Determining best practice production in an aluminium smelter involving sub-processes based substantially on tacit knowledge: an application of Communities of Practice

M G Nicholls () and B J Cargill
Additional contact information
M G Nicholls: RMIT University
B J Cargill: Swinburne University of Technology

Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2008, vol. 59, issue 1, 13-24

Abstract: Abstract This paper considers the difficulties associated with a production process that contains a sub-process that is not fully understood and for which data for many parameters are only able to be approximately obtained. The aluminium smelting industry epitomizes such a situation. Here, the critical sub-process that exemplifies these difficulties is the actual heart of the smelter, the electrolytic processing of alumina. This sub-process of aluminium production is at best ‘fuzzy’ and relies on the smelter operators to use their experience and tacit knowledge on a day-to-day basis, that is, the sub-process involves ‘alchemy’. In this paper, this is referred to as the tacit knowledge problem. The impact of such sub-processes on production is significant and the development of a methodology that will lead to a reduced reliance on uncertain alchemy associated with them, highly beneficial. The role of Communities of Practice in finding a solution to the tacit knowledge problem is discussed together with its integration into a mixed-mode model for the determination of best practice production for the smelter.

Keywords: Communities of Practice; mixed-mode modelling; knowledge management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602320 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:59:y:2008:i:1:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2602320

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... search/journal/41274

DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602320

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Operational Research Society is currently edited by Tom Archibald and Jonathan Crook

More articles in Journal of the Operational Research Society from Palgrave Macmillan, The OR Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().