Knowledge Management in R&D at Corning

American Quality & Productivity Center

Dr. James ScottScience & TechnologyCorning Incorporated

April 28, 2010

Agenda

Company Overview

Innovation Culture From 1850 to Today

Lifetime of Knowledge

Knowledge Management Approach – Our History

Knowledge Management Challenge – Our Future

An Electronic Lab Notebook For Corning

Corning Incorporated

Founded:

1851

Headquarters:

Corning, New York

Employees:

Approximately 25,000 worldwide

2009 Revenues:

$5.4 billion

Corning’s Market Segments

Display Environmental Telecommunications Life Sciences

• AMLCD Glass

Substrates• Automotive Emissions

Control

• Diesel Emission Control

• Optical Fiber and Cable

• Hardware and Equipment• Drug Discovery and Genomics

• Cell and Molecular Biology

• General Laboratory Products

Specialty Materials

• Semiconductor Optics

• Mirrors and Windows

• Ophthalmic Products

Centralized Facility at Core of Global R&DE Network

• 1.5 MM sq. ft.

• All businesses

• All core technologies

• Pilot plants

• 1700 employees

Agenda

Company Overview

Innovation Culture From 1850 to Today

Lifetime of Knowledge

Knowledge Management Approach – Our History

Knowledge Management Challenge – Our Future

An Electronic Lab Notebook For Corning

A Deep Culture of Innovation at Corning

Processes for mass

producing the

television bulb

1947

First low-loss

optical fiber

19701879

Glass envelope for Thomas

Edison’s light bulb

1915

Heat-resistant Pyrex® glass

1984

AMLCD glass for

computers and

large screen TVs

1972

Ceramic substrates for

automotive catalytic

converters

Ribbon Machine – Still State of the Art Today

Corning – A Story of Discovery & Reinvention

A Culture of Knowledge Sharing in Corning

Company culture– Smallness; Informal; Polite; Friendly; People-oriented

– Deep belief in innovation success from collaboration

– Many stakeholders (councils)

forces communications; sharing; breaks down silos

Management Committee– Leads innovation governance from the top

– Frequent visits to R&D for program reviews

Technology + Business Leadership– Multiple, joint communication venues to share latest

information and to manage the innovation pipeline

Success From Integration of Multiple Capabilities

Semiconductor

Materials and

Processes

Inorganic

Materials and

Processes

Thin Films and

Surface Sciences

Organic Materials

and Processes

Characterization

and Modeling

Biochemical

Sciences

Optical Physics

and Integration

Technologies

Core Capabilities

Integrated Approach requires Knowledge Sharing

across the organization

Successful products are multi-technology

Innovation processes

– Strong cross-functional approach

Technical Report Repository

– Access to core knowledge

Patents / Intellectual Property

– Recognize every inventor at annual Patent Awards

Our R&D community is Culturally Global

– Diversity of thought and approach is valued

Centralized RD&E Essential for Effective

Knowledge Sharing

Common Infrastructure – Inclusive by Design

Innovation Hall

– Adjacent library, auditorium, and cafeteria

Technology “poster sessions” & “peer reviews”

– Widely attended

– Objective of sharing insight, gathering input

– One of our most effective Knowledge Sharing methods

Conference Rooms

– Fully equipped for effective collaboration

– Supporting cast ensures successful use of the tools

Knowledge Sharing Critical to Innovation

Cross-functional teams comprised of individuals from the

commercial, technology and manufacturing disciplines

Roadmapping

– Technical, competitive & market knowledge sources

Innovation Stage Gate Process

– Facilitated Execution Teams

– Project Team Electronic Workplace

Projects may be shelved and restarted later

– Technologies deemed unsuccessful may spin-off

successful capabilities later

Agenda

Company Overview

Innovation Culture From 1850 to Today

Lifetime of Knowledge

Knowledge Management Approach – Our History

Knowledge Management Challenge – Our Future

An Electronic Lab Notebook For Corning

Capability Expertise May Span Decades

Missile Nose-Cones becomes “Corning Ware”

– 1952 1958

Shaped Glass expertise “Corelle” becomes “Gorilla”

– 1963 2009

Fusion Glass expertise “Windshields” becomes LCD

– 1967 1986

Knowledge Retention or “organizational memory”

– May need to go back decades

Managing Knowledge - Transfer Methods

Physical Transfer (Shadowing, Job Assignments)

Interactive Transfer (Simulation)

Facilitated Transfer (Liaison roles)

Collective Transfer (COPs, Tutorials, Reviews)

Content Transfer (Digital repositories, Interviews)

Explicit

Tacit

Searchable

Experience

Agenda

Company Overview

Innovation Culture From 1850 to Today

Lifetime of Knowledge

Knowledge Management Approach – Our History

Knowledge Management Challenge – Our Future

An Electronic Lab Notebook For Corning

Knowledge Transfer - What has Worked ?

Experience methods have proven to be very successful over time

– Widespread Examples of CoPs, Tutorials, Reviews

– “Fellows” have provided an organizational memory

Our explicit capture of knowledge historically worked well

– A Repository of Technical Papers and Lab Notebooks

– Managed and Accessed through the TIC

– Our staff of Information Specialists enable access

In a rapid paced R&D environment, who has the time to read or search through old papers?

– The key to accelerated innovation is to quickly find:

What has been done before?

What lessons were learned?

Can this be applied to what I’m trying to do?

Knowledge Capture – Through the Ages

Knowledge

Source

80’s 90’s Future

Technical Reports Paper Abstract Online Electronic Access

Lab Notebooks Paper Retained by

Author

*** ELN ***

Instrumentation Data Electronic

Files

Composition & Properties Electronic

Databases

Journals Paper Electronic

Access

Outsourced

Catalog / Index Paper Discreet

Electronic

Index Collections

Knowledge Sharing All-In-1 Microsoft

Dominates

SharePoint

Communicating File Shares SharePoint

The Knowledge Management Challenge

The Future

We have so many sources of amassed “information”

– Previous projects

– Test results

– Outside knowledge

– Knowledge that is difficult to access (Technical Reports)

Microsoft Sharepoint emerges as a collaborative workspace

– OpenText & Documentum attempts over past 10 years failed

– The “usability” issue is critical to success

– Integrated into our Innovation Project Management processes

Some sources of knowledge still not accessible

– The Lab Notebook

Usefulness of Lab Notebook Over Time

KnowledgeValue

Time

1 year 5 years 15+ years

The real value of the notebook contentIs in first 3-5 years

The Lab Notebook Challenge for Corning

Some companies have adopted Electronic Notebooks

– Typically Pharma (regulated industries)

– High degree of structure & uniformity to R&D efforts

Many vendors of Notebooks

– mostly niche software companies

– CambridgeSoft & Symyx are typical

– Implementation can be very painful, lengthy and costly

– Driven by need for compliance or result of restructuring

Previous initiatives with knowledge capture & sharing

– Usability is the #1 “system” issue

Not: Tablet PCs, USB Pens

Although some capture technology will have a role to play

Approach Not Unique to Corning

Can be Huge Payoffs

If successful in changing the culture

Agenda

Company Overview

Innovation Culture From 1850 to Today

Lifetime of Knowledge

Knowledge Management Approach – Our History

Knowledge Management Challenge – Our Future

An Electronic Lab Notebook For Corning

An Electronic Lab Notebook for Corning

Built on top of what we have: Sharepoint

– We’ve invested 5 years in making this work

– Embedded in how project teams work

Adoption takes advantage of newest versions of “Office”

– Ease of use #1 criterion for success

– Use cases developed for most common uses of paper notebooks Have to deal with offline world

Not on network

– Paper input, non-Office documents

– IP/Legal team members ensure solution viable long term

Success criteria developed by a “user working team”

– Represents the organization

– Builds support for deployment across the organization

– Enabling and Supporting roles encourage adoption

Why Tackle ELN Now?

Pace of Innovation Activity increasing

Researchers need to be able to find “what they’ve

done” easily

– Also aids in ID filing and technical report generation

– Most of their information is already electronic

But can be widely dispersed

Our Technical Reports document successes well

Failures tend to be under-published

– And remain in the notebook

Finally a way to share notebooks content easily

– Authors idea generation recognition is protected

So Where are we Now?

CTO sponsorship

Leadership of RD&E steer effort

– Develop Vision and Goals (time-phased)

– Change Management

Working Team

– Respected across whole organization

– “For and Against” included

Proof Of Concept (visual design)

– Available February, 2010

Next Steps

– Refine requirements & boundary conditions Can’t be everything to everyone

– Develop Prototype

– Begin Pilot “workgroup”