Tag Archives: design process

The Brain Machine….

Posted on by

brainmachineThere has been lots of recent talk from politicians, particularly The Conservative Party, about rejuvinating British Industry. Indeed James Dyson, the renowned inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner which bears his name, recently issued his  Ingenious Britain  report on the subject.

Such debate is welcome and well overdue. With manufacturing in the U.K shrinking to around 10% of GDP we urgently need a strategy which focuses on what we do best – Innovation.

There is no way we can compete with Far East manufacturers on cost (labor or Capital) but we can and do compete strongly when it comes to Innovative design and technology. This is partly due to our strong engineering history and professional project management skills. It is also down to our open and democratic culture which leads to a rigorous debate of ideas.

We have a wealth of scientific and engineering talent in the U.K which we can exploit to deliver new and innovative products to the worlds markets.

We need to rev up the Brain Machine.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

Follow projectsguru on Twitter

The car in front is…..$%#*$ !!!

Posted on by

priusThe news today that Toyota plans on recalling several hundred Prius due to brake problems follows hot on the heels of rumours last week that 19 people had died due to faulty accellerator pedals on Toyota vehicles in the U.S.A alone.

What is going on ?  Toyota has always had a terrific and well deserved reputation for product quality and anyone involved in product design knows that quality has to be built in at the design stage where the product should be rigorously tested and key parameter should exceed a certain capability. This approach guarantees a high degree of reliability and integrity with product failures measured in a handful per million.

The enormity of the problems at Toyota indicate a much, much higher level of failure which is incompatible with a quality product.

Toyota are already discovering the high price of possible shoddy design procedures with sales down around 16% last month.

Sadly their reputation may never recover.

Quality is built in at the design stage.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

The act of innovating; introduction of new things or methods.

Posted on by

manuprocessRecent statistics show that manufacturing in the UK is now as low as 11% of GDP and employment in manufacturing has fallen by a massive 9% since Sept 2008.

Staggering figures – so what’s the solution, if in fact one is needed.

As manufacturing jobs are generally well paid compared to the rest of the economy and as each manufacturing role supports a number of others in the supply chain it would seem logical that an increase in the number of manufacturing jobs will lead to a more diversified and robust economy.

So, how do we go about generating more manufacturing jobs. Do we introduce tariffs on Chinese goods ?  Impose extra duties on imports ? – we could do this but in the end we may do more damage to British business than good.

Many companies have survived by outsourcing activities to China, the Far East and elsewhere and whereas some would argue this has cost British jobs the counter argument is, that without outsourcing, these companies would have gone bust and cost even more jobs.

Capitalism is a dynamic competitive environment and, like its biological counterpart, the most able to adapt will survive.

Wherever a company or organization exists, in order to compete, survive and thrive it needs to Innovate.

It needs to develop new products and services and bring them to market.

In the current climate this is even more critical.

Innovation enables the most able to adapt to survive.

ap4

Dubai gives the world the finger………….

Posted on by

Burj2Dubai has officially unveiled  “The Burj” –  now the worlds tallest building at 828m & visible from over 60 miles away !

It cost a staggering $1.5 Billion to construct over the last 5 years using thousands of migrant workers.

Indeed the building was originally to be called “Burj Dubai” but has now been named “Burj Khalifa” in honour of the ruler of Adu Dhabi who recently bailed out the troubled emirate to the tune of several billion dollars.

Many will see this building as a great feat of engineering, a wonder of the modern world, a tremendous edifice and monument to Capitalism, the latest and greatest in a long line of stupendous architectural magnificences.

Others may see it as the biggest ‘white elephant’ ever built, a monument to excess, an obscene symbol of wealth built by the labour of the poor (mainly Indian & Pakistani labourers paid a few dollars per day) slaves in all but name.

A fitting monument to the “Noughties” decade of excess which imploded in the Worlds greatest recession.

The greatest  example of construction built on sub-prime mortgage the world has ever see.

Dubais magnificent finger rising from the plains and screaming “Up Yours World !”

Whichever way you view it you certainly can’t ignore  it.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

Good project managers are invisible…..

Posted on by

AMBERHILL-LOGO-THUMBA few years ago I was working for a medium size semiconductor company. One of the projects I was managing had a number of unique challenges.

The project involved the development of a new semiconductor I.C from initial concept through to volume manufacture, the customer was a major Far East mobile phone manufacturer.

It was the first time we had used an external subcontract wafer fab. It was the first time that a particular package was used to encapsulate the I.C and the product itself was a new cutting edge design.

The project went very well and was brought in within 2 weeks of plan over a 9 month period and within budget.

A couple of weeks after the end of the project I was at a working lunch when a Senior Manager made the following comment:-

“That project went really well, any idea why ?”

“Perhaps it had a good Project Manager”  was my response.

I had felt a degree of pique that my efforts did not seem to have been recognised but after mulling it over I began to understand.

The Project Managers role is one of facilitaion, it is ensuring that the Team understands the goals and objectives of the project.

It is in planning the project so that everyone knows what is to be done andOffice5 when.

It is in providing the appropriate tools so the tasks can be completed seamlessly.

It is in negotiation between parties to minimize disruption and conflict.

If the project is a complex machine the project manager is the oil which keeps it running smoothly towards its ultimate objective.

The machine is clear to see but unless you look closely the oil is invisible.

That’s why a good Project Manager is invisible.

chris@amberhill.biz

Why re-invent the wheel…

Posted on by

200022813-001During the product design stage it makes good sense to re-use previous design knowledge wherever possible. This may seem to be a bit of a lazy option but is valid for the following reasons:-

1) The existing design will have been fully validated and tested.

2) Considerable time and effort will be saved instead of  “re-inventing the wheel”

3) The existing design layout and supporting documentation already exists.

This doesn’t mean that innovation should stop, on the contrary any improvements in design should be incorporated into the new version.

Product design is an evolutionary process which makes best use of previous innovation.