News and Posts

I used to say that the real business intelligence sits between the keyboard and the chair. This holds true to even most sophisticated analytics, AI and machine learning driven algorithms. All the insights are there but how do we operationalize them and drive change in operations.

Providing access to the teams and individuals in the organization who can drive change especially in real time manufacturing is critical for the success of any continuous improvement project. Imagine sitting in the office planning on optimizing your lean manufacturing process and you come up with new ways to improve the quality. You write it up and take it to the plant or mill floor to the teams

In the digitalized process automation environment and IoT-world, subsystems and components like sensors, measuring instruments, valves, machines, etc., are becoming more and more intelligent and independent, and a huge amount of data is becoming available, so called Big Data. The factory-level computers have almost unlimited computing power and data handling capabilities. Could we actually move all the intelligence to the top level or should we utilize even more the intelligence of the smart process equipment? And what is the role of a human being in the middle of the digitalization process? Big data and analytics SW-tools, are they software nightmares or concrete support for production quality improvements?

The origin of old stories is hard to verify. This story could be true or not, but I like it anyway: The lead engineer at the famous Lockheed Skunk Works, Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson, made the phrase "Keep it simple stupid", KISS. He was an advocate for frugal innovation long before the term was coined. It is told that he gave the engineering team of a new jet aircraft a set of very basic tools, such that every average mechanic could use. Then he gave guidance to the team that the new high-tech military plane they were designing must be repairable with these basic tools in the field under combat conditions.