The Goal : A Process of Ongoing Improvement

The book tells the story of Alex Rogo, a plant manager at UniCo who realizes that his factory is facing difficulties. Due to weak performance Alex’s boss Bill Peach gave three months to make the plant profitable otherwise he will shut the plant.

To solve the problem Alex takes help from Jonah. Based on Jonah’s guidance Alex gathered his team and found that the Goal of any company is to make more money rather than efficiency. Anything that brings him closer to the Goal is productive. And all other activities are non-productive. To achieve the goal they need to increase cash flow, ROI, and the net profits.

Jonah gave him three operational measurements - Throughput, Inventory and Operational expense. Throughput is cash coming in. Inventory is the cash at present inside the framework. Operational cost is the cash we need to pay out to get throughput going.

During the next meeting Jonah discloses the Theory of Constraints. Constraint is a factor that prevents the system from achieving the Goal. Constraints define the overall performance of the system. In the manufacturing plan bottleneck is the most important aspect to analyse performance of the plant. A bottleneck is any resource with lower capacity than the current demand. During more than one bottlenecks are present in the same line of flow, the one with the least capacity is the constraint. The only way to increase production is increase the capacity at the bottleneck operations.

After some work they found bottlenecks- NCX10 and heat treatment. Jonah explains that each minute of loss at a bottleneck results in lost throughput for the entire plant. So team decides to keep the bottlenecks fully utilized. To take care of problems occurring during the process of improvement Alex’s team takes some counter measures like keeping inventory and quality check before bottleneck and reduced the batch size. Despite many challenges they succeed to make the plan profitable and also break the record of previous sales. And Peach promoted Alex as head of the division to manage three plants instead of just one.

After Alex’s core team promoted to their new positions, they formulate a Five-step Process Of On-Going Improvement:

One - Identify the Constraint

Effective technique for that is a simple walk through manufacturing process. By reviewing equipment performance data, average cycle time and Inventory we can find out constraints.

Two - Exploit the Constraint

The output of the constraint restricts the output of the system as a whole. So it is important to maximize the utilization and productivity of the constraint. Some actions like, Create an inventory buffer in front of the constraint, Check quality immediately before the constraint, constraint capacity is continuously scheduled for running, can help for that.

Three – Subordinate every other constrain

The primary objective of non-constrain is to support the need of constraint. It is necessary to avoid it to produce more than the constraint can handle. So proper utilization of Upstream and Downstream equipment is needed.

Four – Elevate the Constraint’s performance

Once the capacity of constraint is 100% utilized, it needs to be expanded by investing in additional machineries/land, labour. Without implementing 3rd step investing too soon raises risk unnecessarily because there is always hidden capacity available.

Five – Repeat the Process and go back to the beginning

If the current constraint has been broken, then look for a new constraint and repeat the process from step one.

By means of this book dr. Goldratt explains business fundamentals give a new approach to solve a problem.

Application of TOC in my life:

When I was a design engineer, my team was working on new development of equipment which works on hydraulics. Due to new development and inadequate knowledge my team is running out of time and it seems impossible to release design on time. At that time our manager introduced us to the concept of TOC. With help of him we identify the flow diagram of the design process and find interdependent events. We found that the main structural designs design depends on the hydraulic cylinder mounting and sleeve bearing availability. Based on the mounting point we also need to identify the availability of the cylinder and power and flow capacity of the HYD power pack. So basically HYD cylinder and bearing is our constraint and causes a bottleneck. We called that items as long lead items and we first worked on them and released them first. Due to proper guidance & planning we could complete our project within the time limit.

Blockchain in Supply Chain..

Blockchain consists of transactions (blocks) linked as a chain. Every transaction has a timestamp and the next transaction is linked to it, so we can easily know where that money came from and where it went. Blockchain is a digital ledger that is available to everyone.

These transactions will be verified by miners. All transactions will be saved in the computers of all miners. Anyone can become a miner.

Pros of Blockchain Technology:-

•     Blockchain technology, if used in money transaction services allows peer to peer transactions directly without the intervention of banks and government. For example, if I want to send money to someone in UK, my bank should approve the transaction and after that the receiver’s bank should also approve it. With Blockchain technology, this can be eliminated.
• By this, there is no need to pay extra charges for the banks. Processing of the transaction will be faster, because of no third party intervention.
• There will be less frauds and money laundering incidents, because there will be a ledger of transaction available to everyone. This creates transparency.
• If data has to be modified, certain number of miners should accept it. And hence, there will very less chances of data manipulation and hence results in high security.
• Services using Blockchain technology will be too tough to be hacked.
• Blockchain technology is not just limited to financial sector. This can be used in many sectors such as insurance, health sectors etc.
• For example, in health sector, the health history of people, the medicines they take, treatments they have undergone can be stored using blockchain technology in a chronological order and can be shared with the doctor to provide a better health services to patients.

Cons of Blockchain Technology:-

• We do not yet know the security vulnerabilities of Blockchain technology. We cannot say that it is hack-proof.
• As block chain technology decentralises all transactions, there will be no regulator like central bank. Sometimes, it is very important to have a regulator.
• Blockchain technology is very costly. Verifying transactions (mining) involves encryption and decryption, which requires huge amounts of electricity.
• Though less, there will still be some charge for using financial services that run on blockchain technology. For example – Bitcoin transactions also charges some amount.

Blockchain technology has a lot of potential to solve the present issues especially in the financial sector. Banking sector is making plans to use blockchain technology in its services. In India, NITI Ayog recommended using this technology for land and health records of all states in India. Andhra Pradesh government already started using it for the land records of its capital city – Amaravathi.

 

 

Walmart using Blockchain to improve food safety

Walmart is currently making use of blockchain technology to create a food traceability system based on the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Fabric. Along with IBM, the retail giant has already tested two proof-of-concept projects to examine its envisioned system. 

The first project deals actively with tracing the origins of the mangoes being sold across Walmart’s stores in the United States, while the other seeks to trace the pork meat being sold via the company’s different Chinese outlets. From an efficiency perspective, the research team at Walmart claims that by making use of this new system, the time needed to trace the firm’s provenance has dropped from seven days to just 2.2 seconds.

Now, the company claims that because of Walmart’s Hyperledger Fabric-powered blockchain system, the firm has the ability to trace the origins of over 25 products from five different suppliers. In this regard, the firm has even announced that it will soon be requiring all of its vegetable suppliers to adopt this new system so as to enhance operational transparency as well as internal accountability.

 

Maersk

The world's largest shipping company completed its first test of blockchain technology in March 2017, looking at how it could help manage its cargo. In the test, Maersk, Dutch customs, and US Homeland Security were all able to remotely access data about the cargo, suggesting the technology may streamline and secure international shipping.

British Airways

The airline tested using blockchain to manage data about flights between London, Geneva, and Miami in 2017. Using one unchangeable history source, the airline hoped to reduce conflicting flight information coming from gate monitors, flight apps, and the airline's website.

FedEx

FedEx, shipping giant, joined BiTA and has already launched a blockchain-powered pilot program to help solve customer disputes. The company hopes the program will clarify what data should be stored on blockchain to best remedy customer issues.

Business communication in consulting and Personal Branding

 

Everyone was excited because it was a Mandi sir's class. It was a great moments spend with Mr. Nikhil Kulkarni Sir by a virtual platform of NITIE and class of business communication. Nikhil Kulkarni is an alumnus of NITIE Mumbai and co-founder and director of Darwin travel tech, a holiday trip advisor. He used to work for KPMG , After that he decided to play entrepreneurial role by starting their travel website named http://tripdarwin.com.

The season is focus on two things :

            1.    Business communication in consulting

            2.     Personal Branding   

1.    Business communication in consulting

Consultancy is all about 80 % Communication, 15% relationship and 5% research.

Consultants must be able to communicate their ideas to clients effectively to make their services worthwhile. Communication skills can be just as important to consultants as technical expertise.

Excel, word and PowerPoint is best buddies of any consultant. Which can help to making Proposal, Reports, Executive Briefing, Detailed Project Report. This tool plays a key role in accelerating career growth.

To structure the Content we can use Pyramid principle: which have 3 Steps,

    1. Introduction of problem

    2. Divide the problem

    3. Conclusion

We should be mindful of what is the objective of the work, who is the intended audience, have we covered the problem exhaustively and have we provided the solutions to all the problems ?

2.   Personal Branding

Why it is important to have a personal brand and how to build it. The truth is that a brand is anything, from your name, to your tone of voice, your reputation, your manifesto, the symbols you use, and so much more – that separate you from the crowd. Your brand is what makes you unique – it’s the thing that ensures you’ll always be valuable, no matter how many other companies try to copy your ideas, or products.

Blogs, YouTube channels, Twitter and Instagram posts is a best tool that available at this era for develop personal branding.

After a little bit of research and brainstorming, you should be ready to design your own persona for your brand. Like business personas, your personal brand persona will help you to understand and even market the unique elements of your brand.

Your personal brand, just like your professional brand, is the result of thousands of choices. Everyone you meet forms opinions about you, and if you’re not actively shaping your brand, then you’re leaving those opinions to chance.

Desi Pride

How do you define vision? Is it the foresight to see things clearer than others or the ability to plan for the future better than others? Implementing a vision involves laying out a blueprint after carefully assessing the risks and rewards in the current and future scenarios. Then, creating a list of goals to accomplish it. 

Corona pandemic has taught us well the importance of local manufacturing, local market, and local supply chain. In the hour of need, local has fulfilled our demands and saved us. Local is not a necessity but a responsibility for all of us. The message was loud and clear, ‘be vocal for local’. Be the change your country needs and push for ‘Make in India’ products.

Vocal for local is not a programme, policy or just another slogan but it is a principle which guides us to support our own local people, mostly the lower and middle income groups who are the backbone of our economy.

So on the occasion of 74th Independence Day celebrations - Vocal the Local campaign called SWADESHI MANDI we the NITIEzens of Mumbai presenting you ‘Surati Undhiyu’…..

Undhiyu is a Gujarati mixed vegetable dish that is a regional specialty of Surat, India. The name of this dish comes from the Gujarati word "undhu", which translates to upside down, since the dish is traditionally cooked upside down underground in earthen pots, termed "matlu", which are fired from above.

Within an earthen matka sit a bewildering array of wintry tubers and vegetables: green Surti papdi, baby eggplants, purple kand (yam), sweet and regular potatoes, seedless kakdi (broad beans), unripe Rajagiri bananas with the skin on, sometimes green peas, and fenugreek.