The Boeing debacle: Seven lessons every CEO must learn

This article by Steve Denning published by Forbes is doing the rounds at present. It's highlighting the mechanical problems faced by the 787s that is costing Boeing more money on a project that was already over budget. But it's not specifically a Boeing bashing piece.

It highlights the 787 project as one example as part of the broader issue of offshoring.

1. Use the right metrics to evaluate offshoring
2. Review whether earlier outsourcing decisions made sense
3. Don't outsource mission-critical components
4. Bring some manufacturing back
5. Adequately assess the risk factors of off-shoring
6. Adequately value the role of innovation
7. Get to the root of the problem: maximising shareholder value

You can read the whole article here and while I believe it provides a good rationale for approaching the question of offshoring for enterprises, it also provides some good foundations for an industry policy.

The diffusion of the Maker Movement and how anyone can get involved

While getting back into the social media swing of things, I've noticed a bit of talk around about the Maker Movement. The Maker Movement is a typical culmination of technology diffusion. Actually that is wrong! It is really evolving rather than culminating because we cannot be 100% certain of the path the technology will take from here.

Nevertheless, the Maker Movement has sprung from additive manufacturing technology, which in turn sprang from the rapid prototyping technology that was used by larger companies to test parts and new product concepts. Additive manufacturing is a technology similar to stereolithography (SLA) as introduced to Australia by our company QMI Solutions in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The interesting thing here is the rate of innovation diffusion and the technology adoption cycle. Dr Tim Kastelle has a great blog post on What Makes Innovation Diffusion Difficult. But the Maker Movement, while new in name, has been under development for at least 20 years and it is really only because the technology has been proven, has increased uptake, has consumer-friendly platforms that it is now becoming a movement that is accessible and affordable.

Late last year, Editor of Wired magazine Chris Anderson left this position to write a book on the Maker Movement subject Makers: The Third Industrial Revolution but also to run his own company 3D Robotics. The third industrial revolution was the subject of a previous post. In this interview with Tech Crunch, he says "hardware is the new software" and evidences the power of the Maker Movement when the CAD file of an IPhone case was open sourced - taking customisation to a new stratosphere it allowed customers to put "their own DNA" into the design process of the finished product.

His story about how he got involved in the Maker Movement via LEGO is great too.

And while it's great to see a new movement in manufacturing the best thing about the Maker Movement is that anyone can be involved.

Top 100 innovation articles for 2012

Happy 2013! I thought I'd start the year by looking back at some of the great innovation content from 2012. Innovation Excellence has profile the 100 best innovation articles from 2012. Click here to read their whole  list.

Suffice to say, there is a wealth of content here for any business wanting to improve, however even just the Top 10 prove interesting reading:

1. Beyond Stage Gate – Repeating Disruptive Innovation – by Jose A. Briones, Ph.D.
2. Top 40 Innovation Bloggers of 2011
3. The Rise of Social Innovation – by Nicolas Bry
4. Five Tech Trends Impacting Business Innovation in 2012 – by Tim Sweeney
5. Has Microsoft Leapfrogged Apple – by Greg Satell
6. 10 Success Principles of Apple’s Innovation Master Jonathan Ive – by John Webb
7. Tips for Crowdsourcing, Innovation, and Savings – by Jessica Day
8. Boosting Personal Innovation Capacity – Iterate! – by Dennis Stauffer
9. What’s the Difference between Creativity and Innovation? – by Paul Sloane
10. Top 50 Innovation Tweeters

It's great reading I hope you enjoy.

Driving the uptake of new skills in manufacturing

Hi there. Sorry for the long break between posts. You may have read in previous posts about the F1inSchools project. It's a great project [read here about similar ones in previous posts] that encourages young people, usually school teams, to be involved in the design and manufacturing of model Formula One race cars. The cream on the cake is that at regional, state and national finals, the team also get to race the cars.

Recently, the Queensland finals were held at Bundaberg State High School. The Manager of the project Leanne Hixon, was closely involved in organising the event and ensuring a good turnout of schools at the finals which saw 84 students from 18 teams involved in the event. Leanne was so involved she helped designed and manufactured two cars that almost held their own in achieving fast racing times.

Leanne Hixon ready to put the cars under starter's orders

Congratulations to the Major winners:

• Overall Winner (highest points on the day): Attacca Subito from Pine Rivers State High School
• Professional Senior Class: Attacca Subito – Pine Rivers State High School
• Professional Junior Class: High Voltage Racing from Noosa District State High School
• Development Class: Southern Cross Racing from Noosa District State High School
• Cadet Class: Ace Racing – Mackay North State High School

The National Final will be held in Avalon Melbourne 27/28 Feb and 1 March in 2013 in conjunction with the Avalon Air Show with the following Queensland teams attending:

• Attacca Subito from Pine Rivers State High School
• High Voltage Racing from Noosa District State High School
• Southern Cross Racing from Noosa District State High School

Apastron from Mirani State High School and a collaboration team from Split Second Racing – St Patrick’s College Mackay and High Calibre Racing Mirani SHS’ received wild cards to attend the National Finals.

The poetry of waste

One of our clients penned the following poem about waste in their work environment:

Manufacturing is all about production

but too many and then there is more reduction

As time is lost on extra widgets

the warehouse manager will get the fidgets

Inventory is always great,

but not when you have to wait and wait.

So do not polish and do not shine,

if it is a waste of time.

Wasted time and loss of space

When we try to do with haste

So make a plan and think it through

otherwise you will make a blue

Touch it once and this is great

Touch it thrice and you need advice

Sometimes the waste is beyond our reach

but QMI Solutions can fill the breach

Many thanks to Radmila Bowman at Playhard Sports for the contribution.