Averages kill

As a company grows it starts looking at averages rather than specifics. Management decisions are then based on averages rather than on specifics.

There is an interesting saying on 'averages'. It says that the concept of average is like a bikini. What it reveals is interesting but what it hides is vital.

So as the company grows the vital things get hidden from the management's view. The management stops seeing the right things. And as a result sooner or later the company trips over and falls flat on its face either breaking a bone or eventually dying in the process.

The photograph shows how the 'law of triangulation' and the 'law of putting small things together to improve performance' work in increasing the stiffness (performance) of a structure.

This structure has been constructed out of very thin sheets (3 mm) of corrogated plastic material. Individually, each sheet can be crumpled up by the pressure of one hand. A five year old can do that easily.

But a miracle happens when such thin sheets are cleverly placed on top of each other and glued together to form innumerable small triangles. When constructed like this the material as a whole suddendly gains enormous strength. The structure does not give way under the load of six to seven adults standing or dancing on the fabricated structure.

The principle of 'triangulation' and the principle of 'putting small things together to change performance' come in handy to engineers to find creative solutions to their problems.

Organisational Awareness

Today I conducted a Review Test on System Reliability at Phoenix Yule. My idea was to test the participants on their understanding of the concepts, which might be realized from their individual scores. That is what I thought.

But the participants did something more intelligent than that. They put down all the scores (question wise) for all participants on an Excel worksheet and tried to look for some emerging patterns.

And soon they found many. I was simply amazed by the way they critically and openly examined their own shortcomings and organizational loopholes. They realised all by themselves that they and the organisation as a whole did not realize that keen and good quality observation was the key to solve 80 % of their problems.

They didn't stop at that. They then went forward to create a simple plan (I am a great believer of simple plans) to take care of their problems.

The lesson I learnt was that a group of eager and empowered people would go to any extent to make them and their organisation successful.

The other important lesson I took to heart is to freely part with your knowledge but not to thrust your ideas upon others. Only then people feel empowered and act on their new found knowledge.

Goodbye for now!

Why Maintenance module in SAP does not work?

Some of the primary reasons are the following:

1. When management uses it as a control mechanism rather than an empowering tool.

2. When the design of the module is too complicated or complex.

3. When it is designed more as a financial record keeping book

On Bees and Mobiles

A scientist from from the southern most state of India, Kerela, says that with the present rate of growth of mobile towers has not only lowered the growth rate of bees but also threatens their survival. When exposed to mobile waves the bees lose their orientation so much so that they fail to return to their hives.

He estimates that at this rate, entire population of bees would be wiped out in Kerala within the next five to ten years.

This is a fine example of 'system interaction'. In this example, we have at least two elements: mobile towers and bees. And they interact with each other in a special way that would wipe out the population of bees. It is interesting to note that when in a system no individual element is important by itself. In our case neither the bee nor the tower is important and the both lose their individual identities when they are within a system. When viewed from this perspective there is neither the bees nor the towers but a new entity emerges.

In this manner everything in our universe belongs to one system or the other or belong to multiple systems, simultaneously. Hence none of the element retains any individual identity but their real- time- behaviour is solely determined by the constant interactions of elements within various systems within which the elements survive.

Vibration Analysis Level 3 Certification

Just about completed conducting the level 3 certification course. The course was held at the Power Management Institute of NTPC, Noida. 19 participants attended the course and challenged the test, which was at the end of the four day training. Lot of learning and exchange took place and at the end of it all the participants felt empowered.

I always like to come back to PMI as I have done for the past three years but don't know how far I would be able to continue because of my failing health. It is always a great experience to learn!

System Thinking

System Thinking is nothing new. It was there for years. We find evidence of this in Mayan civilization.

Click this link to learn more on this:
http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=7633

Continuing Education for Engineers

Engineers play with concepts, physical laws and economic laws.

But while interacting with engineers from industries I find that most of them have forgotten to play. And the primary reason is that the subjects of Physics and Mathematics, the bedrock of engineering are not taught properly in the formative years. And therefore these subjects are forgotten after the first few years of an engineer's professional practice.

The good news is that the interest can be revived again.

While Physics is to taught through physical models, Mathematics must be taught through physical and graphical methods.

In that way people easily remember the concepts that empowers them to play and create new things and solve existing problem.

That is what engineers are meant to do well enough to serve society.

Going for Innovation is scary business

Now-a-days it is fahionable to talk about innovation. Most companies dream of turning their well oiled regular company into a classy innovative company about which even their competitors would discuss in a hushed tone that would ooze with respect.

All that sounds exciting. Very exciting, if I may say so. But the reality is something quite different. Most companies even with a lot of honest intention and effort fail to take off in the innovative direction.

And why is it so? There are many reasons. Here we shall highlight the most important reason.

To my mind the most important reason is the 'initial fright'. Innovation essentially involves 'change'. Over time most of us feel happy, secure and contented with what we think and do regularly. The feeling of security comes from routine and not from sudden disruption or changes. But innovation is all about disruption and changes in the way we think and go about doing what we think and know to be right. It is then natural that our mind detest sudden changes and therefore revolts. At the back of the mind the very thought of learning something new all over again is unnerving.

So how do we handle this 'fright'? We may effectively overcome such fright in three ways.

The easiest is to keep trying slowly and go with the flow. Changes automatically happen provided we keep thinking how or what we might do better.

The next way is to remember the adage 'Forgetting is more important than Learning'. We simply can't learn because the mind doesn't like to forget. Hence the mind has to be trained to forget our old ways of doing things.

The third way is by far the most difficult of the three. Only a few of us can achieve it. I call this third method as 'Playing and having Fun'. In this method we just enjoy doing what we do and take it up with the spirit of play. The play brings out the new concepts and ideas to enjoy better. And sooner or later we develop new ideas and concepts to do things in a better way. The best thing I like about the process is changes, even very disrupting changes, tend to happen effortlessly.

So why not enjoy and be happy.

Signing off for now,

Yours,
Dibyendu

Bottom up

Over the last 30 years of my professional life I have come to realize that the heart of any improvement process lies right at the bottom of the traditional organisational chart, i.e. the workers.

I understand that the word robot means the worker. So they are supposed to work with their hands and not supposed to use their mind or their heart for that matter. So treat them as another extention of the machines they work with.

When such an attitude is carried around for a long time the bottom dries up. It is no longer attractive to even look at. Management fails to pay the right attention. And over time the organisation goes into the red, little realizing that all the stored energy and talent needed for renewal and transformation lay in that often neglected place.

So there is an urgent need to improve the lot of the bottom. This may only be done through education, coaching and mentoring. Otherwise the bottom would sooner or later suck in the organisation.

So we now have a plan. We are helping Tega to open a technical training institute where school drop outs from nearby villages can join to learn some basic skills to get employed in industries.

It would help the drop out who would, otherwise, have nothing better to do. It would also help the industries and society at large.

The institute would start from October.

Mr D Bhattacharya made a fine observation -- Most people walk into a work area with a blank frame of mind. They have no clear idea about what to look at. Then they accidentally pick up on something and try to either spin a long yarn out of it or try to create a storm over a cup of hot tea. This is how most people spend their day in the workplace.

Our New Education Policy and A World of Possibilites

The recent changes to our school exam system brought about by our HRD Minister Mr. Kapil Sibal is welcome news. What he effectively did was to firmly press the 'delete' button on exams till Class X. It is clearly a 'winner'. Over the last two years the ministry has been trying to do this in slow but steady steps. So, it might not not come as a surprize if, in the near future, we see this happen to Class XII school leaving exams too (we have already done away with Class XI exams).

Apparently, this winning move aims to reduce or remove the unnecessary exam stress that children are subjected to and let them concentrate on learning and realize their true calling in life in a stress free environment. They would then go out into the world and and pursue their dreams to realize their potential and contribute to the society in terms of job and wealth creation.

But is there something more than what meets the eye?

It is a shift in paradigm. For the last three hundred years or so our world is ruled by a ruthless and unrelenting measurement system. We classify and compare things. So a student who gets 92% is better than a student who scores 80%. Similarly a person who earns more is better than a person who earns less. And a larger car is better than a smaller car.  Likewise, an employee who is rated higher by his boss is much better than an employee who for some reason has been rated lower by his boss. We extend this logic to almost everything we see and do. A '34 - 26 - 36' is better than '36 - 28- 38'. A taller person is more appealling than a shorter person (though I believe proportions are always the same). A larger house is better than a smaller house. A larger company is better than a smaller company. A larger tree is better than a smaller tree or a flowering plant (that is why we plant big trees for greening purpose rather than small seasonal flowering plants, which can not only really liven up the environment with their beauty, smell and colour but also create employment for many and create wealth for the nation). 

Intutively, we understand that this paradigm is false. It does not breed operational excellence or innovation -- two of the most dreaded words that industries badly need today to survive and grow. How can we initiate innovation when we tend to measure everybody on the same fixed scale? Innovation is 'disruptive' and would often call for absolutely new ways of seeing and doing things. But our existing measurement systems effectively bottle up new ideas. People are simply too scared to try out. People refuse to engage in serious play and thinking since they don't want to upset their annual measurement ritual. A person who gets used to such measurement systems effectively dies (internally) in a few years and work becomes drudgery -- something to earn the daily bread for the next 30 years or so. Human dignity is grossly compromised. May I venture to say that it is a gross violation of human rights that goes unnoticed!

But man does not live by bread alone. A human being is essentially a very dynamic and adaptive system that yearns for expressing its true potential. Our meaningless measurement system kills all this and more. We are creating generations of robots whose only task is to follow supposedly 'sane' and 'well meaning' 'advices' from seniors, groomed in the same measurement system. Creativity, the essence of human freedom, and free will are  lost forever.

What might happen if we continue to do this? Darwin's prediction might be helpful to understand as to what might happen. He clearly said that it is not the strongest or the fittest that would survive but the species that are most 'responsive' to change would survive and develop. And if this is true then organisations that don't quicky adapt to changes would die. All natural objects (of which human being is one such object) is most capable of responding and adapting to changes. But can this be done in our present organisations? At present the answer is 'no'.

But how do we create 'responsive' human beings in our organisations? Certainly our measurement system would be at odds with this objective. A good response comes from understanding changes, quickly forgeting the usual ways of doing things, thinking about an issue from various perspectives, creating good number of responses and then selecting the best response to challenge the change at hand.

For this to happen we need 'Thinking and Responsive' organisations in today's context. Not the old outdated organisations of yesteryears that depended on the ideas of Taylor, the Christian churches and military organisations.  We simply can't measure people like the way we count our money. To echo Tenneyson's famous poem -- 'their's is not to do and die'.

Surely the top management and the HR departments have a lot of thinking to do on this. It is a challenge that has to be met squarely and effectively. Simply creating weird 'measurement score cards' would not serve the present purpose. How do we make people 'forget' old outdated ways of doing things? How do we make people 'learn'? How do we induce people to contribute through their new thinking and responses? How do we unfold the latent potential of an employee for the betterment of the organisations? How do we allow people to live and breathe like a human being and create better generations for the future?

Are we too late? Perhaps not. The change is now in the air. The old world order is changing. And this is the right time to 'respond' to this change.

A new world of immense possibilities awaits us.

Signing off for now,
Yours
dibyendu de

New Website

Frankly speaking, I was under immense stress for the last two years or so. However, I was not suffering from the usual type of stress that doctors could diagnose and treat. The stress was caused by 'creative tension'. And it was sort of killing me -- internally at least!


I desperately wanted to create something that would help many. But I kept wondering for months on end as to what that might be. I tried to imagine many things and write down many ideas till my notebooks were full and overflowing.

Then a few months back it occurred to me that I was completely defying what I have been preaching. That is to get a solid idea one need not imagine very hard. We only need to look all around us and intently observe the present to gain meaningful insights. And then with a few months of patience I hit upon the right idea which I thought exactly answered my questions.

But what were the questions? The all important question that filled my mind was "what are the most important things that are missing in the manufacturing industries of India?" and "how can the idea be practically implemented for the benefit of all and India becomes more competitive -- improving the material standard of living of the masses?"

Though we have a lot of brain power behind us, our education system does not encourage ‘original thinking’ (Design) and ‘respect for material things’ (Maintenance). So, this is what I found: we sadly lack in Design and Maintenance. And strangely, these two vital things are really really holding us back. And what is stranger is that they two vital aspects are related to each other a lot. They are just the mirror image of each other. Though the terms apparently look different the underlying thinking process involved remains the same.

The problem is that traditionally we have looked at these two subjects separately and treated them so and perhaps unequally. This is because the subject of Maintenance does not even appear in the course of our undergraduate studies. Young graduate engineers learn the ropes after they join industries and everyone seems to develop a perception of their own. While this may prove very useful for creative evolution of the subject the danger is that practical learning in this manner often happens without any solid thinking framework. Left to fend for themselves, the young people soon become disillusioned and frustrated. They simply can't see the big picture or see an industrial system holistically.

However, with Design the story is quite different. Though the subject has an exciting aura about it, young people don't go for it since opportunities in design is extremely rare in India. So, the initial inspiration quickly dies out in the first few years into an industrial job. After all, engineering on the whole is a creative profession that needs a lot of 'practice' to develop the right skills to flourish. The proficiency diminishes with the lack of 'practice'. Therefore, it is not uncommon to find that we are always looking 'west' or 'far east' for the next shot of creative engineering inspiration. Interesting the Central Government's present business tagline is 'Look east policy'.

I got a shock of my life to learn that in and around Berlin there are about 6000 design engineers serving industries. How many design engineers work around our four major metros? No wonder the Industry Minister of Germany (in his recent speech in Kolkata) boasts that 70% of German exports are made up of engineering items. Britain is also not far behind. They have a well operating Design Council for years while India only recently (2007) announced its first National Design Policy though implementation is yet to see the light of the day. Interesting, the 'Made in India' tag for Indian garments now stand for high quality so much so that it has kept the Chinese busy pasting, on the sly, the ‘Made in India’ tags onto their garments to boost sales of their textile products.

So, what makes the basic difference between the more developed countries and India? Simply put it lies in the 'ability to design' and the ability to maintain'.

Therefore, to my mind the fundamental question is whether these subjects of 'Design' and 'Maintenance' can be brought together, since one can't live without the other, and then create a new engineering and management discipline around it?

Fortunately, the answer is yes! And that exactly is the answer to my creative tension. Thank God! It is over at last and I may from now on lead a more healthy life. I have with love christened the new subject as ‘Design and Maintenance Innovation’ since innovation is common to both subjects.

But how do I give it a practical shape? I don't know. Probably it would evolve with time and patience. But I have made a small beginning. The beginning is in the form of a website: www.reliabilityconsultant.net .

The idea behind the website is simple. Over the centuries, real knowledge and education have been free. And I strongly believe that knowledge should be free but skills developed through such knowledge can be sold. This is the exact phenomenon that propelled India to rapidly achieve the superpower status in computing and software. People learnt from each other for free. And look what wonderful thing it did for India.

So, why can't the same be done for ‘Design and Maintenance Innovation’ when we know for sure that is what we need to urgently develop our country. Everyone can't go for software and computer engineering. But almost anyone, given the right amount of elementary training and education can go for manufacturing industries. And we badly need this to come up on top of the ‘BRICS’ league. Presently, we are nowhere near the top.

Therefore, the objective of the website is to promote the subject for free as much as possible and to create an awareness about the subject as to how it can really be useful to industries in creating 'competitive impact' to earn more profits and raise the general material standard of Indian living.

But as with everything I do or did so far, the growth would be organic in nature (develop as needed) and develop collaboratively (too many cooks without spoiling the broth) and develop it for people who are really dying to excel. So, I need a lot of volunteers to back up the project simply because I can’t walk the path alone, nor do I wish to. No financial donations are needed (I hope so). But ideas and thoughts and contributions are surely needed. The website should become useful to many and they should also taste similar success of the few who have already gained from implementing the ideas.

Please take time to go through the site: www.reliabilityconsultant.net and suggest changes, improvements and modifications. Any good thought would be highly regarded and of course appreciated.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you and with best regards,

dibyendu




   

Design Policy, Designers and New Skill for Difficult times

Under the new national policy introduced in 2007, design is expected to tbe worth 1% of India's GDP by 2009. If the target is met, the value of Indian design will have grown by 1000% by 2015. Under the plan India aims to produce 5000 to 8000 designers a year through investments in new design centres.

Western companies which recently invested in Indian designs include IBM, Texas Instruments, Cisco, Philips and Whirlpool. But this represents a very small portion of the big thing which is yet to come.

Indian fashion design is now worth around $ 2000 million a year. A new 'Designed in India' tag has been launched as a mark of quality.

This is what Sir Cox, the head of the British Design Council had to say about India's design efforts: "What you're seeing is an enormous effort going into industrial design capabilities".

This is good news for India and Indian Designers. But what is better is that companies regularly look for talented people. And who are these talented people? They are specifically people with 'Design Thinking' capabilities. People who see challenges and opportunities in everything they observe and then create opportunities for greater wealth for the companies, greater wealth for themselves and prosperity for the society at large.

Design Thinking would now be the new skill -- especially in such difficult times.   

The Whole is not equal to its parts

The concept that a system behaves differently than its parts is a concept which many often find it difficult to understand. By our education and training we are naturally prone to look at parts rather than the system as a whole. The idea is that the property of a system is distinctly different to the individual properties of its parts.

Let us illustrate this concept that a system would always behave differently than its parts through a simple example. We would take a physical parameter and then see how this physical parameter, which is a distinct property of a part, would change as soon as two parts are made to work together. For our purpose we would take 'natural frequency' as a physical parameter and see how it changes. And we would take the turbine-generator combination -- a prime example  to illustrate this phenomenon of system behaviour.

The first natural frequency of the turbine, which is a property of the turbine, when taken alone is 2433 cycles per minute (cpm). Similarly the first natural frequency of the generator, when taken alone is 2124 cycles per minute (cpm).

What happens when we connect the turbine and the generator together through a coupling and make them work together? The natural frequencies of both the turbine and that of the generator would change altogether! Remember that natural frequency is a distinct property of a part.

The combined natural frequency changes in the following manner:

The first natural frequency of the turbine becomes 2028 cpm (drops by 17%) while that of the generator becomes 1806 cpm (drops by 15%). So the first natural frequency of the parts have changed as soon as the parts were put together.

Hence, it is always true that the WHOLE is never equal to its PARTS. Therefore, while designing, maintaining or operating or examining a problem, fault or a failure we would always gain a better understanding by observing a system as a whole rather than its parts.  

Grandma's Magic Mantra!

As a young person about to fly the comforts of my cozy home nest to lead a professional and independent life on my own, I asked my wise grandmother about some magic mantra to live life from thereon. Instantly she came up with two magic words: ‘Responsibility’ and ‘Compassion’. But she did not go on to explain what those words meant. She only said, “You would discover the magic of the mantra as you go along in your life”.

Fair to say, that I did not understand the full import of the two magic words of my grandmother but took them to heart. I took the meaning of these magic words at face value and began leading my life accordingly. It meant that I developed a sort of ‘blind’ belief and kindness to people (surely overdone at times). It meant: come what may I must do something for people in need of some help whatever it might be. I was out to reach them and help them anyway without thinking of the consequences or the effects it would have on my personal life. At times I was exploited, hurt and also cheated. But I took solace from the fact that ‘Compassion’ was one of the magic words to live life, which may demand personal sacrifices. And I also led my professional life with great ‘responsibility’ – keeping my commitments, meeting impossible deadlines, working more than twelve hours a day and generally submitting to the whims and caprices of my bosses, clients, friends and colleagues -- etc.

35 years rolled by. I had by then become a so called modestly successful person in society. I had gained a name for myself in my field of work. People respected and looked up to for what I did. Friends and acquaintances came to me for help or advice. It now appeared that I was truly living life by the magic words.

But a few days back it clearly dawned on me that I got it all wrong! ‘Responsibility’ and ‘Compassion’ did not mean sticking your neck out only to be chopped several times. It did not mean doing seemingly ‘impossible’ things and tasks within increasingly ‘impossible’ deadlines. It did not mean a total sacrifice of your personal life to help out others and even lose money in the process. It did not mean that I would always listen to others and lead my life as they wanted it to be. And it did not mean that I must lead a life devoid of fun and creativity. I realized that the mantra was a code, which my grandmother left behind for me to crack through my own experiences and experiments with my life.

In a flash of inspiration I realized that ‘Responsibility’ meant – how do I respond to a given situation? This might only be done if I take care to observe and understand a problematic or chaotic situation in totality without any preconceived ideas from all perspectives and studying the connections between these before creating many choices to select from so as to appropriately respond to a given situation – only to make the situation better and more meaningful through careful execution of the choices we make.

On the other hand, ‘Compassion’ meant – how do I clearly understand the need of a person or a group with enough empathy, without being unnecessarily sympathetic or judging things at face value or blind belief or being emotionally attached to the problem, person or the group or to any perceived outcome.

So what happens when we put these two words together?

Responsibility + Compassion = Design Innovation = System Thinking + Design Thinking + Meaningful execution = LOVE

So, the import of the magic mantra was: understand a given situation in terms of the whole (system) and then come up with choices (design) to improve the performance of the whole and execute the choice with care – a holistic way of living life for the betterment of the world (in your own little ways) and also to lead a meaningful life full of love and ever expanding potential.

Thank you Grandma, after thirty five long years I have now realized your Mantra. Thank you for the enlightenment!