Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – April 2021

Welcome to April 2021 edition of the IX^thvolume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

We recapitulate that the 2021 theme for the IX^thvolume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is Future of… as the basis for Creating and Maintaining Sustained Success.

I have picked up two articles relating to Future of Industry. Here too I have avoided going into details that relate to impact of digital technologies but have chosen to focus on the issues that should concern the management in general.

Note: This subject has no correlation to Industries of Future.

The future of industries: Bringing down the walls – As the boundaries between suppliers, producers and consumers and, in some cases, between whole industries shift, the separating walls are being brought down.…. It is expected that all industries will be transformed by the technology shockwave, lowering cost bases, and improving operational efficiency as well as demanding greater integration with customers and suppliers.

Five big issues for companies –

1. Have you got an outcomes’ focus or are you still stuck in a physical product mindset?

2. What are you doing to avoid commoditisation of your business?

3. Are you building a platform presence?

4. Are you leading with or being left behind by advanced technology?

5. Have you got your timing, right?

The ‘Future of Industries’ report discusses these and a number of other questions. Download it to find out more and join in the discussion with PwC.

Industry Of The Future: We Need To Talk – Mike Hughes – The industrial world still inhabits an environment of proprietary systems and vendor lock-in long since abandoned by the IT sector. This is throttling innovation and progress.

Many organizations recognize that next-generation industrial automation must be interoperable and break free from the locked-in model we currently accept. Interoperable and portable application software is a must for next-generation industries…… The factories and industries of the future, will have machines, operations and IT systems integrated and understand each other, talk and collaborate—where agility, sustainability, and productively are just a matter of choosing the best-in-class solution for your operation.

The Future of Industry | Accenture sums up succinctly the challenges as it states – The world is changing, and all industries are facing a tectonic shift. Let’s embrace the new, together…..

We will now turn to our regular sections:

We now watch ASQ TV, wherein we refresh our viewpoints about–

Shared Meanings from Top to Bottom – Charlie Barton, President, Barton Consulting LLC, discusses the importance of shared meanings of words for organizations, and the negative business implications that could occur without that common knowledge.

We have taken up one article from Jim L. Smith’s Jim’s Gems this month:

Organizational Culture – Workplace culture takes work but delivers value – Peter F. Drucker, the famed educator and management consultant, said, “There is nothing as useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” …. Maybe more important for effectiveness and efficiency is workplace culture. As times change so must the culture. …We must learn to be aware of one another from a cultural background before we can learn to work together effectively. We need to realize it is not so much what we say as much as the manner in which we express ourselves that can adversely affect mutual understanding…. A lack of understanding and sensitivity can be injurious to the environment. There must be balance in the workforce just as there is in any other situation. We must learn to appreciate the differences between generations and learn to adapt.

‘From the Editor (of Quality Magazine) – by Darryl Sealand, we have

Truth or Fallacy – Depends on how you look at it. – Sunk costs are defined as costs that have already been incurred and cannot be recovered. Proponents of the sunk cost fallacy argue that since it is a cost paid in the past and unrecoverable, it should be removed from any future decision making. But that does not stop sunk costs from being a part of our psyche…The sunk cost fallacy, in a way, is not just forgetting the time, money, and effort that went into producing something, but not allowing it to blind us to what we truly want or need. … “The sunk cost fallacy means making a choice not based on what outcome you think is going to be the best moving forward, but instead based on a desire to not see your past investment go to waste,” said Julia Galef, president of the Center for Applied Rationality.^[^1]

I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of Future of… as the basis for Creating and Maintaining Sustained Success.

Note: The images depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images.

^[1] Julia Galef: The Sunk Costs Fallacy | Big Think

Author: ASHOK M VAISHNAV

In July 2011, I opted to retire from my active career as a practicing management professional. In the 38 years that I pursued this career, I had opportunity to work in diverse capacities, in small-to-medium-to-large engineering companies. Whether I was setting up Greenfield projects or Brownfield projects, nurturing the new start-ups or accelerating the stabilized unit to a next phase growth, I had many more occasions to take the paths uncharted. The life then was so challenging! One of the biggest casualty in that phase was my disregards towards my hobbies - Be with The Family, Enjoy Music form Films of 1940s to mid-1970s period, write on whatever I liked to read, pursue amateur photography and indulge in solving the chess problems. So I commenced my Second Innings to focus on this area of my life as the primary occupation. At the end of four years, I am now quite a regular blogger. I have been able to build a few very strong pen-relationships. I maintain contact with 38-years of my First Innings as freelance trainer and process facilitator. And yet, The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. View all posts by ASHOK M VAISHNAV