Materials Science and Engineering Defined: Protect your laptop - Here I lacked Foresight

Materials Science and Engineering Defined: Protect your laptop -

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Six Strategic Mental Attitudes Part II - Strategic Mental Attitude N° I - BENCHMARKING

I. BENCHMARKING.

In simple management terms, benchmarking is the best and arguably the easiest

method to initiate change to improve organisational performance. It consists in using the experience, of other organisations. Why re-invent the wheel? Why not seek ideas and practice of others which may help improve productivity or quality? By comparing one’s organisation al methods with those of the most performing in a sector of activity, using similar working processes. The benchmarker can identify practice which leads to better results and adapt them to his own needs.


This concept is probably the oldest. Indeed it has long found a place in common language. It consists in measurement, measurement to prepare working to size or to a standard.  Measurement of the task to be performed, be it cutting a material to size where the tradesman marks the required size on the work-bench or in a wider sense, measurement of performance to be improved, both from internal organisation practice and importantly against relevant external performance such as that of competitors activities.    So it is certainly the easiest concept to understand. communicate and find adhesion within a performance improvement (change) project.

A quick glance at the table of qualities valued in benchmarking reflects as expected the predominance of  percentage the objective  qualities: logic and information, (almost total implication-effort rated 90% each) The subjective quality: communication is next in call for resources (50% implication) . Of secondary importance are Ingenuity: introspection and reorganisation and Values: conviction and motivation (30% each) (admit that improvement is necessary and possible objectively and conviction and motivation are of course necessary for any successful project outcome.

Today benchmarking has evolved.  Once the precise measurement technique described above, it has evolved into a strategic management method and approach. Rather than or building upon the stricter narrower approach of adoption and imitation now the accent is given to the wider values of adaptation and innovation. The process of development (durable-sustainable) and holistic learning are privileged over the earlier constrained vision of products and markets. Benchmarking is no longer a short-term problem oriented project but a continuous process.  In the past, the benchmarks, here, the effective  measurements of comparative performance were the most important. Today focus is given to the key factors, processes and activities which lead to optimum performance and achievement. Benchmarking is no longer a punctual project but has become an integral part of the long-term commercial strategy.

Benchmarking is often associated with industrial companies but has now shown itself to be equally useful in non-industrial organisations. The following example is taken from the experience of First Chicago Bank, at the time, the biggest bank in Midwest USA. First Chicago Direction wished to improve their human resources management.

The direction identified ten important areas which could help the bank progress and decided to launch a benchmarking project. During the initial phase, two critical factors to ensure the banks success, were identifie.

2 Critical Factors:
1. Responsibilisation.
2. Autonomous Team Working.

A project team was formed to study all publications on theses two themes.

After intense discussion between team members a list of critical questions, relative to benchmarking, was drawn-up. It included measurement of the team-work in practice and of progress in responsibilisation as well as the results likely to be achieved.

The team rapidly understood that there was little to be learned from the First Chicago itself nor from the rest of the banking industry. Therefore it did not orient it’s research on it’s competitors but instead, turned towards partners who have more to offer in these two fields.

Fourteen companies of which only one was a bank were chosen as benchmarking targets. These partners were contacted individually in order to set-up the indispensable co-operation required for all benchmarking.

Data was gathered from the partners during visits, meetings and telephone conversations. The methods and performances were studied and documented on the basis of the previously determined benchmarking questions. The final analysis was presented to the board in a written report underlining the role of the board in the two critical areas of responsibilisation and team work. The report also treated other points such as; training and support, the key elements for implementation, the importance of compensation and recognition and of the results and risks associated with diverse activities.   

Many important lessons were learned from the exercise and several interesting methods were discovered from benchmarking partners. However the First Chicago studies were complex and did not allow the team to find an optimal practice to use within the bank in order to attain the two principle aims: 1. responsibilisation and 2. The setting-up of team practice. On the other hand, 1st Chicago benefited from the experience of it’s benchmark partners in order to choose diverse concepts and techniques amenable for adoption in the context of the commercial objectives and the company culture of the bank.

Good benchmarking follows a point by point approach and names a benchmarking project team which assumes the direction and management of the project. The team is put in charge of; drawing up the outline of the study, finding benchmark partners, observation and documentation of partners work-flow and processes, identification of  dysfunctions and of their fundamental causes and of choosing the optimal practices which may be adopted and put into practice within the organisation.

3 points to be remembered in undertaking a benchmark project.

1. Construct a programme which justifies benchmarking as seen from the viewpoint of the board and the principle shareholders, one which meets the overall aims and objectives of the organisation.

2.Guarantee the support of the benchmark study by choosing powerful sponsors, by building a competent team and by ensuring proper training.

3. Support the project throughout it’s duration by presenting it’s successes and it’s evolutions, by maintaining the benchmarking operation’s visibility within the organisation and by recognising and compensating the best efforts of benchmarking.

Six Benchmarking Check-list Questions:

1. Do we know how to draw up the list of products and processes, set them side by side and compare them in a fair and equitable manner?

2. Have we defined the aspects to be compared?    

3. Are we certain that we are carrying out comparisons at equivalent and adequate levels?

4. Do we know how to and where to find the critical information which we require that is
capable of distinguishing that which is specific and essential in other organisations and of applying it to our own case.

6. Have we examined each optimal practice identified in order to check if it truly is applicable to our case.

MORE NEXT WEEK...

World Future Society - Thomas Frey-Futurist, His blog and some videos

A quick introduction to themes raised by Thomas Frey :

I have added a few videos to my "Hindsight-Foresight" video wall, see above.

Thomas Frey's blog

Check some themes from Fray's blog list:

Paradigm-Breaking Books

Artificial Islands are Floating in Our Future

Cycling would be good for your health ... and financial health, follows Walking is good for your health

Cycling would be good for your health ... and financial health
(Translated from French using Google toolbar Translator)

"According to an article from Reuters , reprinted in extenso and in the same way , by the sites of theExpress and Point ( almost identical to the photo .. ) the bike would be good for health .

The study by the Altermodal - Indiggo was made for Hubert Combed , Interdepartmental Coordinator for the development of cycling. It is not a scoop but the study put a cost saving figure to well-known qualitative experience.
According to Nicolas Mercat co - founder of Altermodal Indiggo - project leader of this study and great fan of cycling before the Lord (he committed two books on the theme of travel by bicycle ,Successful political cycle - Practical Tools for Effective Communication and Greenways : Attendance and impact )

POTENTIAL COST SAVINGS:
 With 87 kilometers on average per inhabitant per year , the French are far from the Dutch, who are 800-1000 , but also of " Platoon " where there are particular Germans , Belgians and Swiss, credited 250-500 km per year ... . Based on a Danish study based itself on a WHO methodology , it is estimated that 5.6 billion euros the impact of cycling on health in France ... . ' to finish on an optimist " With 350 km cycling per year per capita, there is no hole for Social Security "
 
Related Post:

Walking works, is good for your health and for business -Universities and CollegesTop brains look at Sustainability_EAUC Confs"

References on Cycling studies:

WHO-World Health Organisation Physical Activity,Health and Disease

WHO-Cycling,Health and Overweight

Do the Health Benefits of Cycling Outweigh the Risks?

More?
"A study authored by Professor David Bassett Jr. from the Department of Kinesiology, Recreation and Sport Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and three other researchers was published August 19 in the American Journal of Public Health, concluding that communities with more walkers and cyclists are healthier than those where people must rely on cars to get around"

ScienceDaily (Aug. 20, 2010) — Want a slimmer, healthier community? Try building more sidewalks, crosswalks and bike paths.

Overall, the U.S. doesn't measure up well.
"European countries with high rates of walking and cycling have less obesity than do Australia and countries in North America that are highly car-dependent," the authors wrote.


Full Article and references:
Link Between Walking, Cycling and Health from Science Dailey

THE ART OF FINDING THE MANAGEMENT STYLE BEST SUITED TO AN INDIVIDUAL AND HOW TO INTEGRATE THIS TO OBTAIN TEAM AND ORGANISTIONAL PERFORMANCE.

SIX STRATEGIC MENTAL ATTITUDES I.

This is an introduction to my planned series of 6 posts on Six Strategic Mental Attitudes corresponding to the list of six important and well documented management concepts listed below.

I have chosen to write on this approach due to its originality, its emphasis on mind-sets and personalities which so often play a determining role in team work and management meetings decisional and pre-decisional

(reference translated from the french version a booklet ISBN: 87-90172-10-8 by M. Wiman, Stefan Boéthiusand Per Hamann.)

INTRODUCTION

Management is about thought for organisational action and improved performance.

Management science is a field of many concepts and organisational performance methods.

This ebook will consider in depth, the essentials of six important concepts.

1-Benchmarking to measure and improve performance.

2-Networking and Virtual Organisation.

3-Re-engineering. Re-engineering a company’s work-flow processes for a new start.

4-Learning Organisation to improving the company collective know-how.

5-Key Competence, know-how as competitive advantage.

6-Empowerment, individual responsabilisation.

Underlying principles are brought to the fore in order to make better use of each individual manager’s style-preferred thinking processes individually and as a member of the project management team. It will be shown how to optimise overall project and company performance by integrating the benefits of multiple concepts and methods.

GENERAL-OVERVIEW:

In essence every activity implies the repetition of three [thought] mechanisms:

1. VALID - Choice of orientation. Identify what is available -VALID.

2. TRUE - Understand the situation: requires sufficient knowledge pour determiner what is TRUE.

3. NEW - Evaluate one’s own capacity: keep an open mind in order to seek what is NEW. [what is changing.]

Each of these three mechanisms has in turn two aspects or dimensions:

1. Objective


2. Subjective .

They are two fundamentally differing types of thought:

- Objective thought is rational and realistic. It entails making a good choice of measures which require to be taken, choices based upon sound principles and foundations, sound information and knowledge and capable of functioning in the real world.

- Subjective reasoning is intuitive and affective: delegate tasks, call upon the understanding of others and apprehend the subjective pulsions-automatisms- motivations of the people involved.

These six different management concepts and underlying principles are summarised in Table 1, (2x3) above:

Table 1 allows us to efficiently describe, not only personal mental attitudes, but also the type of reasoning required by a particular situation or task.

Successful action implies an interaction between the six types of reasoning. An effective manager or project of management is capable of evolving between the six aptitudes and to use those which respond best to the characteristics of any situation.

Insights into many modern management concepts may be obtained by referring to the degrees with which the six strategic mental aptitudes are required to achieve a success in practice and also how the concepts or methods are related to one another in order to achieve successful project results.

For example management by objectives is based on intuitive values, a rationality and objective information. Team work, by definition, is an activity based on communication and a group of shared values

Each of the following six modern well known management concepts:

-Benchmarking to measure and improve performance.

-Networking and Virtual Organisation.

-Re-engineering. Re-engineering a company’s work-flow processes for a new start.

-Learning Organisation to improving the company collective know-how.

-Key Competence, know-how as competitive advantage.

-Empowerment, individual responsabilisation.

will be considered in turn, in the six post to follow in the following weeks(approx 1/week). Each concept and associated methodology gives, and in fact requires, a different emphasis, a different blend of the these different mental aptitudes.

The degrees to which the six management concepts listed above may be characterised by different blendings of the six strategic mental aptitudes. These will be illustrated graphically using a grid system, whereby the mental attitudes are the defined colours as shown above in Table 1, and the degrees to which these enter into the Management Concepts and methodology are estimated in percentage given on the vertical axis.

Cause for concern-Commodities for export still threaten rainforests in Brazil_ Correspondence in the leading Science Journal Nature

The authors of correspondence to Nature find that the conclusion "that there is no longer a direct correlation between food production in Brazil and deforestation in the Amazon", published in the previous number (Nature 466, 554–556; 2010) are premature. An increase in demand by international markets for export commodities such as soya beans and beef will mean more rainforest clearance.

en référence à :

"find your conclusion premature that there is no longer a direct correlation between food production in Brazil and deforestation in the Amazon (Nature 466, 554–556; 2010).An increase in demand by international markets for export commodities such as soya beans and beef will mean more rainforest clearance."
- Access : Commodities for export still threaten rainforests in Brazil : Nature (afficher sur Google Sidewiki)

Materials Science and Engineering Defined: Creativity in Materials Science, Invention, Innovation - Innovation Sells.

Materials Science and Engineering Defined: Creativity in Materials Science, Invention, Innovation - Innovation Sells.


This series of posts arise from a pointer from my latest September 2010 Issue of Materials World, Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining (IOM3) house journal, Materials World (MW). Our professional development p.19, reported on (improving) "Connecting research with creativity" the article title. The work is supported by the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) who first brought together together 15 senior academics in order to get strategic input on what was required to free creativity in research.