Jaguar Land Rover goes from strength to strength #innovation

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evoque2This week Jaguar Land Rover released the following press statement:-

‘JLR creates 250 new jobs as Halewood is confirmed as the home of the new Discovery Sport
The Land Rover Discovery Sport has been confirmed as the latest model to be produced at Jaguar Land Rover’s Halewood plant. The additional jobs announced to support Jaguar Land Rover’s newest model will see the Halewood workforce reach 4,750 – more than treble the number employed there in 2010. The Halewood plant has benefited from a £200 million investment to support introduction of the first member of the all-new Land Rover Discovery family, taking the total amount invested in Halewood over the last four years to almost £500 million.’
 
So why are JLR doing so well when volume manufacturers like General Motors Vauxhall and other Marques are struggling:-
 
1) JLR are taking advantage of a global rise in premium SUV’s driven, to a large extent, by the Chinese market.
 
2) Their customers are relatively well off & have higher disposable income.
 
3) They have targeted the export market, with over 80% of sales destined for overseas.
 
4) Their Quality standards are superior, the attention to detail is exceptional .
 
5) They have an excellent engineering pedigree with a stable workforce with many, many years experience. There is no other company in the World knows as much about four wheel drive systems as Land Rover.
 
6) Jaguar Land Rover has a flexible business model & employs many talented & experienced engineering contractors. 
 
7) They use a proven stage gate development process (described in an earlier post)
 
8) They have enjoyed massive Capital Investment from Tata investing over 2.75 billion pounds in 2014. Not bad for an organisation which was on its knees before the Tata takeover.
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Rage against the machine…………………………#AI #Innovation

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AIThere is much speculation in the sphere of Artificial Intelligence as to when we will arrive at a point in time when machines develop ‘intelligence’ which is beyond that of a human being. This event is often referred to as ‘The Singularity’ as it is difficult to see how human society will evolve after this point as Machine intelligence surpasses our own then grows exponentially..
 
These ideas are explored by Ray Kurzweil in his 2005 book ‘The Singularity is Near’ which discusses the impact of this collossal technological advance & its impact on individuals & society.
 
Of course there are many examples of the use of robots in industry, including the automotive industry where they are ’employed’ where precision & repeatability is essential. In contrast there are plenty assembly lines still employing thousands of human beings because they are more flexible & cost a lot less.
 
There are also may examples in society where A.I is ‘helping’ us including Apples ‘Siri’ which executes voice commands & learns our speech. Sometimes it is easy to forget the iPhone has only been around since 2007  such is the speed of technological innovation.
 
Of course Intelligence is no guarantee of a better society. There are millions of human geniuses now but we still suffer from war, mass starvation, wealth disparity, poverty & numerous other adverse conditions which are a result of the way we organize society rather than the intelligence of the population. Intelligence does not equal wisdom.
 
Predictions vary as to the date of the ‘Singularity’ but general consensus puts it around 2040. If you live that long you may live forever, alternatively you may live to regret it.
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Are you a headless chicken?………………….#innovation

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You must be doing something really important eh ? running around like a headless chicken all day putting those fires out. You haven’t got time to headless-chickenthink about future products because your far too busy fixing the current ones!
But hang on a minute……if your not focusing on those future products where is your future revenue coming from when all the old ones become obsolete?

How do you escape this vicious circle ?

  • Keep a timesheet to find out how much time you spend fire fighting & how much on future products.
  • You will probably find it’s 80/20
  • To turn this around you need to gradually increase the time you spend on future product development  to 80%
  • Resist the urge to persist in fire fighting.
  • As time progresses the time you spend on fire fighting will decrease because you have put more effort into your future product development, getting it right first time and minimising the need for fire fighting.

so, are you a headless chicken ?
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Stage gate process aids product development #pmot

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ISO9001designprocessIn the Automotive# industry thousands of individual components are designed, developed, prototyped, tested and tuned silmultaneously to be brought together as a finished car which has to meet exacting standards for safety, perfomance and reliability.

An incredible feat of engineering and project management which is made possible by the effective use of a rigorous stage gate process based on ISO9001 . Here the output of one stage has to meet pre-defined standards before the project is allowed to move to the next stage.

The key to continued success is the fine tuning of the process itself based on ‘lessons learned’ from previous projects.
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Stuff doesn’t ‘just happen’……………#pmot

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stuff-happensDoes it drive you crazy when you hear people say ” It’s funny how stuff just happens” ?

I’ve got news for those people – nothing “just happens”………..well maybe evolution is an exception, and that takes millions of years to make noticeable change, so if we want to make stuff happen quickly how do we go about doing it. Here are some simple tips:-

  • Break a large task into smaller more manageable ‘chunks’
  • Arrange those ‘chunks’ into chronological order & do some in parallel.
  • Create a tracker.
  • Before asking people to do things make sure they’re resource is allocated.
  • Don’t just rely on email – talk.
  • If people won’t complete their allocated tasks on time – escalate.
  • Make sure they understand the importance of the task.
  • Most importantly – be persistent.

If you have some more tips on making stuff happen we’d like to hear them.

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Don’t Panic……………..#pmot

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Dads Army – Don’t Panic

Have you ever felt a sense of panic at work when you feel overwhelmed by conflicting priorities and the need to complete a number of competing tasks. Most people find themselves in this position at one time or another angry-customerand there is one overwhelming truth – no task is performed better in a state of panic than it would be otherwise.

Panic is due to excess stress which excites our primordial instincts of fight or flight. When we can’t respond in this way we are conflicted and the stress hormones exhibit themselves physiologically by making us edgy, short tempered, irrational and emotional.

So how do we manage stress & minimise these unpleasant symptoms.

  • Take time out to prioritise your work – if necessary ask your boss to help you determine the top priotities.
  • Plan your day ahead before you leave work the previous evening.
  • Decline meetings which can be avoided.
  • If you have to visit different locations to complete tasks arrange to do them all at one location on the same day.
  • Learn to say ‘No’ – but always explain why.
  • Write an Action list in priority order.
  • Keep a notebook to aid memory.
  • Use Spreadsheets – they’re great for recording complex sets of information.
  • Take time out. Instead of having lunch at your desk go for a brisk walk.
  • Maintain physical fitness whch is essential to psychological health.
  • Don’t abuse drugs or alcohol – they are never the answer to you problems.
  • If you can – start work half an hour early – don’t worry about getting  paid for it, that extra 30 minutes getting your act together will be well worth it.
  • Remember – unless you really are a Doctor or an Airline pilot, nobody is going to die if you don’t complete that task before 5pm.

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What is #Quality ?….

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RolexQuality has a number of definitions, ‘fit for purpose’, ‘exceeding expectations’ ‘meeting specifications’. It can be a tricky thing to measure but we all know it when we perceive it.

Take a Rolex watch for example, the materials used in its construction, its finish, its mechanical integrity all tell us it is  a ‘Quality’ item – this is naturally reflected in its price.

Although lots of fakes exist it is impossible to replicate the original without investing the same levels of workmanship and materials into it’s manufacture. This gives us a clue as to the origin of the Quality of the object. It lies in the specification & manufacture of the object within a given set of tolerances.

This is reflected in the luxury end of the automotive industry where body panels are specified as beng within a tight dimensional tolerance which in previous generations of product may have been deemed impossible.

Such tolerances lead to a vehicle which is perceived as high Quality without the buyer neccesarily understanding why.

So, if we can capture the expectations of the customer & translate them into product specifications with tolerances we can design & build something which has increased added value & perceived customer Quality.

 

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#Lean empowerment……

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TPS

At the heart of the Toyota Production System (sometimes referrred to as #Lean Production System) is the principle of ‘Jidoka’.

 According to Toyota “Jidoka means that a machine safely stops when the normal processing is completed. It also means that, should a quality / equipment problem arise, the machine detects the problem on its own and stops, preventing defective products from being produced. As a result, only products satisfying quality standards will be passed on to the following processes on the production line.”

But there is more to #Lean than this. The key component is the empowerment of the Operator to stop the process immediately a defect or potentialy defective process is discovered without referring the issue upward. The Operator can stop the production process without fear of retribution and is empowered to do so. This is a great responsibility and one which is not granted lightly, the Operator must be fully trained and the Organisation steeped in the culture of #Lean & #Kaizen (continuous improvement)

Granting  this autonomy is absolutely key to the success of the TPS philosophy & unleashes immense forces of creativity & quality improvement. 

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Climate Change cries out for a technological solution

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The International Protocol on Climate Change issued a comprehensive globereport this week which indicated that 95% of Scientists agreed that Global warming was as a direct result of human activity and that unless we take decisive and immediate action average surface temperatures will rise 2 degrees Celsius by the end of this Century resulting in catastrophic changes to our weather systems.

Only the most foolhardy or blinkered could ignore such a report but generating action is proving to be incredibly difficult.

It is no good for relatively wealthy westerners to criticize people in other parts of the world for wanting to grow their economies and as a result share in the increased wealth this brings. In the last Century we were doing exactly the same and, whatever the faults of free market Capitalism, there is no denying the wealth generating energies it unleashes.

What we need is a technological solution to Climate change which allows energy to continue to be consumed without the harmful effects of carbon dioxide generation from fossil fuels.

Vast parts of the globe are barren deserts which could be used for solar power generation. If we embarked on an International  Government backed enterprise to build a number of vast  solar arrays we could generate a massive amount of clean energy and at the same reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Of course this will not be easy and will bring massive engineering & scientific challenges (not to mention the political ones) but what could be more important than saving the planet on which we and our descendants live.

Allowing people to invest and profit from such an enterprise will guarantee success. This will allow continued economic growth without trashing the planet we all depend upon.

All it takes is some imaginative leadership from our Politicians, but maybe that’s asking too much ?

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10 things which make for Project success……#pmot

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consultants5There are several things which make for a successful project, here are some of them:-

1)
The product or service which is the output of the project can be clearly specified. This is easier said than done especially when the output is a software system or something which is difficult to define. However, this makes the product spec more not less necessary. If the project is to be deemed a success the output needs to be defined as clearly and thoroughly as possible.



2) The product or service has one clearly defined customer. It is always easier to meet the demands of one tough customer rather than the competing demands of several. It is important to meet the customer or their representative face to face to agree the spec.



3) The Project Manager has experience of delivering similar projects.



4) The Team has been through the Storming, Forming & Norming stages of Team development.



5) The Team is multi-functional & chosen for this specific project.



6) The project is planned properly – 70-80% of the PM’s efforts should be expended in the planning phase, the plan should be repeatedly reviewed by the Team, and proper contingency should be put in place to manage the risks.



7) The PM needs real authority in order to ‘get stuff done’



8) Regular Team meetings need to be held to review progress.



9) The team are located in the same building, even better the same room.



0) The PM is calm, assured & approachable

Could you suggest some more ?

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