Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Improvisation the Heart of Innovation

This video shows the great master, Ravi Shankar, at work. Notice how with the change of locale the music or the melody changes instantly. When in India (depicted by the famous Taj Mahal) the melody has a distinct 'Indianess' about it. But as soon as the locale changes to China the melody highlight strains of typical Chinese melody. Again the mood changes with changes in nature and times of the day. Isn't is quite remarkable that while the tune (or raga as it is called in India) remains just the same for every situation the melody changes to reflect the master's feelings or his responses to the changes in the locale, mood, timings etc.

This is a brilliant piece of music or innovative music at its best. But this is what the Ravi Shankar calls improvisation or instant improvisation. Such instant improvisation is nothing but human responses to his/her situations and environment. Improvisations reflect human feelings at that particular moment in time. 

This helps us to understand innovation much better. The other name for it would be improvisation or a response to a given situation.

There would be many ways to understand this response. But one of the easiest would be -- 'going with the flow' -- responding to the feelings the situation evokes in us.

But that is tricky business. Much more tricky than what we might care to imagine. It is tricky to feel and stay in the present. This is because our feelings can take us back to the past experiences through our memories or transport us quickly to a future that is yet to be born through unbridled imagination, which is again distorted memory. Both are bad for us. The risky balancing act is to stay with the feelings and be intuitive about it without falling back on memory or false imagination. That is a risky tight rope walking. But that is what all masters of their games have mastered. 

For example, Sachin Tendulkar in cricket from whom rival captains have a hard time setting a field to hold him down by closing gaps.

Or take Ravi Shankar, the musician, for whom feelings flow from the depths of intuition.

Or the World chess champion Viswanand Anand who invariably finds a gap in the strongest armour of his opponents.

Or Michel Angelo who 'saw' entrapped figures trapped in uncut stones waiting to be freed by his hands. 

There is one thing that is common to all of them and one thing that sets them apart. The common thing is they all intuitively find the gaps or the existing imperfections in the present moment with their uninhabited awareness. They improvise their games based on those gaps or existing imperfections in the most intuitive manner -- no copy book styles for them. They have learned the rules of their games so well that they now break them with impunity.  

And what sets them apart? They apply the same principle in whatever game they have chosen to play. The games differ but the principle does not.

They are constantly responding to the existing 'gaps' or 'imperfections' by understanding and balancing numerous resistances the system offers. They intuitively sense these resistance and respond through improvisations accordingly. They seem to see the parts and the wholes at the same time within the same space.

This is what innovation is all about.

The Japanese have a name for it. They call it Wabi -Sabi, which means understand the imperfection in a given situation and improve upon it to make it stronger and more reliable.

The Chinese have a name for it. They call it Shan Zhai, which originally means balancing numerous resistances, see what is possible to be done cheap and effectively, start small and then grow in strength.

The Indians have a name for it. They call it Juggard, which means understand what is to be done, start with whatever is available at hand, go with the flow and build up over time.

These are all present moment responses to the feelings evoked. That to me is the best way to harness 'uncertainty' that clouds our lives.

Being in touch with one's feelings without distortion of any kind is being in touch with one's essential nature.

Or as Gregory Bateson said, "When man lost touch with nature, he lost touch with himself"

That touch has a magical creativity about it. It is innovation through improvisation born out of intuitive feelings.

This is the only way to create a good sustainable future for all since “The future is never empty, never a blank space to be filled with the output of human activity. It is already colonized by what the past and present have sent to it.” (Fry 1999)

How do we develop that is the question?

Understanding that involves deep learning.

And having an answer would be nothing short of 'Know Thyself'. That is living in freedom with heads held high.

 

 

 

Posted via email from dibyendu's posterous

Monday, December 27, 2010

Developing a Design Mind - Design Thinking

An Introduction To Indian Music by Ravi Shankar  
Download now or listen on posterous
01 - An Introduction To Indian Music.MP3 (5945 KB)

This is a fine introduction to Indian Classical Music (around 4 mins of audio) by none other than Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar maestro.

The mot important characteristics are the following:

a) Improvisation
b) Going with the flow
c) Allowing others to have their say
d) Striking a natural conversation or dialog is the key (instruments talk to each other)
e) Can only be enjoyed with an open and relaxed mind
f) Divided into 3 distinct parts -- free improvisation, dialog and convergence to a climax.
g) Primarily aimed as a tool for self development both for the players and the listeners

Reflecting on this I think appreciation and immersion into Indian Classical music certainly develop a design mind capable of Design Thinking since this is all about developing a design through doing and instant improvisation.

Hope you would find it interesting if not intriguing.

Posted via email from rdarchitect's posterous

Vibration Case Study 3

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3_brg_outer.pdf (71 KB)

This is a part of the ongoing online interactive course that we conduct through social media platforms. The forum has an interesting name -- Mahakumbh of Technical Creativity. In India it is believed that a dip in the confluence of the three rivers (Ganges, Yamuna and the invisible Swarswati) known as the Kumbh, purifies anyone and helps one in the difficult journey towards enlightenment. The Mahakumbh is held once every 12 years. The significance is noteworthy. 


Ganges stands for the power to heal - physically, mentally and spiritually.

Yamuna stands for the power to purify the world through love

Saraswati stands for the power of knowledge


No wonder the combination of the three makes a potent mixture worth all the admiration. If enlightenment can't be obtained through the help of these three powerful aids then what else can bring forth enlightenment? I wonder.


The significance of the 12 years must also not be lost on us. Today in modern language it is known as the 'Tipping Point', which signifies that it takes around 10,000 hours or more of devoted practice for anyone to reach an extremely high level of excellence. Roughly translated into years this figure would be anywhere between 10 to 14 years where the average being 12 years.


So Mahakumbh symbolically stands for the whole thing -- heal thyself, purify the world through love and become enlightened through the power of knowledge and devoted practice. Such practice is aided through meaningful dialogs, deep interactions, meetings and a host of other exciting things. 


Other than the interesting name the group also has very interesting members. And the members have a certain characteristic -- they are all bold and courageous and they all live by the following credo:


*Don't believe in anything simply because we have heard it somewhere; don't believe in rumors or things followed or spoken by many; don't believe anything written in books or spoken by authorities, teachers or elders or believe and follow traditions just because these are handed down through generations. Only after keen observation and critical examination when we find anything that agrees to our reason and commonsense and find it good and beneficial to one and all we would not only accept it wholeheartedly but also live up to it.'


That undoubtedly needs a lot of boldness, free and open spirit.


The following questions only help to train our minds towards that purpose -- understanding and insights come only after critical observation and through examination.


1.  What did the analyst do when he understood that historical vibration data or trends were not available for this piece of equipment?

2.  Why did he make those decisions?

3.  Had he known the trends what changes he would have made in the decisions and why?

4.  How can you justify the selection of the frequency bandwidth of 2000Hz? What is the basis of such judgment?

5.  Why the highest overall reading appeared in the horizontal direction of the motor NDE?

6.  Why do you think the most informative signature was found in the axial direction?

7.  Other than using the formula how else do you think the analyst could have deduced that the problem was with the outer race?

8.  Would the analyst have done better by paying attention to something else and correcting that problem?


You can also be a part of it and leave your responses in the comment box. We can still have an interesting dialog.

Acknowledgment:

We acknowledge the help of AV Technology, UK for sharing this case study for in-depth learning through discussions and dialogues (not debates).

Posted via email from systemvibes

Friday, December 24, 2010

In Search of Fame!

Mr. Pogolal De, CEO of a public limited company, is currently busy shopping for new clothes. After all he has to look at his best at the prize giving ceremony.   He has been invited by a national daily based at Mumbai, as a nominee for their annual function. Every year the newspaper felicitates the best CEOs who have demonstrated exemplary contribution in their field of work. The newspaper also had a TV channel and they had regularly started beaming the prelude and promos of the “much awaited awards function”.

Mr. De is excited and so is his small family consisting of his two sons and almost dwarfed rather midget wife. “Dwarfed” in the sense that she is only 4’8” tall and does not in any way match the stature of the nearly 6’ tall Mr. De. The Des have become “NRB” meaning “Non resident Bengalis”. They have adopted the local custom and tradition. Sometimes “Pogo “as affectionately called by his proud mother, sits with an “esraj” or listen to the songs of Rabindra Nath Tagore. “You should not forget your roots”, he often tells his sons, but who cares.

Mr. De is a Chartered Accountant by profession. He always tries to speak Queens’ English but unfortunately his “roots” doesn’t allow him to copy the immaculate intonation of Queen's English. After hopping many a company he finally descended on a steel company. His bosses are happy as he is giving results. And what exemplary contribution Mr.Pogolal De had done as a CEO? As per the prelude of the TV channel---- Mr. Pogolal De had conceived and executed the idea of connecting the plant to the harbour by building a bridge thereby saving lot of money for the company. Imagine what the company engineers were doing?

Pogo and his family came to Kolkata for the big day a well twenty days in advance. It was more like athletes coming for the Olympics well before time so as to acclimatize themselves for the biggest sporting event. Pogo again went for a shopping spree. He and his sons brought Kurtas; wife brought traditional Bengali “Dhakai Jamdani” saris.  They would have to look and feel like true Bengalis at the show.  This is what they thought would win them some brownie points. Pogo’s proud mother started campaigning for his son well in advance The newspaper had designed a SMS voting system whereby the nominee who garnered the maximum number of votes would win the “coveted” prize. The people will vote for the “greatest CEO“of India.

The D-day arrived. All the action was captured “live” on TV. Mr. Pogolal De uttered something which common people couldn’t decipher and comprehend at all. After all common people seldom understand Management jargon. So, Pogo narrowly missed the mark. He just got a plaque and a chance to meet some “extremely beautiful” film and TV actresses. Next morning, Pogo was roaming in the local market only hoping someone will recognize him and start a conversation but no one came forward.  His childhood friends intentionally avoided him. Pogo had overtaken them in every sphere but what has he done for them and the unemployed youth of his locality. With a heavy heart Pogo boarded the flight back to his adopted home.

Many awards are conferred by government agencies, different institutions and companies which make a mockery of the whole thing. People strive to get awards, which help them to enhance their social status and fame. Liberal doling out of awards to the wrong people robs the very purpose of these awards. The best example is Dr. Chitranjan S. Ranawat who did a knee operation on Atal Behari Vajpai -- the then Prime Minister of India and immediately gets a Padma Bhushan award. He was not awarded before for his services in the field of medicine. Similarly, cash awards are given to those employees who are close to their bosses. This sends a wrong signal to deserving individuals who really toil and sacrifice their lives often neglecting their families for the organization.

Organizations exhibit the same zeal in gunning for this award and that!

They are in the mad Search for Fame not prepared to work silently In Search of Excellence.

 

Sitendu De is the author of this post.

Posted via email from dibyendu's posterous

Monday, December 20, 2010

To be or Not to be Motivated

Two days back we were conducting a program on ‘Motivation and Team building’ for group of first line officers of an electronic component manufacturing company.

After inauguration of the course, with top managers still there to monitor, I asked the participants a simple question, ‘How many of you are motivated at work?’ In a second all hands shot up in the air as if it were a reflex action. I just couldn’t believe this. It was simply too good to be true. The next question naturally followed, “Why then do you think management selected you to attend a course on motivation and team building?”  Answers varied but the one that struck me most was ‘You have come to teach us how to be motivated. So we are in to listen to the tricks of being more motivated.’

Oh my God! ‘Teach’ motivation; ‘Tricks of being more motivated;’ did I hear correctly?

The top managers left the training hall happy with the belief -- the training has taken off well and was ‘interactive’. This was all they wanted to monitor.  

Long after the ice was broken and transformed into flowing water I put the question again, “How many of you are really motivated at work?” This time there was no show of hands.

Surprised, I queried, ‘What happened?’

Then one by one they opened up:

“To tell the truth, I just don’t feel like leaving my bed to come to office.”

“I have been working here for the past 16 years. None ever appreciated me or my work.”

“I think I am stuck with a stupid job. My bosses don’t believe that I am capable of doing something much better.”

“The pay I get is insufficient to take care of my child’s education in good schools’

And it went on and on….

‘So why did you say that you all were very motivated?’

‘We just pretended because the bosses were around. We told them what they would like to hear. Otherwise they would take it out on us during performance appraisal review.’

Are bosses/managers/leaders listening?

Can anyone remain motivated in an environment of fear or in an environment that sucks?

Posted via email from dibyendu's posterous

Vibration Engineer and the Body

I am constantly in awe of the beauty and design of our human body. It never ever fails to surprise me. It tells me almost everything I need to know for my survival and sense-making of the world around me. 

It tells us when we need food. It never fails to tell us when we need love and when we must get up from bed and when we must go to sleep. It informs us of our deepest emotions and feelings and what is going on in our minds and in the mind of others and it tells us what to do and when is the best time to do it. It is a fine piece of instrument cleverly designed over million of years. It deserves a lot of respect and care since it would continue to serve us well only if we care to listen to it and train it.

The design is surprisingly simple. We have 6 senses that connect the outside to the inside. These, which we call inward senses, are sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste and feeling. These senses are all connected to the mind for sense making, processing and action. For action we have 5 outward senses, which are -- move, eliminate, grasp/hold, express and create. In total, we then have, 11 senses and one mind to work with. It is as simple as that. But it creates a world of difference once we learn how to use them effectively. 

What do we often say about the highest class of musicians like Ravi Shankar or artists like Hussain or dancers like Birju Maharaj? We say that they feel their art in their bodies and expresses their art through it. Similarly, good vibration engineers also feel their subject through their bodies and mind. Let us see how the mind-body helps a vibration engineer to develop that great feeling for the subject and makes him/her effective forever. 

Our bones (while in the body) are piezo-electric crystals. Hence they act as accelerometers, which are effective vibration transducers. So, when we receive a shock or a vibration from the surroundings we can immediately feel it. We feel vibrations all over our body. 

We feel the low frequency vibrations (less than 10,000 Cycles Per Minute or CPM) in the lower part of the body (navel downwards right up to the toes).

We feel the medium frequency vibration (10,000 CPM to around 45,000 CPM)  in the middle part of the body (navel up to the shoulders)

And the high frequency vibrations (above 45,000 CPM) are felt in the upper part of the body (neck and the head).

So, different parts of the body have filters (high pass and low pass filters a result of neuron networking) to filter out certain frequencies of the vibration. 

Our index finger can feel a vibration of even 10 microns (really small when we compare that to the diameter of our hair which is around 60/70 microns). I find it so useful to detect soft foots by placing the index finger at the junction of the machine's base plates.

The hand especially the palm of the hand is useful in many ways. Each palm is fitted with a number of pressure sensors. A variation in pressure activates these pressure sensors. Hence if there is a variation in vibration (where pressure is dependent on the acceleration) we can immediately sense it through our fingers and hand. It tells us whether only the fundamental is present or it is present along with other significant frequencies and harmonics. These pressure sensors also inform us about the forces and the direction in which they are acting. Fortunately our hands also sense temperature quite well. If we can keep the palm comfortably on something for about 15 seconds we are more or less certain that the temperature is below 40 degrees C. When we do the same with the other side of the palm we can sense temperature up to 60 degrees C. 

What about our ears? That turns out to be very interesting. It naturally does a Fourier Transform for us. The complex sound waves that enter our brains through our ears are split into its various frequency components along with their amplitudes. That is why in a concert we are able to distinguish between the flute and a violin and between a sitar and a tabla (the difference is created by the frequencies). So through our hearing we can sense amplitudes, frequencies, harmonics, vortices, quality of vibration, i.e. presence or absence of damping etc. It is clear that our ears play a vital role in the understanding of vibration. I call this 'playing by the ear'.

Obviously, our eyes are fascinating too. It takes in a large amount of visual data at any instant of time enabling our brains to process them to make sense of what is going on. But one thing is striking about it. Our vision is sharp and clear at around 8.8 Hz that translates to 528 cycles per minute (CPM). So our eye senses very accurately a problem with low frequency vibrations that are around 500 to 600 CPM. We are fortunate to be thus tuned. This is because low frequency vibrations are the cause of most problems. It loosens nuts and bolts. We can see base plates jumping around and pipelines, ducts and structures vibrating. This has really come to my rescue a number of times. It helped me to understand the source of a problem even before I took vibration measurements or poured over the details of the vibration data that were collected. We can even make a sense of the amount of damping in a system and sense heat transfer mechanisms.  

Of course it is easy to understand that we don't use taste as a tool for understanding vibrations but we do use smell a lot. It tells us about the effect of vibrations on parts of the system. It generally informs us of the after effects of vibration -- we smell the oil, we smell burning, we smell too much friction etc -- most of which are the after effects of vibrations.

What do we do after we have analyzed the vibration patterns? We either 'move' things around like balancing or aligning. Or we 'eliminate' defective parts. Or 'create' better designs. Or modify the structures or tighten loose parts to 'hold' the vibrations. And lastly teach others about what we have learned ('express' our feelings). By teaching others we actually reinforce our own learning for life. Very few realize this great secret and the best secret of learning. It is so cleverly embodied in our Indian saying -- the more you give the more you learn. Knowledge is the only thing in the world that increases with sharing. 

No wonder that visual data taken through all our senses and the mind make up more than 90% of what we need to 'Feel' and analyze vibration related problems. Instruments only help to enhance or clarify our understanding with some certainty. Nothing more than that. It is also not surprising that any actions that we take are only limited by our 5 outward senses. Hence the mind-body complex is the only thing that we really need to solve any problem. The real secret instrument for analyzing and taking action lies hidden in our 11 senses and one mind.

That is the secret I wanted to share. But what are we doing to train our mind-body complex to be razor sharp for sensing and action whenever we want to act?

Posted via email from systemvibes

Friday, December 17, 2010

Unlocking The Mystery

Their children have flown the nest. Connectivity is only through the landline telephone. They were expecting the children in the Durga Puja where they would all be united---Children, daughter-in-laws, son-in-law, grandchildren. The phone rings. It’s their second son. He has transferred an amount of Rs.60, 000/- to his father’s account. May be a bribe from a son for the excuse of not meeting his parents for the last two years. Enough ---- they thought, we will live our life to the fullest. The old couple decided to go to their friend’s house at Kalna near Burdwan to have a feel of the autumn breeze and also to escape from the jaws of boredom and may be “the impending death”.

A break-in took place at the wee hours. The burglars took away cash and gold jewellery. The door and cupboard locks had been ripped off. The old couple had informed their neighbor before leaving for Kalna. The neighbour did his duty of calling the police and informing them of the incident. The old couple seems shaken but unbothered by the whole incident. May be they have now seen a new meaning in life.

I, as a dutiful neighbor, went to a hardware shop to buy some locks for the old couple so as to replace the broken ones. The locks were of different types starting from mainly padlocks, mortise locks, 2-in-one door locks…. Different mechanisms were used for locks like lever type, pin cylinder type etc. What struck me was the place of manufacture of these locks. All were from Aligarh except Godrej. Why? Why other towns or cities in India were not into lock business. Why did this lock manufacturing cluster developed in Aligarh? Why we always associate locks to Aligarh? Why Aligarh had become synonymous to locks?  Was it a family tradition of expertise being carried out for generations and why were they the best in the business in terms of its affordability, design and utility?

This C tier city, located in the state of Uttar Pradesh, is roughly 130 kilometers, south-east of New Delhi. It has a population of about seven lakhs and is not only famous for its lock manufacturing and brass castings (sculptures) but also for Aligarh Muslim University. There are about 5 large lock manufacturers; 25-30 medium sized and more than a thousand small manufacturers. A lot of lock manufacturing work is carried out in Aligarh under job work system. There are only a handful of exporters in Aligarh. However, several Aligarh based lock manufacturers supply their locks to merchant exporters in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai as indirect exports. Some lock manufacturers supply their locks to hardware exporters who use the locks as part of their larger hardware shipments.

A utility item but business is carried out in an unorganized way. Without proper financial support the business is still being treated as a cottage industry. Almost the whole of Aligarh economy is directly or indirectly dependent on lock manufacturing. What prevents them from making it big?  Aligarh lock manufacturer competition mainly comes from Godrej who are manufacturing hi-tech computer aided design locks with non-decodable keys that are generally high priced and out of reach for most of the people in India.   May be the Aligarh lock manufacturers are helping billions of Indian households to procure locks at an affordable price to ensure safety of their “valuables” and peace of minds.

What makes this mature industry tick? The answer is that it effectively combines Chinese ‘Shan Zhai’ and Indian ‘Juggard’ principles to build and run the business without competition. This admirable combination sustains the industry and societies.

This is the sustainable business secret that unlocks the mystery behind the runaway success of the Indian manufacturing industries even in the most trying times – the key to unprecedented economic growth!

 

Sitendu De is the author of this post.

Posted via email from dibyendu's posterous

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Phase and Non-synchronous behavior of Systems

This is a beautiful song composed by Oscar winner A. R. Rahaman. But this is a different type of song and music -- having a sort of magical quality around it. At times, it seems to linger on for moments while sometimes it seems to suddenly speed up. This has a profound effect on the listener' mood. As the speed fluctuates the listener enjoys the variation in emotion that the song and music evoke.

How does the celebrated genius achieve such an effect?

He does so by changing the phase between the song and the music. He purposely avoided synchronous behavior i.e. keeping the song and the music in tune or phase. Note that at times the song seems to lag behind the music. That slows down the speed producing a lingering feeling inside us. Going by the mood of the movie that is exactly the composer wants us to feel -- feel the gentle thoughts of love between the hero and the heroine -- therefore lingers the sound through the variation of the phase between the song and the music. But at times when the movie is about some action the effect speeds up by allowing the song to lead the music by a certain phase.

This leads us to a profound understanding of waveforms and system behavior.

Phase difference between two waveforms changes a physical effect. Like for example some of the harmonics or waveforms either lead or lag the fundamental frequency thereby slowing down or speeding up movement of the system as a whole.

This happens in all types of systems whether they be electrical, mechanical or electronics. Technically this is called non-synchronous vibrations that we experience frequently in the physical world.

It is worthwhile for analyst to develop a feel for such phase changes in the system. This reveals a lot about system behavior and its causes.

Listening to music and sounds is an easy way by which any analyst can develop this innate skill and hone it to perfection.

Posted via email from systemvibes

Monday, December 13, 2010

Type II Training -- A Paradigm Shift.

How do we train workers?

It depends on how we look at the issue.

If we look at it as ‘workers are merely an extension of machines’ then we teach them skills to interface better with the machines they work with. We give them a fish a day to survive. This is the usual Type I training.

If we look at it as ‘workers are human beings who can think and figure out things for themselves and creatively contribute’ then we teach them life skills that expand their minds. We teach them how to fish. This is the unusual Type II life transforming educational experience.

There is a huge paradigm shift involved in these two perspectives.

For example, we organized and conducted for a multinational manufacturing unit located in Kolkata the unique Type II course for a period of 10 months. This was for a group consisting of 30 workers who have had studied up to Class 8. The subjects were: Science, Mathematics, Computers, Spoken English & English handwriting.

Many experts were cynical. They haven’t heard of such a course done for workers anywhere in the world. They predicted failure. So what? Having clearly understood the context and the reality we went ahead undeterred. Thanks to the Chairman to take up and support the radical idea.  

And the results were phenomenal. Supervisors vouched for the improvements they have seen with this group of workers. It was a phenomenon difficult to believe. Bosses were wonderstruck. Some were unable to comprehend as to how this could ever happen.

These workers absented themselves the least and were most productive through the year  

Quality rejection reduced without taking any special effort to improve quality.

Material wastage plummeted to an all time low in their area of work. .

They volunteered to take up jobs of their supervisors like logging production and rejection records on excel sheets, which they knew nothing about 10 months back.

They could now read and understand drawings much better, read the notices and circulars put up on notice boards and communicate with foreign visitors to their shop floors

In short, they were proud of their internal transformation and were willing to invest 2 hours of their time every day for the next 2 years for such life transforming educational experience – of the Type II.What next?

Posted via email from dibyendu's posterous

Sunday, December 12, 2010

The Triplen Harmonics

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Operation and Maintenance have become complex in modern plants. Energy being one of the most important components of the cost structure, effort is on to save energy as much as possible. As a result three important changes happened over the years.

First, loads have become non-linear in nature based on lean manufacturing principle of producing as much as needed as and when needed to match customer needs and expectations without incurring wastages.

Second, changes and modifications in the electrical drive systems have become a significant improvement activity. Thyristor and SCR drives of yesteryears are now being replaced by precise IGBT (Insulated Gate Bi-polar Transistor) devices.  Almost all drives are now fitted or retrofitted with variable frequency drives suitable for different motor frame sizes.

Third, most plants are generating and consuming their own electricity though captive power installed in their facilities.

Though this has given us a lot of advantage it has also brought in some hidden problems. One of the disturbing problems is the growing presence of electrical harmonics that affect equipment performance and disturb smooth operation of a plant.

Whether the presence of harmonics can disturb the operation of a factory or not would depend on the ‘stiffness’ of the power distribution system and the susceptibility of the connected equipment and components like motors, bearings, solenoids, cables, couplings etc.  

Harmonics are a big polluter. Such pollution is often carried back into the electric distribution system and may affect neighboring facilities. Such pollution also causes a rise in the consumption of electrical energy – the very thing we are trying to save.  

The point is how to detect the presence of harmonics in the system? Vibration spectrums often fail to detect or show up the presence of such harmonics. As a result Current Spectrum Monitoring’ is being used as a preferred technique to detect the presence of harmonics. But this technique does a good job for higher rated motors – generally for motors over 900 KW.

So what do we do for other motors lesser than 900 KW?

There seems to be an easy way out. Harmonics create excessive neutral current. This results in overheated neutrals that might be easily detected by use of Infra-red thermal imaging technique applied to MCC (Motor Control Center) and PCC (Power Control Center).

But there is something very strange about these electrical harmonics. The triplen harmonics is a strange phenomenon that needs to be understood to improve plant reliablity.

The ‘triplen’ harmonics i.e. the 3rd, 9th and the 15th harmonics of the line frequency cause more damage to the system and heat up the neutral. Why is that?

This is because these harmonics are actually ‘additive’ (vector addition) in nature in the neutral of a 3 phase ‘wye’ circuit. This is easy to understand. In a 3 phase ‘wye’ circuit the phases are separated from one another by 120 degrees. Now if we multiply 120 by 3 or 9 or 15 we get an integer multiple of 360 degrees, which is one complete cycle. This puts the harmonics from each of the 3 phase conductors in phase with each other in the neutral. Hence the neutral heats up.

Note this would not happen with other harmonics like 2nd, 4th, etc since that would not involve all conductors of the 3 phase to be in phase with each other in the neutral. This I call the prime number effect of number 3 and combination of 3 with other primes like 3, 5, 7 etc.

Triplen harmonics also overheat transformers (especially delta – wye types), affect solenoids (used in hydraulic circuits), lightening ballasts, non-linear loads like computers and indirectly initiates premature failure of anti-friction bearings. In short it creates a random failure pattern across a manufacturing unit, which most often becomes quite puzzling.

Not only the triplen harmonics affect plant reliability but also increases the losses of electrical power since the losses in electrical power are proportional to the square of the harmonic value.

Hence it is important to detect the presence of triplen harmonics for safe and reliable operation of the plant. Fortunately, infra-red thermal imaging comes to our rescue to detect this hidden enemy of plant reliability, availability and performance.

Posted via email from systemvibes

Thursday, December 9, 2010

A New Game -- Pain in the ....

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Munna Ranjan was very happy. He cleared the UPSC Examinations. This afternoon the postman handed him an “O.I.G.S “marked registered letter. It contained the job offer, directing him to join one of the premier Government offices on or before 31st December at Delhi.

The evening “aarti” at the Hunuman temple had just started. Munna, barefooted went to the temple. He took one of the “Hunuman Chalisa” books, squatted in front of the image of Lord Hunuman and started reading it with a new energy. He stayed there till the aarti was over. He took a “parikrama” and returned back to his home. 

Munna joined the government office on 15th December. The elders were giving him a lot of advice. Ragging of a different kind started. He was made to do some odd jobs like filing, indexing, page numbering etc. At the end of the day Munna went to his new home, satisfied. He made a small list in his mind --- whom to give and what to give, when he gets his first salary.  

Munna started preparing for his 15th transfer. His upright attitude in life has made him suffer. He didn’t know how to manipulate and use office politics as a weapon to guard himself. He was singled out and hammered. Munna was very good at his work. At times he became arrogant and rude to his higher ups. He thought his work would speak for him but it didn’t. Bosses wanted something more from him.

Sefali Dixit Kumar, the only daughter of an IPS officer who had headed one of the offices under the Ministry of Home regularly uses her father’s clout to gain undue advantage. Be it securing an out of turn taxi at the airport or not getting a challan (ticket) at a No-parking zone she always has her father’s name on her lips. Sefali got through the Civil Services Exams after a third attempt. Her rank was quite lower in the order. She became an IOFS (Indian Ordnance Factory Service) officer but she didn’t want to join. Her father again came to her rescue.

Sefali Dixit had married a Tamil and didn’t want to affix the surname of her husband. After a lot of coaxing and fatherly advice from her only “father” she added that “Kumar” after her name. She believed these are done by the males so as to dominate their woman folk of the society. She wanted power and wanted it badly. She was very good at understanding the power centers in the office. Her noodle strap designer blouses did the trick as most of the middle aged male officers and “over the horizon” senior officers went gaga over her. She was attractive and venomous. There was no hurdle for her. She got everything she desired. From junior staff to the chief in the office everyone addressed her as “Madame”. Every thing went smoothly for her. Her TA, Medical Bills, Leave, Loan sanction was done at record time but others had to wait for days if not for months. Was it because of her able handling of the staff or she knew exactly the pulse of the epicenter of power. She was used to hearing the phrase “yes Madam”.

“Power” is intoxicating. It gives a “high feeling”. Sefali had tasted power. She wanted to be a symbol of woman’s emancipation. She is the new generation woman where she wants to hold the reins of power. Sefali was a regular visitor to the high end clubs where army officers and government officers would love to ogle at her. Her liaison with other government officials didn’t help her office though. She enjoyed them and ey also had a new perverted feeling with her.

Sefali Dixit Kumar was also posted at the same station where Munna got posted. Sefali is Munna’s new boss. Munna did not learn from his previous mistakes. Munna made his opinions clear. He did not become a “yes madam” like others. While others were enjoying, Munna was slogging at his desk. Sefali didn’t like him. She wanted to dominate this man. All her men in her short 32 years of her life had been her slaves. She was not used to hear a “no” from anyone. Sefali was waiting for the right moment to strike Munna. The opportune moment came. An important file went missing. It was under the custody of Munna. An enquiry was initiated by Sefali. She placated him for the important missing file. The Chief of the station tried to down play the whole episode. Sefali was desperate to nail Munna. She filed a detailed report directly to the Headquarters. Some of the decision making officers were her biggest fans. They did what she wanted them to do. A commission held Munna guilty. All decisions were made ex-parte. Munna was not heard at all. Munna lost his seniority and was transferred to the newly opened station at Nagaland --- 16th transfer.

Lesson Learned:

1. Vindictive nature and ego of bosses dampen the best people in the organizations at the expense of organizational peformance.

2. Bosses such as Shefali wants their subordinates to have their faces turned towards them and their backs turned towards work and clients.

3. This is an old game but appears in new forms. No organizational systems design can take care of this critical aspect that spoils an organization at its roots.

This post is contributed by Mr. Sitendu De.

Posted via email from dibyendu's posterous

Monday, December 6, 2010

Social Learning:A Case Study:No One No Thing

Learning is an intensely personal affair though not totally a private affair and certainly not meant for the faint of heart.

This is what I discovered about learning over an active learning span of about half a century: Effective long term learning takes place in three interdependent ways:

a) Enlist at least one like minded co-learner to start -- dialogues, discussions, thinking and working together.
b) Create time and space for deep reflections or practice by doing -- working on a live problem, doing something like blogging and twitting, listening, thinking, imagining, practicing a skill, commenting etc.
c) Engage a mentor, who has traveled a long way on this path  to assist the learning process -- dialogue, questioning, guidance, bouncing off ideas, gently encouraging to take critical leaps in understanding, learning about lessons learned etc.

Admittedly even five years back this approach was difficult to work with. Now it is not so. Thanks to the rapid growth of the social media things are turning out to be extremely interesting, easy and full of fun. Learning is everywhere and nowhere. It depends on the learner. The modern mantra of learning is NO ONE: NO THING (not NONE and NOTHING). One can set up his/her own learning experience the way he/she likes.

With this in mind I with a group of dedicated learners started leveraging the existing social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter for effective long term learning. Learning groups were formed around two subjects: a) Vibration, Flow and Wear b) Industrial Problem Solving & Innovation. In this story I would like to highlight how effective learning can take place through constructive and supportive dialogues.

We were discussing on a blog post in our one-month-old group 'Industrial Problem Solving & Innovation':Ref: http://rapidinnovation.org/what-limits-a-systems-performance-what-we-mig (What Limits a System's Performance and What we might Do about it?)

The dialogue (excerpts from Facebook)  that followed was this:

Dibyendu De: Added a comment to the blog post to make the example more clear. Does it make it clearer? Comment.

Wednesday at 15:14 · LikeUnlike

D C Padhi: Destroying a system would need enormous courage. Possibly to hide ones fear human tend to believe that things will be OK with passing of time. I think it's not the same system that become OK after elapsed time. The future only bring new sets of essence & emergence of a fresh system where man get engaged & forget the past. Whether we ourselves destroy or not it would destroy itself once balance is lost.

Wednesday at 15:24 · LikeUnlike


D. C. Padhi: To me the airport case seems to be an excellent interaction between AND & NOW. This NOW changes every moment & with that the ANDs might also change. The complete system becomes dynamic. O&M should also include system re-design all along the system life cycle to keep it at dynamic equilibrium.

Wednesday at 15:28 · LikeUnlike


Dibyendu De: Thank you. You just gave me a brilliant idea. I think the words essence and emergence are difficult words to understand by general public. It is better to call the essence as 'and' (the critical relationship that makes a difference) and the emergence as 'now'. What do you think?

Wednesday at 15:48 · LikeUnlike ·

D. C. Padhi: All I can say at this moment is that your understanding is 'WOW'! Gr8. Keep it up. Now we would build up from now. Can we now tackle the previous cases..?

Wednesday at 15:50 · LikeUnlike


Dibyendu De: So from now we would use AND and the NOW.

Wednesday at 15:55 · LikeUnlike

D. C. Padhi: Yes.Essence & emergence are difficult to swallow. I find AND & NOW the best. I think this is the central theme of ST.

Wednesday at 15:56 · UnlikeLike

D. C. Padhi: Human Dimensions of change is a long story. I have not yet studied it thoroughly. Pls allow some time.

Wednesday at 16:02 · LikeUnlike


D. C. Padhi: Can we make a simple equation {AND1,AND2,AND3.....}=NOW

Wednesday at 16:13 · LikeUnlike


D. C. Padhi: Thanks for your encouragement.

Wednesday at 16:27 · LikeUnlike


Dibyendu De: Yes, it can now be stated in simple maths or set theory. Let the elements of the set (system) be e1, e2, e3.... Then S = {e1, e2, e3,...}. Then the relationships can be drawn out (like a truth table) & defined as e1 <->e2 = AND1 and say e2 <-> e3 = AND2. Let this two form the critical relationship that determines the now. Then {AND1, AND2} = NOW.


Dibyendu De: The practical problem is how do we go from the NOW to the AND set. Why do I say this? Because we would definitely see the NOW (the visible portion). From the NOW we would have to find out the AND (the invisible portion). After we find the AND we can then change, modify or monitor the NOW for collective benefit.

Wednesday at 16:57 · LikeUnlikeWednesday at 16:53 · LikeUnlike

Dibyendu De: So, how do you do that?

Wednesday at 16:58 · LikeUnlike


Dibyendu De: You see that we would have to go down from the whole(NOW) to the ANDs, make some changes there, go up again to NOW to see the effect of the changes. So it is going down and up at the same time. That is wholistic creativity. What do you think?

Wednesday at 17:00 · Like

Dibyendu De: Not only up and down but sideways too and move in circular fashion. Truly wholistic.

Wednesday at 17:02 · LikeUnlike


D. C. Padhi:I am able see a better picture.Once the NOW is crtically observed & AND is honestly understood then ST goes and DT should come into action for achieving improvement. Am I right? Making changes seems to me like manual tuning of process controller(may be a PID control sys for better stability).Do u agree here? Lastly if we are to move circular can we not move in a sphere (the world is 3D).

Wednesday at 19:00 · LikeUnlike


Dibyendu De: "ST goes and DT should come into action for achieving improvement" - exactly. Tuning to change AND to change NOW is ok. If tuning does not change NOW - no use. The 3 words for improvements may be Design (new), Modify (change), Monitor (feedback). OR easy: Bhrama (Modify to create new NOW), Vishu (Feedback/monitor to maintain), Mahesh/Shiva (Design new after destroying the old - change the old).

Wednesday at 19:10 · LikeUnlike

Dibyendu De: Bhrama, Vishnu, Shiva - The Trinity

Wednesday at 19:11 · LikeUnlike

D. C. Padhi: This is sublime.

Wednesday at 19:14 · LikeUnlike


Dibyendu De: In ST we would go from NOW to AND. In DT we would go from AND to NOW.

Wednesday at 19:20 · Like


Dibyendu De: In fact in ST it is an iterative action between NOW to AND and Back and.. In DT it is AND to NOW and back ...(again iterative action..). In ST the iteration is in the thinking. In DT the iteration is in the action (doing) that promotes thinking.

Wednesday at 19:23 · LikeUnlike

Dibyendu De: Revised the blog post. Check whether it is now easier to understand.

Wednesday at 19:24 · LikeUnlike


D. C. Padhi; This is instant DT. May I call it Rapidinnovation.

Wednesday at 19:26 · UnlikeLike

D. C. Padhi: Now the engineering community may understand what you say.

Wednesday at 19:27 · UnlikeLike

D. C. Padhi; The blog post has a new NOW. more valuable.

Wednesday at 19:30 · UnlikeLike

Dibyendu De; OK. So Rapidinnovation is the play of the AND and the NOW or Rapidinnovation = Doing by Thinking about Thinking (ST) + Thinking by Doing (DT). Does it look right?

Wednesday at 19:32 · LikeUnlike

D. C. Padhi: It looks wonderful. She is most beautiful.

Wednesday at 19:37 · LikeUnlike


D. C. Padhi: It's beauty compels me to use "she" instead of "it".

Wednesday at 19:38 · LikeUnlike


Dibyendu De: LOL. Understand your viewpoint.

Wednesday at 19:39 · LikeUnlike


Dibyendu De; This conversation was simply fantastic -- a thing to remember for life. I would be out for about 2 hours. Would pick up the thread at about 10. Thx for the wonderful exchange.

Wednesday at 19:41 · LikeUnlike


D. C. Padhi: Yes. I can't help LOL

Wednesday at 19:41 · LikeUnlike


Dibyendu De: This is the power and the reward of a fruitful dialogue. The reward is only a benign smile inside -- smile that bring contentment. That is wealth which all the riches of the world can't buy.

Wednesday at 19:44 · LikeUnlike

Dibyendu De; It fulfills the very purpose of opening the forum in FB. The desired NOW is evident.

Wednesday at 19:45 · LikeUnlike

D. C. Padhi: It was like liberation. Reincarnation instead. Gratefully indebted to you.

Wednesday at 20:04 · Like


Legends:

ST = Systems Thinking

DT = Design Thinking


Lessons Learned:


1. Learning takes place through interactions. So, it takes two to a tango. Learning takes place through intense concentration and reflection in the numerous small pauses during the exchange. It has an advantage over face to face discussion since we can think and 'speak' without being forced to respond quickly. This deliberate act of slowing down of the mind triggers the 'reflective' capacity of the brain - vital for learning anything deeply. I term this as 'micro-meditative' state that facilitates deep and effective learning. This is precisely the advantage of learning through social media over other forms of learning where we are generally rushed into a response. Moreover, one can always check back the train of thoughts and revise it if required. This reinforces learning many times over.  


2. So, typically a double-loop learning takes during a dialogue (through reflection of each others mind brought into a dialogue) and a triple-loop learning takes place upon further personal reflection on a discussion thread. This automatically initiates higher level of learning which is highly improbable through traditional modes of learning. Note that it is always a 'one on one' interaction never 'one to many'. In Bengal there is a saying about effective learning  -- "One creates confusion; Two create Learning: Three create chaos: Four create a market"


3. Dialogues create Learning stories. It is similar to life creating and participating in creating as an on-going process.


4. Collaborative learning or social learning moves from document centric to more people centric. Hence it is like learning from nature or life. 


5. Time, space, age no longer pose as constraints to learning as seen in traditional modes of teaching and learning.


6. Feedback is instantaneous through the use of the 'like' buttons. This greatly encourages the conversations to proceed smoothly.


7. The paradigm shifts from 'Need to Know' to 'Need to Share'. Sustainable organic growth of ideas, thoughts and actions in the real world.


8. Effective Learning takes time and effort since the brain has to rewire itself through neuro-plasticity. This is easily possible through social media learning since the expansive interactions happen over a long period of time and not condensed into smaller time frames as evident in other traditional modes of learning. This is greatly aided by the stories that continuously unfold through such open dialogues. It helps in changing the neuron wiring of the brain more effectively than anything else -- leading to higher long term effectiveness.   


9. Next paradigm shift: Ask questions to "those you know" to "those who know that they don't know". This opens up a wider choice for learning to select people to ask from rather than being restricted to a few whom he/she probably knows in say the workplace. The learning environment expands.


10. Learning is the sole responsibility of the learner. Much depends on the attitude of the learner on what and how much a learner decides to take home from an engagement and how much a learner decides to 'share'. More 'sharing' leads to more learning. 


11. The learners merge to develop a collective consciousness. This is a latent power of social learning. As of today, information and knowledge are free and easily available. What is unavailable is understanding, which can be effectively harnessed through social learning by accommodating different perspectives and bouncing ideas off each other. Fortunately, Learning is no longer a lonely affair.


12. Much of effective learning happens like a story unfolding with its natural twist and turns, building on each others ideas leading to understanding, wisdom and instant realization. That makes Social Learning fun and interesting.


13. The only requirement to participate in such learning processes is the courage to engage and imagination to continue. The attitude of 'contribution' is the key. 


14. Who is the mentor and who is the mentee? Who gives? Who takes? Who gains? Who loses? No one No Thing


References:


1. http://rapidinnovation.org/the-and-is-in-the-now

2. http://rapidinnovation.org/changing-brain-pattern-for-good

3. http://zentricks.blogspot.com/2010/12/social-media-product-development-design.html

4. http://rapidinnovation.org/i-confess-i-dont-know

5. http://rmcpl.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/design-principle-9-user-experience-insi...

6.http://rmcpl.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/achieving-balance-of-opposites-design-principle-8/

 

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Monday, November 29, 2010

What Limits a System's Performance & What we might do?

 As a child I loved watching the trailing vortices of beautiful white plumes in the wake of commercial aircrafts flying majestically in the sky. I watched them as long as I could till the plumes gradually dissolved their presence into the blue sky.

Such vortices are strong, long and lingering. But, what might be the effect of such beautiful vortices on the system’s behaviour?

By the way, what system are we talking about?

The aircraft is a part of a much bigger system than we might immediately notice. The bigger system consists of the airport, the number of planes ready to take off or land, number of runways, air traffic control, signals, lights etc. These elements are well within our control or almost. However, some of the elements like atmospheric temperature, humidity, visibility are not within our control at all. 

We can easily understand that all these elements are interdependent on each other and produce a range of possible interactions between them. This we call as the "essence" of a system. The presence of this essence produces a range of behavior of a system that emerges in somewhat unpredictable or random manner. We call such possible and uncertain range or types of behavior (since we can't precisely predict) the 'emergence' of the system. Because of the 'essence' the 'emergence' takes place.

Obviously the essence and the emergence of a system effectively determines the behavior of the system and places an upper limit on a system’s performance.

Let us see how that might happen in the case of vortices generated by the interaction of an aircraft's movement and the wind?

These vortices stretch for miles across the sky trailing behind a large aircraft and endanger the planes that follow it or go across it by inducing drastic rolling moments, which might lead to the failure of the aircraft that follows or crosses the path of these vortices. Thus persistence and length of such vortices would govern the frequency of take off and landing of other planes in an airport. So, the 'essence' and the 'emergence' of the system determine the airport capacity and the limits of the system’s functioning and performance.

Now, if we want to improve the productivity of the airport in terms of number of take offs and landings we immediately recognize the inherent ‘imperfection’ in the given system. Recognition of such inherent imperfection (in terms of the objecive we would like to achieve) would automatically lead us to innovate or design solutions to either eliminate the ‘imperfections’ or avoid them in case imperfections can't be eliminated totally or monitor them if we have no other way but to live with them.

Such solutions might take the form of a concentrated research work to alleviate these swirling wakes or shorten the length of the wake or we might think of building or using alternative runways instead of relying on one or we might think of increasing the air traffic corridors etc.  In fact, most major airports in the world have now increased the number of runways and the air traffic corridors to improve system performance.

That might be all well for running commercial aircrafts. But what might we do to save aircrafts from accidents during an air show?


During such airshows aircrafts would be forced to fly parallel to each other to avoid the dangerous trap of vortices (as shown in the photograph).Perhaps we need very skilled and experience pilots to perform such feats.

Summary:

The steps that we followed were::

1. Observe the system as a whole (what are the elements that make the total system)

2. Understand the range of possible 'essence' (number of possible interactions happening over time)

3. Understand the set of related 'emergences' or behavior of the system (in relation to the essence)

4. Understand the present objective function or purpose of the system as of now and in the future.(since objective function/purpose changes over time)

5. Identify the inherent 'imperfection(s)' that limits the system to achieve the present objective.

6. Find or design solutions to eliminate the imperfectons or avoid the imperfection if the imperfection can be partially eliminated or monitor the imperfection if it is not possible to eliminate imperfection(s) at all.(all imperfections can't be solved and might have to be lived with, but we may do that in a better way rather than give up).

7. Observe changes in the system over time (in terms of essence, emergence and objectives)

8. Set new objectives and goals to harness uncertainty for productive use.

9. Respond with new solutions and check performance and/or behavior of the system over time.

Posted via email from dibyendu's posterous

What Limits a System's Performance & Doing Something about it!

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

 As a child I loved watching the trailing vortices of beautiful white plumes in the wake of commercial aircrafts flying majestically in the sky. I watched them as long as I could till the plumes gradually dissolved their presence into the blue sky.

Such vortices are strong, long and lingering. But, what might be the effect of such beautiful vortices on the system’s behaviour?

By the way, what system are we talking about?

The aircraft is a part of a much bigger system than we might immediately notice. The bigger system consists of the airport, the number of planes ready to take off or land, number of runways, air traffic control, signals, lights etc. These elements are well within our control or almost. However, some of the elements like atmospheric temperature, humidity, visibility are not within our control at all. 

We can easily understand that all these elements are interdependent on each other and produce a range of possible interactions between them. This we call as the "essence" of a system. The presence of this essence produces a range of behavior of a system that emerges in somewhat unpredictable or random manner. We call such possible and uncertain range or types of behavior (since we can't precisely predict) the 'emergence' of the system. Because of the 'essence' the 'emergence' takes place.

Obviously the essence and the emergence of a system effectively determines the behavior of the system and places an upper limit on a system’s performance.

Let us see how that might happen in the case of vortices generated by the interaction of an aircraft's movement and the wind?

These vortices stretch for miles across the sky trailing behind a large aircraft and endanger the planes that follow it or go across it by inducing drastic rolling moments, which might lead to the failure of the aircraft that follows or crosses the path of these vortices. Thus persistence and length of such vortices would govern the frequency of take off and landing of other planes in an airport. So, the 'essence' and the 'emergence' of the system determine the airport capacity and the limits of the system’s functioning and performance.

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Now, if we want to improve the productivity of the airport in terms of number of take offs and landings we immediately recognize the inherent ‘imperfection’ in the given system. Recognition of such inherent imperfection (in terms of the objecive we would like to achieve) would automatically lead us to innovate or design solutions to either eliminate the ‘imperfections’ or avoid them in case imperfections can't be eliminated totally or monitor them if we have no other way but to live with them.

Such solutions might take the form of a concentrated research work to alleviate these swirling wakes or shorten the length of the wake or we might think of building or using alternative runways instead of relying on one or we might think of increasing the air traffic corridors etc.  In fact, most major airports in the world have now increased the number of runways and the air traffic corridors to improve system performance.

That might be all well for running commercial aircrafts. But what might we do to save aircrafts from accidents during an air show?


During such airshows aircrafts would be forced to fly parallel to each other to avoid the dangerous trap of vortices (as shown in the photograph).Perhaps we need very skilled and experience pilots to perform such feats.

Summary:

The steps that we followed were::

1. Observe the system as a whole (what are the elements that make the total system)

2. Understand the range of possible 'essence' (number of possible interactions happening over time)

3. Understand the set of related 'emergences' or behavior of the system (in relation to the essence)

4. Understand the present objective function or purpose of the system as of now and in the future.(since objective function/purpose changes over time)

5. Identify the inherent 'imperfection(s)' that limits the system to achieve the present objective.

6. Find or design solutions to eliminate the imperfectons or avoid the imperfection if the imperfection can be partially eliminated or monitor the imperfection if it is not possible to eliminate imperfection(s) at all.(all imperfections can't be solved and might have to be lived with, but we may do that in a better way rather than give up).

7. Observe changes in the system over time (in terms of essence, emergence and objectives)

8. Set new objectives and goals to harness uncertainty for productive use.

9. Respond with new solutions and check performance and/or behavior of the system over time.

.

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Saturday, November 27, 2010

Social Learning from Toyota to E2.0

Toyota engineers emphasize that learning how to use the know how database does not make a good engineer. This is not to say that engineering database is not useful for learning. Databases are primarily born out of experience of other engineers who found that exceeding certain limits might cause a problem.

Databases are tools to provide guidelines and ensure that the engineer or the designer does not forget the key points. It certainly helps training young engineers and designers but fails to create a great engineer. A database can only provide the limits on possible design solutions. It helps an engineer to know when not to exceed a limit or keep something at some minimum. It certainly does not make him creative.

At times, there is a need to exceed limits or change the structure to make the system as a whole function better. This obviously calls for better design thinking that would involve learning by doing through prototyping, extra testing and field studies. If this proves OK then the previous level of social or organizational learning jumps to a new level. This is something like a quantum jump that is reflected through changed fractals within the entire organization. 

If the organization stagnates at any particular level of learning, say by sticking to the database, then everyone learns the same thing and we would see the corresponding fractals of that learning in everything the organization does or produces. With a quantum leap in learning the fractals within the organization change immediately reflecting new learning. 

But how would that possibly happen?Possibly we may learn about this from Toyota.

Real engineering would remain a creative activity that would involve innovative thinking to solve problems or provide the desired functions to the customer while treating database constraints as standards.

Toyota places great emphasis on developing know-how over time by doing the work under the guidance of a mentor because it is the only way to develop the real creative power of the engineer. Over the years Toyota has developed such mentors within the rank and file of their organization.

But this poses a problem.

Most organizations are filled up with doers and thinkers but not mentors or the wise ones as I call them. And with performance review systems in place (one of the 5 deadly organizational sins of Dr. Deming) it becomes still harder to develop mentors, teamwork and retain people who would be willing to learn over time.

So, what might be a new path of learning for most organizations since it is vital to developing and sustaining competitive edge?

To my mind E 2.0 has the potential to provide the new framework for social learning in organizations under natural work conditions. People would learn from each other. People would learn from the mistakes made by others. People would become aware of the customer problems and take steps to correct their thinking. The organization as a whole becomes aware, active and thinking.

E2.0 offers other advantages as well. It can seamlessly connect customers, outside experts, suppliers, trainers, mentors and every department of the organization into a cohesive whole all working towards a common purpose.

How to do that would be a creative design process in its own right.

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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

VICTIMIZE THE VICTIM

The early morning has a chill in the air. Its middle of November and winter has slowly crept in our lives. The woolens are out from the steel trunks still smelling of the naphthalene balls. All are armed to face the winter. Indians look expectantly for the winter season to enjoy and flaunt their woolen garments and those wonderful scarves and shawls the ladies love to wear. Its time for the Indian families to go to the zoo with their family and celebrate Christmas with a cake and some oranges. The Kashmiri youths had already arrived at Kolkata. The first thing they do is buy a cycle and roam around the streets, selling fake “pashmina” shawls and lovely blankets.  The “Bhutanese “have come down from the hills and have made their new homes in the pavements around Wellington Square of north Kolkata. Why this same routine affair goes on year after year? As a child I have seen them and now also the same way of selling their wares --- on the pavements with babies tucked up around the shoulders. 

 

In front of the Adarsh Apartment two youths disembark from their motor bike. Hesitant steps.  Looks up at the building. Does Mr. Santosh Kumar lives here? Yes, I replied, 5th Floor. I move inside my apartment. The morning tea was ready. I was enjoying my cup of tea when I heard some “shouting” and “screaming”. I opened the door and saw the two youths coming down the stairs, hurling obscenities and abuses. One of the sentences which I picked up rather startled me----- “You enjoyed while screwing; now you don’t want to own the baby”. My wife started to pull me inside the apartment. “You don’t have to listen to these dirty rouges, COME INSIDE “. Like most Indian lower burgeoning middle class families do, she also acted the same way. To hell with others, first let me play safe.

 

From the conversations among the two youths I could gather they are “recovery agents” of a particular bank/financial institution. Mr. Santosh Kumar had over stretched his feet from the blanket (Literal translation from Hindi proverb --- “Jitni chaddar ho utna pair fellao”) now with the compound interest Mr. Kumar is in doldrums. Yes, have fun while spending and later pay through your nose. Kumar works for a “Ranta” company of India. Good salary with lots of perks. But Kumar forgot the Indian traditional mindset. He tried to imitate the people of the other side of the world. Here debit cards go well but not credit cards. The salaried middle and lower middle class play it safe. They save and then spend and not vice versa.

 

The frequency of the visits of the “recovery agents” to Kumar’s house became frequent. Kumar became a fugitive. He avoided coming home. The sweet home turned sour. Mrs. Kumar was there to tackle those rogues. Life was torturous for her. She avoided any eye contact with her neighbors. Every one including my wife was secretly celebrating the “death” of a victim. After coming back home from office her topic of discussion centered on Kumar’s family. The bachelors, forced bachelors young and old, almost every one in the locality wanted to have a bite in the cake called Mrs. Kumar. Every male saw an easy prey. Their primitive animal instinct became alive. Some “benevolent” male members of our wonderful society wanted to “help” her by offering her loan with no interest so to tide away the situation. Mrs Kumar remained firm and took no help from any outsiders. Her brother came and rescued her from the situation. Now Mr. Santosh Kumar is back in his home by 7 PM. They learned a lesson of their lives.

 

 

 

What do the Kashmiri youths, the Bhutanese selling cheap sweaters, the ordinary lower Indian middle class family celebrating Christmas, Mr.Santosh Kumar tied in the rigmarole of debt have in common?

 

They fight every moment in their lives to survive victimization of the victim. That is the way the world is.



The author of this blog post is Mr. Sitendu De.

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Monday, November 22, 2010

Not One: Not Two

Sun & its light

Ocean & its waves

Singer & his song

Writer & his story

Artist & his art

Dancer & her dance

Poet & her poem

Engineer & his designs

Bearing & its lubrication

Gas flow & its duct wall

Motor & its bearings

Rotor & its bearings

Bus bar & its joints

Bus bar & its capacitance

Leader & his followers

Organization & its employees

Working & its learning

Production & its demand

Productivity & its inventory

Earnings & its expense

Problems & its constraints

Context & its context

Management & its effectiveness

Mentor & his mentees

Cow & its meadow

Mother & her child

Father & his family

Husband & his wife

Beautiful lady & her beautiful necklace

Lover & his love


How do we separate one from the other?

Whom do we appreciate?

What do we change or improve to get what?

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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Study of Patterns - 2

Study of Patterns is central to whatever we think and do.

The interdependent state of Nature is reflected through the various patterns she continually creates them as per context.

Leonardo da Vinci was a keen student of Nature. Instead of trying to dominate nature, as we have been trying for ages, Leonardo's intent was to learn from her as much as possible. He was struck by the beauty he saw in the complexity of natural forms, patterns, and processes. He was intently aware that nature's ingenuity was far superior to human design.

And this is what he had to declare about her:

"Though human ingenuity in various inventions uses different instruments for the same end, it will never discover an invention more beautiful, easier, or more economical than nature's, because in her inventions nothing is wanting and nothing is superfluous."

This inspires me to observe systems at work, think deeply and design and execute effectively.

However, the idea of understanding and learning starts with discovering the underlying principles at work. In order to do that we must find the invisible relationships that exist between different elements. Seeing through relationships creates the necessary 'wholistic' understanding for us to become wiser and probably enlightened thinkers, designers, executives, salesmen, leaders and workers. .

How do we do that? What is beautiful in her expressions are her myriad patterns. It is through the study of patterns that we come to discover the innumerable relationships that exist between different elements. This is perhaps the first and the most crucial step towards understanding and learning anything.

Fortunately, Nature expresses herself in three simple forms. She dances (oscillates). She shares energy (dissipation). She dies (wear and tear process).

She expresses herself when any system is either in dynamic equilibrium or when a system is taken away from equilibrium -- the only two possible living states for any system.

The slides above represent one of the many patterns that we get to observe. It does not matter whether we observe such patterns in engineering or elsewhere. It is still Nature at her best exhibiting her wildest, creative expressions.

The fan handles hot air, say around 200 to 250 degree Celsius. However, owing to frequent maintenance actions on the fan  the lagging (insulation cover) on the fan ducts was removed.

Heat pictures (Infra-red Thermal Images) were taken on various parts of the duct. The different colors tell us about the temperature of the gas at various locations in the duct.

As we can see the heat pictures create lovely colorful patterns all around the duct. We can also see that the gas is swirling. Technically, we can call this a turbulence. We also observe that at the bolted jointed zone the temperature of the gas is the least (represented by the bluish color).

OK. We get the idea.

Now the questions that arise are the following:

a) Why is the air exhibiting 'turbulence'?

b) What is the relationship between the lagging and the turbulence?

c) Why is the air cooler at the jointed portion of the duct?

d) What would be the effect of the turbulence on the fan system? Would there be any other effects?

e) What is the learning we glean from this? How can the purpose of any system be understood?

f) How could we transform the turbulence into more streamlined flow? What is the principle that we might follow?

g) Where else we might apply this principle to improve our lives?

Hope you enjoy the questions.

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Saturday, November 6, 2010

Mehendi Designer at Work

In India, women like to cover their hands and arms with beautiful floral designs made from natural plant dye called 'mehendi'. It is applied in a thick paste form and the design develops line by line. There is no room for any mistake since a mistake can't be wiped off immediately. As the pattern dries up the excess material is washed off and the bright crimson brown imprint remains on the skin for days. When it fades a fresh design is put on. It is said that this dye has a healing effect but I am not quite sure of that.

It is both an interesting and engaging affair between the designer and client. The design develops through dialogues and interactions between the two, which is then owned by the user and proudly displayed in public. Women eye each other to check out as to whose hands and arms look more beautiful. It is also interesting to note that this design work takes place on the footpaths of city streets, usually at prominent corners. I can understand that. It easily attracts other clients -- a very skillful 'word or mouth' advertisement on the go stroking the secret desire of women to look as beautiful as the other if not better. 

Strangely this design profession is taken up by men. I don't know why. Surely, they find their work interesting since their clientele is all women, usually young. But that is not the point I am trying to make here.

My questions are:

1. Why do the designers and their clientele stick to the floral patterns only? This has been around for at least 1000 years, if not more. Though there is a lot of variation on the floral design why did Indian women not move away from it to adopt other genre of design, say for example, animal motifs? Is it convention or tradition? Or is it something else? Or is it because women can easily relate to plants as nurturers and providers.

2. How do mehendi designers enhance user experience? Would different occasions call for different types of design? For example, a design for attending a marriage ceremony might be completely different to say 'go shop'.

3. Can the designers characterize and bring out the perceived personality of their users through their designs even if they are only using floral designs? How can they drive up more value for their clients and for themselves? Can they transform a human psyche over a period of time through thematic appreciation of their pieces of art? Can they heal the mind? How do they study their users and share their knowledge with other designers in the trade?

Fair to say that I keep learning a lot about design and design thinking by observing such designers at work. The sheer simplicity of their offering is amazing. That might be the secret of their popularity and general acceptance of their design work by young women in general who are quite fussy about their likes and dislikes . They might not want to have it any other way.

Simplicity, beauty, boldness and elegance rule here!

Isn't that true for any design?

Or would complex designs hold more appeal or value?

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