In their iconic book “Lean Thinking” Womack & Jones identified 5 Lean principles of fundamental importance.

1) Specify Value from the End Customers perspective. What does the End Customer actually want from the product or service. The only way to ascertain this is through the Voice Of Customer. We will expand on this in later posts.

2) Identify the Value Stream. This is the sequence of processes from raw material to the end customer which comprises Value Adding and Non Value Adding steps.

3) Make value Flow. The process should be continuous, avoiding batch production and queues, or at least minimizing them. Aim never to delay a value adding step with a non value adding step. If NVA steps are unavoidable they should be done in parallel with VA steps.

4) Operate via Pull not Push. The system should be driven by the customers demand avoiding unnecessary over production.

5) Strive for Perfection. Minimize defects and aim for Total Customer Satisfaction.

Adopting these 5 Lean principles leads to a Kaizen journey of Continuous Improvement.

chris@amberhill.biz

www.amberhill.biz

Students at the Georgia Institute of Technology recently learned that the ‘Teacher’s Assistant’ they had been reacting with all Semester was actually a robot !

‘Jill’ powered by IBM’s Watson analytics system helped undergraduate students with an online artificial intelligence course.

‘I thought I was talking to a real person’ confessed one student whilst another was ‘gobsmacked’

This raises a number of ethical issues around the use of A.I – should we be informed whether we are talking to a ‘robot or a human being.

This also begs the question whether A.I systems could be said to have passed the ‘Turing Test’ and essentially be indestinguishable from a Human Being.

A.I Technology is progressing at breakneck speed & has profound implications for all kinds of services such as banking, insurance, customer service etc etc – indeed any industry which relies on person to person communication will be revolutionised by the pace of Artificial Intelligence.

This will inevitably lead to massive job losses in these industries but will also create many alternative careers in Engineering & Technology Development.

There is little doubt, though, that those highly skilled & highly paid roles will not be populated by the same staff who used to work in the call centre leaving another dilemma for Society.

chris@amberhill.biz

www.amberhill-associates.com

There has been much wringing of hands & gnashing of teeth over the impending closure of the Port Talbot steel works by Tata Steel. Politicians of left and right have dug out their Road Atlases & rushed over to be photographed consoling the poor sods who work there demanding they ‘Save our Steel’. The Government will promise a lot & deliver nothing. Labour will urge the re-nationalisation of the failing plant which is reportedly losing £1 million per day. So who would pay for that £365 million per year to save 13,500 jobs – The British taxpayer – the same taxpayer who would be moaning about the loss of their local library or maternity ward.

What the workers desperately need is some brutal honesty:-

• British Steel is no longer economically viable in the global market place.
• The total volume of world steel production produced in the U.K is less than 0.1%
• There are lots of British companies benefiting form cheap Chinese steel.
• No one is going to buy Port Talbot & run it in its current format.
• The Government will do NOTHING to save the plant.

So what should be done:-

• The Unions should focus on obtaining maximum redundancy pay.
• If any of the ‘higher value’ operations can be salvaged this is where the emphasis should be.
• The Government needs to do more to encourage alternate employers to the area by the extension & creation of enterprise zones.
• Employees need re-training & re-skilling.

chris@amberhill.biz

www.amberhill.biz

Football Fans are beginning to wonder whether Manchester United Manager Lois Van Gaal has ‘lost the dressing room’ in much the same as Jose Mourinho did a few short weeks ago at Chelsea.

This Management phenomenon is not confined to the World of Sport – it is surprisingly common in the fields of Business & industry, so what are the symptoms:-

• Directions which once went unchallenged are now contested, sometimes vigorously.
• Staff turnover, once steady & low, increases, sometimes dramatically.
• There is a definite lack of motivation.
• Deadlines are missed & increasingly challenged.
• Tasks become ‘bogged down’ & remain uncompleted.
• Tempers are increasingly frayed.

So what are the causes of this sad state of affairs.

• Poor communication & direction from Senior Management.
• Unrealistic demands to meet unrealistic timescales.
• Workers overloaded with bureaucracy.
• Too many new systems.
• Middle Managers pointing the finger of blame at subordinates.

If you find yourself in this unenviable position of ‘losing your dressing room’ getting the Team back onside is never easy but try this:-

• Be open & honest, not only to the Team but to your Senior Management. This may be painful in the short term but is key to success.
• Stop pointing that finger.
• LISTEN as well as you talk.
• Eat a small portion of ‘humble pie’ even if it sticks in your throat.

chris@amberhill.biz

www.amberhill-associates.com

David Bowie was undoubtedly one of the greatest & most influential musicians & artists of the 20th Century –  so what did he teach us about Innovation.

• He never rested on his laurels. Despite  phenomenal success with any one of his characters he ripped it up & started again. If he had owned Apple he would never be developing the iPhone 7.
• He never followed the trend – he led from the front regardless of popular opinion, when he went off to Berlin to experiment with electronic music it was a form which was right on the edge.
• He made the rules – in all aspects of his life – regardless of societies norms.
• He was a perfectionist – not a control freak.
• He selected the best to work with & gave them free reign.
• He wasn’t perfect – like all of us he made mistakes, but learned from them.
• He may have grown old physically but his soul was forever young.

Farewell to a great Artist & a magnificent Innovator.

chris@amberhill.biz

www.amberhill.biz