On the Necessity for Identifying Waste in Knowledge Work Dominated Projects: A Case Study from Oil & Gas-Related Product Development Projects

Abstract

Within the field of management, knowledge management (KM) enables the generation, sharing, utilization and management of knowledge and information. In order to optimize the processes of KM, Lean thinking and tools can contribute to identifying and eliminating or reducing waste or activities and/or actions that disrupt or do not add value to the information and knowledge generation that ultimately returns value to the end user. Projects, such as product development projects (PDPs), are in general knowledge work (KW) dominated. This manuscript presents an exploratory case study, conducted at a company providing oil & gas operations’ services in Norway. The study examines the initial phases of their PDPs, where KM and KW play a more significant role, as information and knowledge are often limited, and uncertainty is high. It is hypothesized that waste in the early phases causes subsequent underperformance in the overall project. This manuscript first elaborates the notion of waste in knowledge work dominated projects from a theoretical perspective. Furthermore, a mixed-method approach was applied, while a survey and semi-structured interviews were conducted. Finally, the Gioia methodology is utilized to process the findings and present a conceptual framework to support KM as a means to prevent or minimize waste in KW-dominated projects.