Improving quality in knowledge process outsourcing

• Main Author: Chan, Kevin Arthur Y.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: Quality control; Indexing—Quality control; Business Administration, Management, and Operations
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdm_manorg/79; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etdm_manorg/article/1086/viewcontent/chan_Redacted.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

The Asian patent indexing team of The Information Company (not its real name) based in Manila has been experiencing quality issues in its output. The team attempted to address the issue through two initiatives. The first initiative was to develop the quality control (QC) team through learning discussion sessions. The second initiative was to standardize indexing practices of the team through feedback discussion sessions. The proposed interventions fall under the field of operations management. The main action research framework used in this paper is the action research cycle of David Coghlan. Kaizen (Continuous Improvement) was the content framework used. Nonaka’s four modes of knowledge conversion was the main process framework used. Results of the first initiative showed that the QC team had an increase in the average rating of their QC work which indicated improvement through the learning discussion sessions. Results of the second initiative showed an increase in the F-value quality score of the indexing team through the feedback discussion sessions. It was observed that there was less improvement in freelancers compared to regular employees. This is likely because they lack the socialization step of Nonaka’s four modes.