and objectives, by systematic review of all key elements characterising a job position's description;
4. providing lists of targets for customised training curricula definition.
Use of job profiles section and the existing know-how database for: facilitating the selection of existing and relevant for such evolution documentation on know-how
Use of courseware and user guides for training existing staff (or attract new talents from outside).
Example of user scenario for such user:
1. define an existing job position of person X related to N existing job profiles (reference job profiles or enterprise job profiles);
2. resulting 'full existing job position description' is created by merging the information of each cell the N Job profiles declared;
3. revise this 'full existing job position description' to describe in each field the specific information concerning the person X occupying the job position and create a 'full existing job position description of person X';
4. define a target job position related to N1 existing job profiles (reference job profiles or enterprise job profiles);
5. resulting 'full target job position description' is created by merging the information of each cell the N1 job profiles declared;
6. revise this 'full target job position description' to describe in each field the specific information concerning the targeted job position and create a 'full job targeted position description of person X';
7. select the fields to match between 'full existing job position description of person X' and 'full job targeted position description of person X' (e.g. skills, activities and/or know-how);
8. obtain a grid with for each field of the Full job position description (which will have the same structure as the current job profiles description but will refer to more than one job profile), i.e. on the left the 'full existing job position description of person X'; on its middle the 'full job targeted position description of person X'; on the right the 'decisions' taken to bridge the displayed gaps; on the extreme right the level of difficulty to implement the decision and the importance of implementing the decision (priority level); on the extreme right: possibility to assess the level of difficulty to implement the decision;
9. fill decisions, difficulty and importance columns and establish a 'plan of evolution of competences of person X';
10. communicate using this plan with training organisations, HR management experts and the person X and implement the decisions taken;
11. use the field 'know-how' to collect all documentation existing on a missing and needed know-how which is on PASSAGE and provide it either to a training organisation or directly to person X.
The packs which will be proposed - targets - exploitation plans:
The PASSAGE partners intend to offer the PASSAGE solution in four packs:
1. An introductory self-diagnostics pack for SME-managers including the strategic auto-diagnostic tool the know-how assessment tool. The pack will be offered directly, after a trial use with a consultant, or through SME associations or consultants, to the target users at a price for final users of EUR 150 per year. First target will be the members of the associations involved in PASSAGE, at a second step associations in textile and clothing of the participating countries, at a third step associations in textile and clothing in other countries in Euromed, at a fourth step associations of SMEs of other industry sectors. Annual revenues of exploiting this pack are evaluated at EUR 155 000.
2. A HR management pack for HR managers, including the know-how assessment tool; the documented job profiles database for informing on specific features of jobs under pressure on a given branch of activity, facilitating existing and target job position descriptions (through the use of a 'profiling tool'), including information on existing know-how for activities performed by these job positions; the know-how experts identification matrix for identifying who in a job position detains the best knowledge of know-how. The pack will be offered directly, after a trial use with a consultant, or through SME associations or consultants, to the target users at a price for final users of EUR 600 per year. First target will be the big SMEs and bigger companies members of the associations involved in PASSAGE, at a second step associations in textile and clothing of the participating countries, at a third step associations in textile and clothing in other countries in Euromed, at a fourth step associations of other sectors (including non industrial sectors - as for instance public administrations could be also interested). Potential annual revenues of exploiting this pack are estimated at more than EUR 300 000
3. A know-how management pack mainly for consultants, but also for HR managers, production managers, trainers and marketing and sales managers including the know-how experts identification matrix; the know-how capture toolkit, composed of guides, courseware, a database and an interface offering a set of functions to document, online or offline, in a safe (protected access and fully manageable rules for sharing or not any part of the documentation stored), structured and re-exploitable way any existing know-how; tools to easily and rapidly extract selected parts of know-how documentation for producing easily guides or promotional materials based on it, courses or courseware, or instructions to a sub-contractor on how to proceed to produce a specific order
4. A know-how valorisation pack, offered as complement of the above and including examples of guides, promotional materials, courseware and enriched with know-how technical sheets; questionnaires to assess the capacity of sub-contractor to perform an order, taking into account their level of know-how for the targeted production. The pack will be offered directly, after a trial use with a consultant, or through SME associations or consultants, to the target users at a price for final users of EUR 750 per year. First target will be the companies members of the associations involved in PASSAGE, at a second step associations in textile and clothing of the participating countries, at a third step associations in textile and clothing in other countries in Euromed, at a fourth step associations of other sectors (including non Industrial sectors - as for instance public administrations could be also interested). Potential annual revenues of exploiting this pack are estimated at more than EUR 400 000.
That means that more than EUR 750 000 could be shared between the five involved SME associations (average EUR 150 000 of revenues for each of them), while prices for final users will be very attractive for those (other associations and consultants) who will be involved in the distribution of this solution.
That's why at least two associations belonging to the consortium intend to exploit these results: TexClubTec and OMI.
As TexClubTec is interested in the financial exploitation after the project, there are two options of a business model: the first option is the direct selling only the product (mainly to large-scale enterprises and public institutions); the second option is to sell also the associated service to support the users in better managing the tools of the 'capability management platform' (mainly to SMEs).
A crucial point concerning this topic constitutes the ability to initiate new projects with regard to the gained competences in the field of HR management. Specifically, an exploitation of PASSAGE, relating preserving and managing industrial knowledge, is already been included in a cooperation agreement with Confindustria Como (Industrial association with 250 companies) to support projects of industrial reorganisation from the side of preserving and managing core industrial knowledge.
Beyond the project lifetime, OMI will exploit not only the web-services but also the on the field support to its SME members. More specifically, OMI will propose that the strategic diagnosis could be used by Forthac consultants and IFTH transfer engineers. Updating of risks, opportunities and projects, resulting from previous users experience will enrich it. SMEs will get out of it identification of actions needed to put in place to manage their skills strategy (anticipation and recruitment support, training, technological assistance etc.).
OMI, with the support of IFTH and Forthac collaboration, will develop a 'labellised training programme dedicated to experts, on the identification / preservation / transfer of critical and strategic know-how'.
List of websites:
- http://www.passage-project.eu
- http://www.passage-know-how.eu
The development of the platform and the solutions of PASSAGE has been sub-contracted to a team of 5 technical partners, lead by IFTH (FR) and comprising ATC (GR), Clotefi (GR), Soltec (IT) and Raliant (RO).
To test the solutions four SMEs have participated to the project: Textile du Maine (FR), Filatura Marchi (IT), NOTA (GR) and Miraje (BG).
The results of the project are grouped within a multilingual PASSAGE online platform, also called capacity building platform (CBP), on one site (see http://www.passage-know-how.eu online), which offers the following tools and functionalities:
1. a strategic auto-diagnostic tool for facilitating the expression of the SME business strategy and the identification of jobs affected by it;
2. a know-how assessment tool for assessing the importance of the know-how detained by the job positions in the company;
3. a documented job profiles database for informing on specific features of jobs under pressure on a given branch of activity, facilitating existing and target job position descriptions (through the use of a 'profiling tool'), including information on existing know-how for activities performed by these job positions;
4. a know-how experts identification matrix for identifying who in a job position detains the best knowledge of know-how and to forecast how long (s)he will remain in the company (forecasted retirement or departure) for planning his/her replacement and the preservation of his/her know-how;
5. a know-how capture toolkit, composed of guides, courseware, a database and an interface offering a set of functions to document, online or offline, in a safe (protected access and fully manageable rules for sharing or not any part of the documentation stored), structured and re-exploitable way any existing know-how;
6. tools to easily and rapidly extract selected parts of know-how documentation for producing easily guides or promotional materials based on it, courses or courseware, or instructions to a sub-contractor on how to proceed to produce a specific order;
7. examples of guides, promotional materials, courseware and enriched with know-how technical sheets;
8. questionnaires to assess the capacity of sub-contractor to perform an order, taking into account their level of know-how for the targeted production.
The PASSAGE partners intend to offer the PASSAGE solution in four packs, in priority to the associations members, but beyond that to any interested association of SMEs (of textile and clothing - but not exclusively), as well as to bigger organisations who detain know-how and may be interested to find solutions to preserve and valorise it. The proposed packs are:
1. an introductory self-diagnostics pack for SME-managers;
2. a human resource (HR) management pack for HR managers;
3. a know-how management pack mainly for consultants, but also for HR managers, production managers, trainers and marketing and sales managers;
4. a know-how valorisation pack, offered as complement of the above and including examples of guides, promotional materials, courseware and enriched with know-how technical sheets; questionnaires to assess the capacity of sub-contractors to perform an order, taking into account their level of know-how for the targeted production.
Project context and objectives:
The objectives of PASSAGE are to support industrial SMEs in better preserving and managing core industrial knowledge and enhancing their competitive position based on a better capitalisation of knowledge-based advantages.
PASSAGE offers answers to four acute problems that SMEs encounter in HR management:
1. losses of critical industrial know-how due caused by workforce attrition, due not only to ageing population (retirement) but also to downsizing and restructuring, linked to the process of migration of production capacities to low wage labour countries;
2. needs of acquiring know-how for mastering new techniques, processes, linked to increased speeds of innovation in any domain;
3. needs to improve their know-how each day to remain competitive;
4. needs to transfer know-how they have to their partners, due to the development of a widely distributed working processes (externalisation of tasks, sub-contracting, enrichment of services to clients with knowledge).
For this, the PASSAGE project developed a web-based 'capability nanagement platform', providing industrial associations and their affiliated SMEs with on-line tools to assess risks of know-how loss, capture, preserve and transfer the existing key industrial expertise and forecast emerging competencies of strategic interest, taking into account the technological evolution and the industrial context.
Why is this initiative critical?
In particular, for the next five to seven years, maintaining a professional, skilled and qualified labour force will be a major issue in thousands of European businesses.
In fact, paralleling the steady aging of the population and the associated retirement wave, some other troubling facts are emerging, such as a growing migration of workers from their country of origin to a higher wage country or lowering investments in manufacturing and research in highly industrialised regions.
This scenario will make it more difficult to reach a satisfactory result in an effort to re-train and keep those strategic skills that can support a far-sighted strategy for this industry. There is a serious risk of losing a scientific, technological and professional heritage that, once lost or wasted, would take many years to regain. The problem is exacerbated when the person is regarded as an expert in its field, either though skills and qualifications or simply through length of time in employment.
Even with regular staff attrition (mostly in sectors facing re-structuring and/or downsizing), most companies will need to find ways of addressing this serious organisational crisis, within a short period of time. The loss of knowledge has implications for HR departments and learning and development professionals, as strategies will need to be developed to enhance knowledge retention, accelerate the learning curve of any new staff as well as attempt to contribute to the existing corporate memory, where it exists.
PASSAGE relies on three competitive advantages:
1. it aims to provide friendly knowledge management solutions to SMEs, on a shared cost basis (accessible at cost and level of complexity);
2. it facilitates formalising implicit knowledge, a need rarely addressed;
3. it facilitates identifying knowledge in context and connecting know-how to enterprise roles and real persons.
The four steps of PASSAGE approach to implement its solution are:
1. Identify, forecast: These functions are supported by dedicated web-based diagnostic and forecast modules.
2. Capture, formalise: PASSAGE provides web-based tools and methods to capture and formalise the industrial knowledge of a company, whether explicit or implicit.
3. Store, manage, preserve: Rights for distributed corporate access can be easily set and collaboration teams for formalisation of know-how easy maintained.
4. Transfer: In the last step, captured knowledge of experienced employees, structured through models and documented with references, technical sheets, multimedia files, is prepared for an efficient transfer to new-comers or industrial partners.
How it works and what does it offer?
The CBP of PASSAGE proposes a series of solutions according to a five steps process:
1. Step 1: Identifying which job positions may be affected by the business strategy. Result: List of strategic job positions and decisions on actions to be taken for each, passed for further examination to HR managers. PASSAGE solution: Strategic auto-diagnostic to be performed periodically; strategic job positions are jobs linked to strategic decisions.
2. Step 2: Identifying know-how detained by jobs affected by the strategic decisions. Result: List of know-how detained (or to be acquired) to perform activities under the responsibility of workers occupying strategic job positions. PASSAGE solutions: PASSAGE job profiles database and tools; to facilitate the description of job positions and identify activities performed including the involved know-how; to identify know-how required to transform an existing job position to a target job position; PASAGE matrix (to identify operations and persons in the company detaining know-how required for performing them).
3. Step 3: Identifying the critical know-how. Result: List of critical know-how detained (or to be acquired) ranked by level of criticality in order to focus further management actions to the most important know-how for the company. PASSAGE solution: PASSAGE know-how criticality assessment tool.
4. Step 4: Organising an exploitable and structured documentation of the know-how. Result: Documented critical know-how detained (or acquired); safe storage (to preserve its confidentiality); structured storage (to facilitate its retrieving); easily manageable and controlled transfer of selective parts of know-how. PASSAGE solution: PASSAGE know-how capture toolkit (guides, courseware, online and offline tools and databases, selective extraction tools).
5. Step 5: Valorising the documented know-how. Companies can valorise, exploit and promote their documented know-how in different ways. Result: Different types of extraction and transfer of know-how; different types of documents produced out of selected parts of captured and documented know-how. PASSAGE solutions: PASSAGE know-how courseware (customisable training modules based on know-how captures); PASSAGE know-how expert guides (selective extractions for promoting company's know-how internally and externally); PASSAGE know-how e-technical files (transmission of instructions to sub-contractors on how to perform an order). The http://www.passage-know-how.eu website is an operational platform to help (even small) European Union (EU) industries to do all above operations by themselves after an initial training and an initial phase of use of the platform with the support of a consultant.
Project results:
Main scientific and technical (S&T) results / foregrounds of PASSAGE are available through the PASSAGE CBP platform (see http://www.passage-know-how.eu online) and described in the corresponding deliverables, each of them.
These results are:
1. the CBP platform itself, described in deliverable D13 (Capability management platform final version);
2. the strategic job profiles description, available as a report in English and French (D2), but also in the form of an online database on the site (see below);
3. mappings per country, available as reports in D3 as D3.1;
4. a documented job profiles database, using the contents of D2 and organised following the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) structure and open to the creation of new references profiles, described in D3 as D3.3;
4. a strategic auto-diagnostic tool for facilitating the expression of the SME business strategy and the identification of jobs affected by it - described in D3 as D3.2;
5. the PASSAGE anticipation matrix (or know-how experts identification matrix), which is described in D4 as D4.1; in the form of an excel sheet it allows to identify the tasks or operations that must be analysed before processing a preservation of know-how, the players likely to transfer know-how on an activity or a given operation (know-how experts) and internally, if this is the choice of the company, people eligible for the transfer of skills;
6. a know-how assessment tool for assessing the importance of the know-how detained by the job positions in the company, described in D4, under D4.2;
7. a know-how capture toolkit, described in D5, containing methodology guides (D5.1) a mock-up of the developed online application (D5.2); it is described in D5.3;
8. tools to easily and rapidly extract selected parts of know-how documentation for producing easily different documents for different usages. This includes a profiling tool to define customised training needs (described in D11) and tools for extracting knowledge to prepare its customised transfer to target audiences (described in D12);
9. examples of guides and promotional materials produced using captured know-how (described in D17.1) and tools to produce them (described in D17.2) courseware (described in D16) and enriched with know-how technical sheets (described in D18);
10. questionnaires to assess the capacity of sub-contractor to perform an order, taking into account their level of know-how for the targeted production (described also in D18).
Potential impact:
It is worth to note that even if currently the contents developed are focused on textile and clothing, the technical solutions as well as the methods set up by PASSAGE leave open possibilities of exploitation for industries outside these sectors and even for public or private services providers.
Indeed, more important than the sector of activity is the existence in the staff of persons detaining a know-how important for the company which is neither largely shared nor easily substitutable and it plays an important role in the smooth delivery of products or services (in terms of quality and productivity) to key clients or market segments.
Also in terms of target organisations it has been observed during demonstration and dissemination activities that the interest grows with the size of the company, its level of expertise and the expected importance of the turnover of its staff in the next future.
The above criteria should therefore guide further possible exploitation to new market segments such as public administration and services (to handle staff reductions), companies with high percentages of old staff or in sectors, other than textile and clothing facing important restructuration threats, even if the initial core target was SMEs of textile and clothing and their associations.
The typology of users examined below is more function-oriented than sector-based defined.
In fact, each type of user corresponds to one of the four packages under which the PASSAGE results have been grouped.
Main target users are entrepreneurs and GL managers of SMEs; HR managers; consultants in know-how managers and company trainers.
Other target profiles having specific interest to use of subsets of these four groups are listed below:
1. Sales and marketing managers: Using the platform, if they are authorised, they can develop, using the facilities provided to select pieces of the documentation stored in know-how databases, know-how catalogues (User Guides) providing new selling arguments to targeted clients and promotion themes to campaigns targeted to specific market segments, insisting on the high level and the specificity of the know-how detained by the company.
2. Purchasing department agents: They can use the questionnaire for sub-contractors to select sub-contractors present on a PASSAGE based platform, based on their specific expertise and know-how, especially for producing products or services.
Example of user scenario: What an HR consultant or manager can do with PASSAGE?
For instance, what are the potential uses for a HR manager?
Use of job profiles section and especially the existing job profile database and the profiling tool for:
1. producing a full description of existing job positions, using already documented profiles and enriching them;
2. benchmarking of an existing job position, towards already documented target job profiles related to this job position;
3. decision making on jobs evolution to make them fit to 'standard' or 'recommended' profiles or business targets and objectives, by systematic review of all key elements characterising a job position's description;
4. providing lists of targets for customised training curricula definition.
Use of job profiles section and the existing know-how database for: facilitating the selection of existing and relevant for such evolution documentation on know-how
Use of courseware and user guides for training existing staff (or attract new talents from outside).
Example of user scenario for such user:
1. define an existing job position of person X related to N existing job profiles (reference job profiles or enterprise job profiles);
2. resulting 'full existing job position description' is created by merging the information of each cell the N Job profiles declared;
3. revise this 'full existing job position description' to describe in each field the specific information concerning the person X occupying the job position and create a 'full existing job position description of person X';
4. define a target job position related to N1 existing job profiles (reference job profiles or enterprise job profiles);
5. resulting 'full target job position description' is created by merging the information of each cell the N1 job profiles declared;
6. revise this 'full target job position description' to describe in each field the specific information concerning the targeted job position and create a 'full job targeted position description of person X';
7. select the fields to match between 'full existing job position description of person X' and 'full job targeted position description of person X' (e.g. skills, activities and/or know-how);
8. obtain a grid with for each field of the Full job position description (which will have the same structure as the current job profiles description but will refer to more than one job profile), i.e. on the left the 'full existing job position description of person X'; on its middle the 'full job targeted position description of person X'; on the right the 'decisions' taken to bridge the displayed gaps; on the extreme right the level of difficulty to implement the decision and the importance of implementing the decision (priority level); on the extreme right: possibility to assess the level of difficulty to implement the decision;
9. fill decisions, difficulty and importance columns and establish a 'plan of evolution of competences of person X';
10. communicate using this plan with training organisations, HR management experts and the person X and implement the decisions taken;
11. use the field 'know-how' to collect all documentation existing on a missing and needed know-how which is on PASSAGE and provide it either to a training organisation or directly to person X.
The packs which will be proposed - targets - exploitation plans:
The PASSAGE partners intend to offer the PASSAGE solution in four packs:
1. An introductory self-diagnostics pack for SME-managers including the strategic auto-diagnostic tool the know-how assessment tool. The pack will be offered directly, after a trial use with a consultant, or through SME associations or consultants, to the target users at a price for final users of EUR 150 per year. First target will be the members of the associations involved in PASSAGE, at a second step associations in textile and clothing of the participating countries, at a third step associations in textile and clothing in other countries in Euromed, at a fourth step associations of SMEs of other industry sectors. Annual revenues of exploiting this pack are evaluated at EUR 155 000.
2. A HR management pack for HR managers, including the know-how assessment tool; the documented job profiles database for informing on specific features of jobs under pressure on a given branch of activity, facilitating existing and target job position descriptions (through the use of a 'profiling tool'), including information on existing know-how for activities performed by these job positions; the know-how experts identification matrix for identifying who in a job position detains the best knowledge of know-how. The pack will be offered directly, after a trial use with a consultant, or through SME associations or consultants, to the target users at a price for final users of EUR 600 per year. First target will be the big SMEs and bigger companies members of the associations involved in PASSAGE, at a second step associations in textile and clothing of the participating countries, at a third step associations in textile and clothing in other countries in Euromed, at a fourth step associations of other sectors (including non industrial sectors - as for instance public administrations could be also interested). Potential annual revenues of exploiting this pack are estimated at more than EUR 300 000
3. A know-how management pack mainly for consultants, but also for HR managers, production managers, trainers and marketing and sales managers including the know-how experts identification matrix; the know-how capture toolkit, composed of guides, courseware, a database and an interface offering a set of functions to document, online or offline, in a safe (protected access and fully manageable rules for sharing or not any part of the documentation stored), structured and re-exploitable way any existing know-how; tools to easily and rapidly extract selected parts of know-how documentation for producing easily guides or promotional materials based on it, courses or courseware, or instructions to a sub-contractor on how to proceed to produce a specific order
4. A know-how valorisation pack, offered as complement of the above and including examples of guides, promotional materials, courseware and enriched with know-how technical sheets; questionnaires to assess the capacity of sub-contractor to perform an order, taking into account their level of know-how for the targeted production. The pack will be offered directly, after a trial use with a consultant, or through SME associations or consultants, to the target users at a price for final users of EUR 750 per year. First target will be the companies members of the associations involved in PASSAGE, at a second step associations in textile and clothing of the participating countries, at a third step associations in textile and clothing in other countries in Euromed, at a fourth step associations of other sectors (including non Industrial sectors - as for instance public administrations could be also interested). Potential annual revenues of exploiting this pack are estimated at more than EUR 400 000.
That means that more than EUR 750 000 could be shared between the five involved SME associations (average EUR 150 000 of revenues for each of them), while prices for final users will be very attractive for those (other associations and consultants) who will be involved in the distribution of this solution.
That's why at least two associations belonging to the consortium intend to exploit these results: TexClubTec and OMI.
As TexClubTec is interested in the financial exploitation after the project, there are two options of a business model: the first option is the direct selling only the product (mainly to large-scale enterprises and public institutions); the second option is to sell also the associated service to support the users in better managing the tools of the 'capability management platform' (mainly to SMEs).
A crucial point concerning this topic constitutes the ability to initiate new projects with regard to the gained competences in the field of HR management. Specifically, an exploitation of PASSAGE, relating preserving and managing industrial knowledge, is already been included in a cooperation agreement with Confindustria Como (Industrial association with 250 companies) to support projects of industrial reorganisation from the side of preserving and managing core industrial knowledge.
Beyond the project lifetime, OMI will exploit not only the web-services but also the on the field support to its SME members. More specifically, OMI will propose that the strategic diagnosis could be used by Forthac consultants and IFTH transfer engineers. Updating of risks, opportunities and projects, resulting from previous users experience will enrich it. SMEs will get out of it identification of actions needed to put in place to manage their skills strategy (anticipation and recruitment support, training, technological assistance etc.).
OMI, with the support of IFTH and Forthac collaboration, will develop a 'labellised training programme dedicated to experts, on the identification / preservation / transfer of critical and strategic know-how'.
List of websites:
- http://www.passage-project.eu
- http://www.passage-know-how.eu
