easier to produce something. What the paper points out is the level of sophi1

Abhishek is currently working with eXtendCode Software Systems India, an offshore software development company based at Gurgaon in India, which provides software solutions such as Web Enabled Solutions, Quality Assurance Services [http://www.extendcode.com/Services/QualityAssuranceServices.aspx], business intelligence solutions and Mobile Solutions etc. He has worked in the field for over 2 years and authored many articles related to the IT and software industries.

As technology commoditization begins speeding up again, it’s a great time to be a consumer in search of a state-of-the-art flat panel TVs, but less comfortable for manufacturers hoping to make a profit. That’s according to recent research by Willy Shih, Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration at Harvard Business School, who recently published a paper on the topic of technology commoditization in MIT Sloan Management Review.

According to Shih, manufacturers are able to duplicate the latest technology used in cutting-edge products much more quickly and cheaply than ever before. The reason? Tools are being developed that have more knowledge baked into them, meaning manufacturers don’t have to develop as much custom technology to compete.

Sean Silverthorne: Can you explain what you mean when you say that knowledge, particularly tacit knowledge, is now being embedded into the tools and building blocks used to make products?

Willy Shih: Knowledge is one of the core resources in a company, and translating that knowledge into processes that produce products and services is how companies create value. There are two types of knowledge—explicit and tacit. Explicit knowledge is something that is documented and is something we can search for. Maybe we look it up in a library, a recipe book, or an instruction manual for making something. As long as you can write it down or clearly explain it so other people can understand it and duplicate what you have done, it is explicit. Tacit knowledge, on the other hand, is trickier. It is know-how that is carried around in the heads of people that hasn’t necessarily been written down, and combines skills, prior experiences, and ideas that are not easily expressed. “We can know more than we can tell,” was how Michael Polanyi described it in his book Personal Knowledge in 1958. Sharing tacit knowledge is obviously harder, and that’s why it is often extremely valuable.

Knowledge gets embedded in tools when machine makers distill specialized know-how that might be critical to making something into mechanisms within that machine that allow the process to become routine and repeatable. Let’s use an example. Many of us have seen glassblowers who manipulate a glowing hot lump of molten glass and shape it into a bottle or some other shape. That artisan skillfully extracts the glass from the furnace when it is at the right working temperature and uses a variety of tools to blow, cut, or deform it into the desired shape using skilled hands and air pressure from the mouth.

These are skills that he or she developed over many years of practice. Can she explain how to do it to an apprentice? Probably, but it will take time and practice to learn all the tricks and perfect the art, making a lot of mistakes along the way. Yet there are machines that do produce all kinds of glass objects every day, from mason jars to windscreens for cars. What the machine makers did was devise mechanisms to incorporate that know-how. By carefully measuring and observing, they figured out the right temperatures and pressures and devised molds or handling devices to produce the right shape, or the right sequence of temperatures to heat, then cool and anneal the workpiece. They took a process that used a lot of tacit knowledge that required a lot of experience and practice to perfect and made it routine and predictable.

Production tools have always incorporated some amount of knowledge; that is the very essence of what they are, after all: instruments for making it easier to produce something. What the paper points out is the level of sophistication of this knowledge embodiment has increased dramatically, making it easy to make things that have long been very difficult or even impossible to produce otherwise. All you need is the money to buy the tool, and you can go into the business of making the widgets that the tool produces. And these days, those tools are not only for production, but they are also the tools for designing things—the computerized design and modeling systems for sophisticated electronic and mechanical parts. They make it far easier to design things like the automatic transmission of a car or a complex computer chip than what we used even a few years ago. You don’t need a generation 
Production tools have always incorporated some amount of knowledge; that is the very essence of what they are, after all: instruments for making it easier to produce something. What the paper points out is the level of sophistication of this knowledge embodiment has increased dramatically, making it easy to make things that have long been very difficult or even impossible to produce otherwise. All you need is the money to buy the tool, and you can go into the business of making the widgets that the tool 

Abhishek is currently working with eXtendCode Software Systems India, an offshore software development company based at Gurgaon in India, which provides software solutions such as Web Enabled Solutions, Quality Assurance Services [http://www.extendcode.com/Services/QualityAssuranceServices.aspx], business intelligence solutions and Mobile Solutions etc. He has worked in the field for over 2 years and authored many articles related to the IT and software industries.

As technology commoditization begins speeding up again, it’s a great time to be a consumer in search of a state-of-the-art flat panel TVs, but less comfortable for manufacturers hoping to make a profit. That’s according to recent research by Willy Shih, Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration at Harvard Business School, who recently published a paper on the topic of technology commoditization in MIT Sloan Management Review.

According to Shih, manufacturers are able to duplicate the latest technology used in cutting-edge products much more quickly and cheaply than ever before. The reason? Tools are being developed that have more knowledge baked into them, meaning manufacturers don’t have to develop as much custom technology to compete.

Sean Silverthorne: Can you explain what you mean when you say that knowledge, particularly tacit knowledge, is now being embedded into the tools and building blocks used to make products?

Willy Shih: Knowledge is one of the core resources in a company, and translating that knowledge into processes that produce products and services is how companies create value. There are two types of knowledge—explicit and tacit. Explicit knowledge is something that is documented and is something we can search for. Maybe we look it up in a library, a recipe book, or an instruction manual for making something. As long as you can write it down or clearly explain it so other people can understand it and duplicate what you have done, it is explicit. Tacit knowledge, on the other hand, is trickier. It is know-how that is carried around in the heads of people that hasn’t necessarily been written down, and combines skills, prior experiences, and ideas that are not easily expressed. “We can know more than we can tell,” was how Michael Polanyi described it in his book Personal Knowledge in 1958. Sharing tacit knowledge is obviously harder, and that’s why it is often extremely valuable.

Knowledge gets embedded in tools when machine makers distill specialized know-how that might be critical to making something into mechanisms within that machine that allow the process to become routine and repeatable. Let’s use an example. Many of us have seen glassblowers who manipulate a glowing hot lump of molten glass and shape it into a bottle or some other shape. That artisan skillfully extracts the glass from the furnace when it is at the right working temperature and uses a variety of tools to blow, cut, or deform it into the desired shape using skilled hands and air pressure from the mouth.

These are skills that he or she developed over many years of practice. Can she explain how to do it to an apprentice? Probably, but it will take time and practice to learn all the tricks and perfect the art, making a lot of mistakes along the way. Yet there are machines that do produce all kinds of glass objects every day, from mason jars to windscreens for cars. What the machine makers did was devise mechanisms to incorporate that know-how. By carefully measuring and observing, they figured out the right temperatures and pressures and devised molds or handling devices to produce the right shape, or the right sequence of temperatures to heat, then cool and anneal the workpiece. They took a process that used a lot of tacit knowledge that required a lot of experience and practice to perfect and made it routine and predictable.

Production tools have always incorporated some amount of knowledge; that is the very essence of what they are, after all: instruments for making it easier to produce something. What the paper points out is the level of sophistication of this knowledge embodiment has increased dramatically, making it easy to make things that have long been very difficult or even impossible to produce otherwise. All you need is the money to buy the tool, and you can go into the business of making the widgets that the tool produces. And these days, those tools are not only for production, but they are also the tools for designing things—the computerized design and modeling systems for sophisticated electronic and mechanical parts. They make it far easier to design things like the automatic transmission of a car or a complex computer chip than what we used even a few years ago. You don’t need a generation 
Production tools have always incorporated some amount of knowledge; that is the very essence of what they are, after all: instruments for making it easier to produce something. What the paper points out is the level of sophistication of this knowledge embodiment has increased dramatically, making it easy to make things that have long been very difficult or even impossible to produce otherwise. All you need is the money to buy the tool, and you can go into the business of making the widgets that the tool 

Abhishek is currently working with eXtendCode Software Systems India, an offshore software development company based at Gurgaon in India, which provides software solutions such as Web Enabled Solutions, Quality Assurance Services [http://www.extendcode.com/Services/QualityAssuranceServices.aspx], business intelligence solutions and Mobile Solutions etc. He has worked in the field for over 2 years and authored many articles related to the IT and software industries.

As technology commoditization begins speeding up again, it’s a great time to be a consumer in search of a state-of-the-art flat panel TVs, but less comfortable for manufacturers hoping to make a profit. That’s according to recent research by Willy Shih, Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration at Harvard Business School, who recently published a paper on the topic of technology commoditization in MIT Sloan Management Review.

According to Shih, manufacturers are able to duplicate the latest technology used in cutting-edge products much more quickly and cheaply than ever before. The reason? Tools are being developed that have more knowledge baked into them, meaning manufacturers don’t have to develop as much custom technology to compete.

Sean Silverthorne: Can you explain what you mean when you say that knowledge, particularly tacit knowledge, is now being embedded into the tools and building blocks used to make products?

Willy Shih: Knowledge is one of the core resources in a company, and translating that knowledge into processes that produce products and services is how companies create value. There are two types of knowledge—explicit and tacit. Explicit knowledge is something that is documented and is something we can search for. Maybe we look it up in a library, a recipe book, or an instruction manual for making something. As long as you can write it down or clearly explain it so other people can understand it and duplicate what you have done, it is explicit. Tacit knowledge, on the other hand, is trickier. It is know-how that is carried around in the heads of people that hasn’t necessarily been written down, and combines skills, prior experiences, and ideas that are not easily expressed. “We can know more than we can tell,” was how Michael Polanyi described it in his book Personal Knowledge in 1958. Sharing tacit knowledge is obviously harder, and that’s why it is often extremely valuable.

Knowledge gets embedded in tools when machine makers distill specialized know-how that might be critical to making something into mechanisms within that machine that allow the process to become routine and repeatable. Let’s use an example. Many of us have seen glassblowers who manipulate a glowing hot lump of molten glass and shape it into a bottle or some other shape. That artisan skillfully extracts the glass from the furnace when it is at the right working temperature and uses a variety of tools to blow, cut, or deform it into the desired shape using skilled hands and air pressure from the mouth.

These are skills that he or she developed over many years of practice. Can she explain how to do it to an apprentice? Probably, but it will take time and practice to learn all the tricks and perfect the art, making a lot of mistakes along the way. Yet there are machines that do produce all kinds of glass objects every day, from mason jars to windscreens for cars. What the machine makers did was devise mechanisms to incorporate that know-how. By carefully measuring and observing, they figured out the right temperatures and pressures and devised molds or handling devices to produce the right shape, or the right sequence of temperatures to heat, then cool and anneal the workpiece. They took a process that used a lot of tacit knowledge that required a lot of experience and practice to perfect and made it routine and predictable.

Production tools have always incorporated some amount of knowledge; that is the very essence of what they are, after all: instruments for making it easier to produce something. What the paper points out is the level of sophistication of this knowledge embodiment has increased dramatically, making it easy to make things that have long been very difficult or even impossible to produce otherwise. All you need is the money to buy the tool, and you can go into the business of making the widgets that the tool produces. And these days, those tools are not only for production, but they are also the tools for designing things—the computerized design and modeling systems for sophisticated electronic and mechanical parts. They make it far easier to design things like the automatic transmission of a car or a complex computer chip than what we used even a few years ago. You don’t need a generation 
Production tools have always incorporated some amount of knowledge; that is the very essence of what they are, after all: instruments for making it easier to produce something. What the paper points out is the level of sophistication of this knowledge embodiment has increased dramatically, making it easy to make things that have long been very difficult or even impossible to produce otherwise. All you need is the money to buy the tool, and you can go into the business of making the widgets that the tool 

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