Adventures in Venturing - Latest Comments

Re: The Hazard We Face From Developing A Monocultural Youth

Peter Beddows — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 18:46:31 -0000

Thank you Carl.

Re: The Hazard We Face From Developing A Monocultural Youth

Carl J. Mistlebauer — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 18:24:24 -0000

I will definitely respond to that post!

Re: The Hazard We Face From Developing A Monocultural Youth

Peter Beddows — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 18:21:51 -0000

A very thoughtful response Dave; thank you very much. And I really appreciate the kudos; where do I send the check? :)

While agreeing with you that "The text books are set strictly to fundamentals without discussions related to invention, startup, traction and so forth", we have frequently heard that the majority of standard text books in use throughout the nation today are based upon a narrowly focused curriculum developed by the TX school board: A group that has some notoriously myopic and biased views about actual history, evolution and life in general. So very glad they have no influence on the curriculum I followed back in the UK and that could even be one of the reasons that other countries are leaving us behind in relative educational standings.

We know that all children start out with a very natural curiosity and strong desire to learn about everything around them. Our modern schooling system however, seems to have devolved into a by-rote process in which critical thinking and real creativity is actually not only unsupported but actively discouraged.

This result most likely is because the makeup of the average classroom today is now so very broadly ethnically and culturally diverse that this alone requires teachers to handle situations that would be beyond most people to manage and control unless done in a very narrowly focused manner. How else do you deal with children from all backgrounds some of whom may not even have command of the language or may come from homes where discipline is regarded as an oxymoronic term?

And since our culture is so obsessed with gaining wealth and consuming stuff, why would some of our children not see greater opportunity to "learn more about pricing/negotiation on the street"? Drugs - be it money or the pharmaceutical kind or both - have become to objective for so many today and our methods and scope of schooling today now do little to combat that lust.

Re: The Hazard We Face From Developing A Monocultural Youth

Peter Beddows — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 17:52:13 -0000

"We are in the age of the poverty of abundance!" Thank you Carl; you have succinctly summed up the essence of my "thesis".

Really like your phrase here as it seems to me that that phrase really encapsulates the notion that is has seemingly been philosophical contradictions that have seemingly enslaved the policy makers behind the drive that has brought us to this unfortunate conclusion: A result for our children, as you have described it in your first paragraph, that has been accomplished essentially under the absurd official guise of building "self-esteem" and avoiding bruising the ego of our children but actually, as I believe, accomplished for a much more sinister, insidious, underlying objective which you also touched upon in your response here.

Besides that wonderfully evocative phrase, your other comments have given me an idea for another blog because, while as relevant here, in replying to you I was at first getting carried away and then realized you have raised additional points that prompt further discussion in depth. So I've saved the rest of my response for that next blog with a focus on jobs, job creation or lack thereof and the where and why of job disappearance, never to return.

Re: The Hazard We Face From Developing A Monocultural Youth

Carl J. Mistlebauer — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 14:35:53 -0000

We are in the age of the poverty of abundance! No one is challenged because everyone wins a blue ribbon. Our educational system is no longer about excellence but rather about mass production; and the result is much like the automobiles produced in Detroit in the early 1980's.

But then again, we live in a generation where we want to refer to businesses as job creators and not wealth creators....the whole concept of supply and demand have become irrelevant.

In a world of "too big too fail" our economy seeks cogs not critically thinking individuals. Thus the critically thinking, intelligent individual is to be feared as disruptive. Success belongs to those who can tweet popular talking points not logically deduct complex ideas.

On one hand VC's want to believe they are changing the world, and on the other they are wanting to develop a "Moneyball" system for start ups. Success has become a formula and as such, so should knowledge be nothing more than a formula.

Re: The Hazard We Face From Developing A Monocultural Youth

Dave W Baldwin — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 15:10:27 -0000

Well written Peter. As a possible glimmer of hope, you will find there are more folks trying to make a difference. It doesn't seem that way due to the media and the insulated start up blogs.

One thing to remember is all of us suffer from LBS (Lazy Brain Syndrome) currently and/or back when. If we just keep pushing, a positive difference can be made.

That is why I've prodded some bloggers over the past year. They would always refer to investment going strictly to their local community... I tell them it would make more sense to network the different regions. That way we can diminish stereotypes regarding flyover country and so on.

In the classroom, it simply is a matter of changing the curriculum utilizing the technology we can develop... sooner or later. The text books are set strictly to fundamentals without discussions related to invention, startup, traction and so forth. The kids learn more about pricing/negotiation on the street. Sad thing is, more of the younger population are curious about pushing the edge. Unfortunately, the instructor has to deal with the kids who don't care and leave it presumed the best are the kids of the wealthy who are going to the better colleges due to money.

Once again, good post and keep it up. Somewhere we can wake up Baby Boomers, Gen X and Y so we can enable the youngsters today to pull our _____________!

Re: “Just In Time” (JIT) LEAN Manufacturing Hits Road Bump in Japan

Blake — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:09:14 -0000

The principles of JIT are critical, but need to be evaluated for each supply chain. For example, in low volume high mix environments we ensure we have minimum order quantities available for risk mitigation. This trade off should be weighed against the cost of inventory and cost of money among other factors.

Re: “Just In Time” (JIT) LEAN Manufacturing Hits Road Bump in Japan

Peter Beddows — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 18:50:44 -0000

Terrific response to blog post. Thank you very much Scott. The fact that you've had actual immersion in this field makes your comments especially relevant and helpful.

Think it very interesting that you met Deming in your beginning days. I met Peter Drucker while in college in the UK and became a fan of his thereafter; Always hoped to go meet him again here in CA before he passed away but could not do that. Became a fan of Deming later but also while still in the UK.

Re: “Just In Time” (JIT) LEAN Manufacturing Hits Road Bump in Japan

Scott — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 02:21:21 -0000

Since I have met Demming at Cobo Hall in Detroit at a seminar when I was a young upstart at GM, I knew JIT was a very good process for minimizing costs and managing a lean organization. The facts are undeniable that lean supply chains are running under a very tight JIT. I had been a proponent of it, but since 1999, companies like GM started using Global sourcing strategy. This has made supply chain managers or procurement professionals scramble to use other subsidiaries suppliers or other already ISO certified suppliers globally. Those are all good attributes. And when doing vendor mgmt, you need to take the vendors risks into your risk mgmt plan. Here is the big but...

By living with a lean supply chain, and sourcing globally, you have eliminated some options. Those are most felt by gains in cost of processing. And most companies realize this savings in the elimination of safety stock. I tend to think that when global sourcing is used, you subtract from the value of JIT, as you are taking much higher risks in your supply chain. You take the increase in transit time, but that can be managed, you also take the increase in potential red lights at customs, which you cannot realize in your process without a significant investment in safety stock.

So, my opinion is that JIT is a wonderful process, but the variables for using it with Global sourcing strategies are too risky to be 100% JIT. I would either source domestically and use JIT, or global sourcing, and add in a % of safety stock to protect your production output.

Re: “Just In Time” (JIT) LEAN Manufacturing Hits Road Bump in Japan

Peter Beddows — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:32:39 -0000

Thank you for your response David:
Greatly appreciated and apologies for taking longer than intended to reply. I have been adding some related stuff to the blog and ran into some unexpected challenges with Zemanta.

Your question is very apt and partially identifies just 1 area of challenge for them, however I believe that Boeing's real problems stem from 4 particular difficult areas of challenge, only 1 of those being the Supply Chain itself.

My impression about Dreamliner is that:
a) Boeing has been trying to do tooo much radical innovation toooo fast with toooo few controls and check-points in an ill-planned attempt to beat Airbus to market ~ we know how that game has gone ~ it was not just the supply chain, per se, that was the problem.
b) Compounding the enormous scope of innovation undertaken, they completely reconfigured their Supply Chain at the same time that
c) They attempted to introduce unproven international new suppliers together with adopting new unproven materials for unproven functions without allowing near enough time for prototyping and validation and, on the face of it
d) They failed to establish adequate inter-communication and project management controls

Taken all together, the Dreamliner project was a failure waiting to happen. Boeing attempted to eat the whole elephant in one quick sitting while Airbus, essentially new to this game as a consortium, started out with establishing much better management and communication controls and vision relative to the scope of innovation being attempted ~ not that they also did not meet bumps in the road.

Interestingly enough, I started describing the problems I thought Boeing had faced before Googling to verify my conclusions. I based my assessment of their issues in studying this project since inception plus on my own experience in complex sophisticated never-been-done-before technology development ranging from the development of the mission instrumentation systems for the joint UK/US MIRV missile program to the development of TOKOMAK Fusion systems.

So I feel happily vindicated by discovering that McNerney of Boeing relatively recently admitted that "The 787 development was a bridge too far on a horizontal supply chain across too many time zones with too much engineering delegated to others" - Translated, he means ... read points a through d above.

This is further backed up by the observations of John Williams of Cisco who had some involvement in the project and who, as a result, has said:
"The 787 project is a classic project management problem of too many new processes and technologies wraped up into one project:
- New advanced materials and related technologies
- New manufacturing process to accomodate the new materials
- Many new part designs to support the aggressive performance goals of the aircraft.
- New or more aggressive deployment of design responsibilites in the supply chain
- New and extended global manufacturing strategies deployed to support major sub assemblies
- Supplier understanding of the real risk and responsibilities they were assuming with design effectiveness and problem resolution follow through."

You could argue that all of this is simply Supply Chain issues dissected but the reality is that much of the problems they've faced can be posted directly before the door of Business Management, Project Management and Engineering.

Reference: http://www.manufacturing-execu...

Re: “Just In Time” (JIT) LEAN Manufacturing Hits Road Bump in Japan

Dave Pinsen — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 00:54:33 -0000

Didn't the we learn about the downsides of this sort of supply chain management before? I'm thinking of Boeing's problems with its Dreamliner.

Re: Team Meritocracy? Team Diversity? ~ Can the former be achieved if the latter is a constraint?

Mark Essel — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:02:46 -0000

Just found your blog Peter, I'll get a chance to read through this tomorrow morning cached in my mobiles instapaper app.

Re: Clever “Adobe Risk Management” Fake Alert ~ Do not be fooled!

Peter Beddows — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:39:36 -0000

Thank you Bill. I guess because MISSI is "not a big corporate customer" {grin} I have never trusted any such email that has arrived in my in-box claiming to be from Adobe and will therefore continue to distrust it. On the other hand, since we use Dreamweaver for web coding, we do subscribe to Adobe Newsletters but that is another story.

Re: Clever “Adobe Risk Management” Fake Alert ~ Do not be fooled!

Bill Houle — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:21:07 -0000

Lending to the potential credibility of the spoof, Adobe actually *does* send out email alerts to those big corporate customers that subscribe. Minus the links to the Tongan web site of course! :)

Re: Never enough hours in the day when following ideas!

Peter Beddows — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:22:58 -0000

Just added DISQUS to help with management of discusion threads in this blog.