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!

Humble Potatoes, Recession, Innovation and Profits

Many many years back when I visited the UK for the first time as a much younger person I stayed there long enough to soak up the culture of the place. Most things I saw or experienced amazed me a lot.

This was because everything seemed so different from what I saw and experienced in India till that time. My young mind was like a dry sponge absorbing all I could and busily reflecting on anything that came my way.

For example, I saw that cars in Manchester or London did not have dents or scratches on their bodies whereas any car in Kolkata had a number of these ugly dents and scratches all over their bodies. There were certainly lot more cars plying the streets than I would ever expect in Mumbai or Delhi and the streets were old and not so wide but clean. The environment had a ring of safety and confidence around it. When my wife lost her passport we did get it back from the local police station within a few hours after losing it. I wasn't unduly worried about the safety of my one and half year old child. The very sight of the beat constables smartly walking past was reassuring. Even now it is hard to imagine such a things happening in India.

Why was it? I realized that the difference lay in the collective consciousness and the learning of the people. When there is collective learning in the society things become much easier, smoother and safer. At the back of your mind you are always assured that no one would intentionally bang your car from behind or none would clip your side view mirrors or scrap the sides while overtaking recklessly or throw your passport into the waste bin or I need not worry much about my son getting kidnapped.  

But there was another interesting thing I observed and it made a lasting impression on my young mind for life. What I observed was the ubiquitous use of potatoes in the meals of the Britishers. I found this interesting since in Bengal we also use potatoes in almost every dish. Here too potatoes were everywhere. I tasted the famous British invention of the 'Fish & Chips' in brown paper bags and then tasted the 'smashed potatoes', 'baked potatoes', 'French fries', 'Potato and Cheese' and so many other varieties.

But what made me think was how did potatoes come into the British culture and in fact in the European culture? Potato as far as I knew was not a native of the British Isle or that of Europe but a native of the South American continent. But being a little curious by nature I delved a little more and what I found surprised me a lot and offered me a wonderful lesson for life.

The advent of the humble potatoes in the European culture was around 225 years back roughly around 1775 to 1790. And that made a lot of sense to me. This time was an important landmark in world history in more ways than one. William Herschel, a British astronomer, discovered the planet Uranus, the first planet to have been discovered through the aid of a telescope. During this time, the French queen lost her dear head to the Madame Guillotine. The Americans were happy celebrating the Boston Tea Party and declaring their Independence. Opium War had taken place and the British annexed Hong Kong from the Chinese. The American constitution was framed with its noble humanitarian ideals.  The East India Company almost went bankrupt and the Parliament had to bail out the company. This was also the time, when the first hot air balloon went up in flight. Galvani discovered electricity in its useful form. Samuel Hahnemann invented Homeopathy. And while James Watt and a band of enthusiastic people were busy ushering in the Industrial Revolution people started working in deary factories in sub-human conditions and slaved for at least 16 hours a day and lived on pittance so to say. They even paid a fine to the owner of the factories for using a candle to work in the late evenings. And across Europe repeated crop failures had devastated the grain market

So this period may be briefly described as a period of war, conflicts, political upheavals, growth, bankruptcy and even climate change and also the age of great discoveries, inventions, scientific inquiries and poverty for the general masses -- a situation which we would easily recognize today as the same things are happening all over again -- perhaps at a much greater scale.

Precisely at this time and in this gap quietly stepped in the unloved, little know, unconsidered and probably unpopular potato. Two centuries after its introduction it became a staple of the British diet.

However, the humble potato did not take off, so to say, because of some upbeat campaign of some glamorous  'Potato Association' of Britain. Far from it. The potato's success was a result of resourcefulness and innovation of ordinary people during a time of crisis, food shortages and hunger. I can well guess that the overarching need for the heads of the families, in those trying times, was to feed their families. They found hope in the humble potatoes. And they used it with great ingenuity. And the hardy potatoes did not let them down either. They also cooperated with the hard pressed people. Though it was not an alternative to grain they proved versatile and people found them easy to grow even in English weather. And this probably made the potato so endearing to the British public and they developed many ways to enjoy them and even grew them in their backyards. I remember my good friend, Ian, quickly uprooting a potato from his kitchen garden and proudly holding it up saying, 'Isn't it nice. I grew it.' You may say that it was a unique case of brand loyalty that has kept the potato in the position that it enjoys today.

Today, history is repeating itself. The underlying story remains the same. We again see fluctuation in the GDP growth. We see wars and conflicts. We see companies, like the East India Company going bankrupt and being helped by the Governments. We see job cuts and managers desperately trying to cut costs. And we see reduced expectation of sales, no new products and services -- generating an overall gloomy atmosphere leading to general economic depression.

But the consumers stay nimble as always. They are busy re-framing their problems according to their budgets and now coming up with new solutions and new expectations. It doesn't mean that the consumers are only busy figuring out cheaper ways of doing the same thing. They have different things to do and want to do it differently. The consumers still want to go on holidays, eat out, entertain guests, buy curtains and shoes, beautify home, build new ones and bear children -- but differently.

This then opens up a huge and different profit making possibilities for manufacturers, service providers and financial institutions -- if only they care to observe the consumer a little more closely. This is simply because the existing needs of the society have not vanished – nor would they. These still need to be fulfilled. So, when the economy is down people simply look to different product categories to solve their persistent problems and needs. They do make trade-offs that reflect their conscious and unconscious decisions. The question is: Will a modern woman stop wearing her lipstick? Will Indian families stop saving money? Will they stop buying gold? Will they stop watching the TV? Not likely.

So, here is a world of opportunity. While companies are only focused on cutting back production and costs, the consumers are busy with their own imagination and initiatives to keep them one step ahead of the companies. This makes it all the more important for companies to use their imagination and technology to step in and catch up with the imagination of the consumers. Though this recession will be much different from the last the consumers will come up on top.

And why is it so? Because consumers are now familiar with both the high end and the low end brands. They have a choice of Bata, Kadim, Shreeleathers, Reebok and Nike.  They would not feel a bit shy or embarrassed to go for budget shopping and go to anyone who greets them with a choice within their budgets. They are now masters of favorably mixing or toggling between high end and low end brands for their various needs. So for companies that rely on lethargy rather than love for the consumers might become a thing of the past – a dinosaur. For example, GM whose only motto was to make money and not cars have already lost the race to Toyota and is now on the brink of bankruptcy.

Economics tell us that 'labor follows money'. The same is true of consumers. They would follow budget prices without any hesitation.

So, keeping up with the consumers is not about predicting the next big need or the next big move or great market research. It would mean a deeper understanding of their present needs and how to respond as creatively as possible.  This is because consumers are only re-framing their problems – not forgetting them for good. So, companies who understand how people with tight budgets re-frame their problems may not only identify new opportunities but also figure out ways to earn unexpected profits. Thinking and feeling about people’s needs can uncover ways to get into markets that once seemed inaccessible or even unimaginable. For example, the Re 1/- shampoo sachets -- shampoo companies are now ever so busy selling them all over India. And as I know they are expanding the business even in these trying times. They are adding more sachet machines (I am proud that I designed those budget machines) to their facilities. And they are still hungry for more.

Other examples spring to mind as I write this blog. For example, why take the trouble of making grade 53 cement only to sell it at a premium? People can very well do without this. Even the toughest roads are built on grade 42. So, why not make grade 30, for instance for making dwelling houses.

Similarly, why not sell cheaper power during night time so that people may run their washing machines to wash their clothes in the late evenings and use air conditioners to get a good night's sleep only to be more productive the next day. It would encourage the consumer to use more natural light during the day and the the power that is saved by ordinary consumers might be gainfully used by industries to produce goods and services for the market and the power companies profit more from it. This might as well save us the trouble of building additional power plants for the time being, when money is short supply.

Why doesn't someone think of buying the e-junk and making workable computers from the junk components for consumers who can't afford to pay more? Backed up by creative software developers it would quickly and effectively spread literacy and knowledge amongst thousands of underprivileged children.

Why the steel companies don't think of manufacturing rods of lesser diameters than they presently produce. The builders then get it cheaper and the houses that are built with such rods would become stronger and more robust in both tension and compression. And the consumer would also be happy to afford such houses and not default on house loans and heat up the economy.

Why do we waste material to build something solid when a hollow section would clearly be better (example, rubber liners used in mining industries). And why use costly imported steel or aluminum as reinforcement for rubber products when humble jute does the trick much better (one of my ideas tried out with great success by a rubber company).

Why make the walls of the gear box casing so thick and waste money -- clearly it could be made thinner. The customer pays less and the efficiency of the gear box increases greatly (another idea of mine which proved profitable for the company).

Why wrap steam pipelines with equal insulation thickness when variable insulation thickness makes the job more efficient and cost effective.

In every case, the consumer pay less but companies benefit and profit from it. It is clearly a great opportune moment in history for a win-win situation -- saving and sustaining the environment, helping consumers to tide over the crisis and also making a lot of money in trying times without destroying the morale of the people by sacking them or closing down industries. 'No wastage and more reliability of products and services' -- might be the new mantra. I got this insight by observing nature. Nature does not waste and its designs are super reliable. Just look at a tree or a river to get the idea. And what is more is that all these small changes that I talked about can be brought about by even more smaller changes in techniques and technology at almost at no cost. Isn't it wonderful!

Hence, this recession may be the ideal and the right background for experimenting with small changes that target big needs. Innovation is all about making small changes to make big and lasting social impacts.

And those small changes that would make a great impact would surely achieve the unchallenged status of the humble potato in the years to come.

As I finish writing this blog, people of the US would wake up to choose their next President for the Oval Office. The US has given the world in form of their Presidents some of the finest human beings and leaders who shaped the destiny of the world in recent times. To my mind, the finest of them was Abraham Lincoln. What he declared for democracy rings even true for social innovation to come to grips with the present Financial Crisis – 'For the People, By the People and Of the People'. The world needs 'Social Innovation' to help people keep their jobs, raise their families and give their children a good education. To fulfill this social role and responsibility this century would belong to Innovators, Designers, Engineers and Creative Minds from all walks of life. What we collectively choose to do as a human race for the next 100 years would  determine the destiny of our dear children and their next generations and the destiny of our dear mother earth.

So, long live the potato! My constant and enduring reminder of what innovation is, who drives it, who profits from it and how it might change the culture of our people for good and for the better. Let  collective consciousness, collective learning and social innovation of the society grow! We have nothing to lose but our worries!

Signing off for now,
dibyendu

I dedicate this blog to Dad who instilled in me as a school boy the enjoyment of studying Political Economy and the enjoyment hasn't waned a bit over all these years.

Apprentice to a Butcher

As a young boy, I was greatly intrigued to learn that Shakespeare, for a while, served as an apprentice to a butcher. I could not connect Shakespeare to a butcher at that time. But I was dismayed to think that how Shakespeare wasted much of his valuable time and talent working for a butcher. Surely he did not learn anything of his craft that made him and his works so famous and enduring. After some childish thinking, I passed it off as: 'Well, even great men like Shakespeare had to take up such lowly jobs (in India a butcher's job is still considered to be a lowly job) to survive. So I resolved that I should not be least ashamed of taking up lowly jobs in the future, if need be, just to survive and can do great jobs later on as and when opportune moments come up. And I understood that no job is low enough so long it helps one to survive with dignity'.

Forty years have passed since that time. And there was no change to my basic realization. To survive is the basic human motivation that gives our human dignity. And therefore, every job has a dignity about it since it helps us survive.

And then one day I suddenly hit upon a realization that eluded me for so long.

This came up while I became a little more curious about learning the roots of 'Lean Manufacturing'. Most of us know that the concepts of 'lean' were developed by Taichi Ohno of Toyota and later made more popular through his books and through Goldratt's 'Theory of Constraints' (perhaps important to remember that the phrase 'lean manufacturing' was not coined by Ohno). But when Ohno was asked as to where he got his ideas from he frankly admitted that he got his ideas from Henry Ford and it was not his original idea. And where did Henry Ford get his concept of waste elimination, lean manufacturing and assembly line that changed forever the concepts of manufacturing operations all over the world? Now came the surprise.

Ford got his ideas of waste elimination and lean manufacturing through his observation of the local butchers at their work. To be candid, till that time, I was not much interested in the butcher or his trade. But this fact that Ford got his idea of lean manufacturing from the butcher shook me up quite a bit.

Without wasting much time, I virtually rushed to my nearest friendly butcher's shop (Golam's Meat Shop) and observed his operation with a lot of interest. And what I saw bowled me over. It was a perfect example of waste elimination (all 7 of them), just in time, 5 S, assembly line concept, TPM and much more. No waste anywhere in the system and what naturally struck me was the inherent simplicity of the operation and cleanliness of the whole place.

In the morning, the butcher and his lean team opens the shop with just one slaughtered lamb. Three more live lambs are kept ready at a distance tied to a peg (inventory control). Before the first customer arrives, the butcher and his team utilizes the idle time, sharpening their tools, maintaining and cleaning the wooden chopping block, and cleaning the place (TPM). As soon as the first customer arrives, the head butcher asks him about his choice of meat (whether he would like to have it from the legs -- front or the rear ones, the chest portion etc and the amount of liver he needs and does he need the meat to be minced or in pieces, etc). Having understood his customer's specific requirement through his short dialogue he then sets out fulfilling the order as desired (Make what the customer wants and just the amount he asks for -- nothing more, nothing less -- no overproduction). He starts chopping the pieces with his right hand and throws the chopped piece with his left hand into a weighing pan and constantly eyes the weight of the meat on the digital meter -- all these done with rhythm and balance. As soon as the meter shows the correct amount the operation stops and while the head butcher gets engaged in collecting the money from the customer one of the team mates starts putting the pieces into a black plastic bag to deliver the pack to the customer. And then comes the next customer. And in between the customers, the cleaning operation is quickly done in a matter of less than 10 seconds to clean up the 'act'.

But as soon as the amount of meat starts dwindling, the head butcher asks his next senior most team mate to keep the next lamb ready (pull system). Just before the first lamb is done away with the next lamb appears on the sales counter kept hanging upside down (Just in time). And how is that done? It exactly looks like an assembly line or a process plant. While one of the boys slaughters the lamb, the other takes off the skin and yet another disembowels the lamb and cleans it up before it is placed on the sales counter (Standard procedure of work). The entire operation is a symphony -- well orchestrated like any famous orchestra.

And what happens to the portions not selected by the regular customers, like the skull, hooves, intestines, tongues etc? These are neatly placed and segregated at designated places for another brand of customers to pick these up and there is one boy in the team who handles this brand of customers. They take these portions for their pets or other purposes. And the shop remains open till everything that has been processed so far is sold out but the shop is not kept open after noon. As the clock strikes noon the operation comes to a grinding halt (work-life balance) and everyone suddenly becomes busy vigorously cleaning up the whole place, cleaning and sharpening the knives and implements and tidying them up (for the next operation in the evening) and again scrapping and cleaning the wooden chopping block(TPM). The cash is counted and the suppliers, who queue up at the closing hour are paid off (working well with a close knit group of suppliers -- quality assurance and supply chain management). They go off with a smile on their faces. A very neat operation.

There are other striking things to observe. All operations are within the arm's reach (ergonomics in its simplicity). They hardly apply any additional physical force than what is necessary for the job (no energy loss). The head butcher is always in a white dress with surprisingly a few spots of blood and the place does not smell - no stench, no running rivulets of blood and water, no mess in this rather messy business (customer focus). And the head butcher trains his team mates all the while (continuous on the job training), fully aware that these young lads, as they grow up and learn more about the business, would leave him and set up shop elsewhere. He does not care about that. He also does not seem to care about recession or inflation knowing fully well that human population would keep growing and there is no limit to human consumption till he lives and works and can do exactly as per the market demand -- quite counter intuitive - I must admit.

No wonder, Henry Ford got many of his brilliant ideas of Lean Manufacturing from the humble butcher and his operation. His brilliant mind could take in what he saw and clearly projected his learning well into the future. This is innovation. This is because knowledge in one field was applied to quite a different field of human activity and it changed the way in which we worked so far in manufacturing. It changed the concepts and it changed everything for good for the good of the human society.

So, after all, innovation is not that scary! It starts with our observation, playing with what we observe and gaining insights to form interesting points of view (POV). It may also lead to great laws like Newton's laws. After all, the great Newton also got his ideas from his intent observation and play. Since knowledge is all around us, it all depends on how we see this knowledge and glean relevant insights to improve the way we do things.

Many from the manufacturing industry with whom I interact firmly believe in seeing what similar industries are doing elsewhere and benchmark themselves with similar industries. There is nothing wrong with this. It helps one to take note of the best practices so as to replicate the same in their industries and thereby improve productivity.

But 'best practices' are not new knowledge. They are still looking for ideas inside the box and not outside the box. With time, they would certainly know with lot of clarity the dimensions of this box, the color, texture, smell and everything about the box and then they would like to make it bigger keeping the other features intact. But that would not initiate the culture of innovation. Far from it. To initiate a culture of innovation, people should be encouraged to look outside the box -- that is look keenly as to what goes on in other industries -- however, small and humble that might appear to be -- may be a butcher shop or the 'biri making shop' (traditional Indian mini cigars). Knowledge is everywhere -- just impatiently waiting for us to be pick them up and apply them to whatever we do. That is what I understand as 'thinking outside the box'. Well we have to find time for this and do this activity in a relaxed manner for the greater benefit of our society.

However, this example, also highlights the purpose of innovation. The basic end purpose of all innovations is to ensure the our well being. Does it help us to perform better at the task that we do or the way we do the tasks or the way in which we think about something (Performance)? Does it help us to produce more with less and save resources and thereby save the earth (Productivity)? Does it help us to make money to lead a proper balanced life and improve the standard of living for us and for our future generations and help us live with dignity (Profitability)?

You might be wondering by now as to what happened to my understanding of Shakespeare with whom I started this story. Well, I now realize the importance of his apprenticeship to the butcher and can now make the connection. The great man was definitely not wasting his time, he was too intelligent and bright to waste his valuable time.

He probably absorbed the lean manufacturing concepts from his boss and his operation and applied it to his life and his works (completely different field of human activity -- literature). That is why he could complete 37 great plays in such a short time (quality and made to order -- as demanded by Swan Theater -- no over production). History says that he penned his stories in a collaborative manner with a team of assistants (lean manufacturing and team work with able team members). That is why he could express universal and timeless human emotions and follies through stories of kings and queens (keeping with the expectation of ordinary people of his time -- customer focus -- the ordinary people certainly did not like to see similar drab stories of their colorless lives being played out on the stage -- they wanted to see something more glamorous -- that would enable them to pleasantly forget their pains for the time being and hope for a better future). That is why he offered them such fine stories so that the plays would run full houses for days (profitability through talent). That is why he wrote as briefly as he could and directly in the play format (no wastage of energy and time -- it was left to other great minds to explain to us the depths and intricacies of his writings). And it is amply clear that he kept on observing human mind, behavior and emotions, reading and researching on various topics (stories and events that did not necessarily belong to England), imagining and writing to hone his skills with the greatest determination to raise it to its highest levels of perfection and brilliance (working out of the box and continuous learning).

I now humbly acknowledge the contribution of butchers to the progress of our human civilization and I am already preparing myself to make a video or a photo log of my friend, Golam and his shop. I think it is a better way to share knowledge with adult learners rather than making them go through well written academic books. But my friend is quite taken aback by my proposal. He wonders 'What is all this fuss about. How can I be so important?' he said. He then added with a tinge of surprise in his voice,'Videos and photo shoots are meant for film stars, singers and clebrities, not me'.

I empathize. He simply fails to see the 'cloud in the book'(one of the topics of my future blog).

But do we all succeed in seeing the 'cloud in the book'?

May be, may be not!

Incidentally tonight, as I write to complete this blog, the Diwali festival has started and I can hear the sounds of crackers in the distance (Diwali is the festival of light in India). It is supposed to dispel all darkness in our souls and brighten up our lives. Let this Diwali brighten up our lives and spirits.

Wish you all a very happy and prosperous Diwali.

Signing off for now,

dibyendu

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