Industrialization of Service

Industrialization of Service

 

5/2/16

 

Around this time of the year – a month after the arrival of the new year and a couple of months before the birth of the financial year – there is a renewed focus on the state of the economy and debates on the strategies to be pursued in the coming year.  This has been a repeating yearly feature and some of the same arguments are looked at from new data and new angle.  Nevertheless, three repeating prominent themes among a few dozen more gets thrown around – industry, manufacturing, services.  The leader of the current government introduced the slogan “Make in India” to emphasize greater involvement of the manufacturing segment to the economy.  The notion that prosperity predominantly comes from industry is rather well entrenched in the thinking of leaders, at least of the developing countries.  Although industry encompasses both manufacturing and service, it is fair to say that manufacturing has a bigger influence on industry in terms of ideas, models, mechanisms, thoughts, etc., although not necessarily on the wellbeing for all the citizens.   But the debate in the last two decades has been about the influence – does manufacturing or service contribute and thus influence industry more, and thus impact prosperity more.  With the growth of the IT sector in the 90s and its contribution to job creation there has been a doubt or fear that manufacturing will lose its prominence in contributing to the prosperity of the country.  Thus, the PM’s initiative to invigorate the manufacturing segment can be seen to assuage these fears.  From the 90s onwards the world over has tried to move towards service industries from manufacturing.  This is particularly suitable for small countries which are limited in the access to natural resources and have used their human and knowledge capital to drive their economy.  By this strategy they not only could overcome their access hurdle, but can also be relieved of other difficulties such as waste and byproduct management, labor difficulties, etc. and move to offshore activities where they can put to use their expertise and knowhow.  However, this approach for a large country and a more populous country creates a problem.  Because of their large area some or many of the nature’s resources such as minerals or forests are bound to be available, and ignoring such a facile source can be politically unsettling.  Also, large populations require jobs to be engaged in and fed.

The problem with service industry is that many of the management principles which have been developed from the manufacturing methodologies do not apply.  However, for industries trying to switch or expand from a manufacturing experience to a service business, it is difficult to unlearn or reinvent new models and paradigms that are appropriate and effective for service industry. Let me explore the education business as a case in question that exemplifies this principle.  For a manufacturing industry the prime controlling factor is the product which needs to be catered to and processed as per the process requirement that yields the most profitable outcome.  Thus, concepts like quality, time cycle, sourcing costs, etc. apply keeping the final product in mind.  Although in theory this approach can work in a service industry, like education, in practice many of the strategies and processes cannot be replicated.  For example, the quality of the source – raw material – is difficult to be defined and selected.  It is more nebulous, and the many assessment methods currently employed, mainly due the ease of deployment, fall short.  Unlike rejection of any manufactured product that does not meet specification, the end product of any service cannot be rejected, or rather should not be.

It is easy to implement the rules of manufacturing, and this works very well in manufacturing industries.  But they are difficult to be followed or do not result in desired outcome in service industries.  For example, time cycle.  One can design processes with precise time allocation and use it to plan for production, staff engagement, manpower requirement assessment, capital requirement assessment, etc.  In service industries such procedures work only for overhead costs and activities, but not for the core activity.  For example, it will be very difficult to premeditate the time required to learn a technique or a concept.  It depends on many variables, least significant of which is the time utilized in teaching.  But in most organizations this is the metric that is prescribed, as though the function of the organization is to deliver the concept or technique and not imparting knowledge or skill.  Learning comes with the engagement of the individual with the job, and most training programs are not designed with that scale in mind.  On the contrary, many skills are attempted to be crammed within the time allocated, not necessarily in the sequence or structure which is a highly individualistic learning trait.

Industry, Education, Models

Learning Curves

Learning Curves

21/1/16

One of the nice things about models, if you are lucky, is that it can provide insights into other systems – related or otherwise – from the system for which it was developed.  As an example, the growth curve.  Growth of simple organisms like bacteria and fungi can be understood using model descriptors, and easily this model fits with the behavior of many complex systems as well, such as animal populations, business, economy, etc.  We talk about the four stages of this curve: adjustment, growth, stagnation, and decline.  The different dynamics within these stages make the manifestations of the stages possible.

Growth can be defined in many ways, in line with the context and system.  But in a broad sense growth is about learning, or more precisely growth is learning, and learning is growth.  Or, in other words, we can use either of the words to mean the same thing.  You cannot grow without learning, and cannot learn without growing.   Thus, the growth curve model should fit the learning curve model as well.

We humans begin to learn even within the womb, and continue as infants and toddlers.  The learning of the infant is by copying and is greatly influenced by the surroundings and circumstances.  The next stage is that of the adolescent learner for whom an instructor / guide / teacher is arranged where the teacher is expected to train or guide the individual.  Here the learning can be fast or slow, as determined by some metrics, not necessarily the correct one.  The next stage is the adult phase when the learning can increase or decrease or stagnate, depending on the individual.  At this stage there is no external influence to catalyze learning in any particular dimension, in the majority of cases.  And lastly, the stage of decline when the net learning is negative, one loses abilities, memories, creativity, etc.

The model of learning is not only true for individuals but also for groups – institutions, organizations and countries as well.  The time scale may be different but the stages do come in the sequence.  One can fight to delay or extend the stages, but not defeat them.  One of the tricks employed to fight this is to re-invent the organization – breaking it up into spin offs or restarting afresh, etc.  Somewhat similar to creating a new generation that has to start from the infant stage.

 

Growth, Education, Life

Professional Transformation

Professional Transformation

29/8/16

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Some models are great in the aspect of utility outside of their main domain, because they can give perspectives beyond the scope of the system for which they were created.  One case which I want to use as an example for this principle is the models of performance equations developed to study process engineering.  This model can be used in the field of education, and in particular, professional education as well. According to this model, any process can be broadly categorized as:

Input  —>  Process  —>  Output

To elaborate, output in any industry is strongly influenced by the processes followed, and this, in turn, is hugely dependent on three things – the inputs, the kinetics and the contacts.  This is the model taught in chemical engineering, for the purpose of understanding and improving any chemical manufacturing process.  Surprisingly this works well for the system of educational training as it is currently practiced in many countries, including India.  The utility of such a comparison is to help identify problems, if any, but not necessarily solve the problem.  Identification is the first step to solution, and hence one may get a good handle on coming up with solutions of a well identified problem.

 

The problem for the educationist, unlike that for a process engineer is that different stakeholders (with different stakes) are involved in the process.  This is a nice situation for fault finding and blame gaming, but not so good for concerted effort to get the best from the system.  With multiple stakeholders and the different roles they play, there are many goals, not all of them mutually compatible.  For example, how to judge a good institution: is it making good money, are the facilities provided good, is the reputation of faculty good, etc., all of which are important but miss the main point, which is the quality of skills imparted, or the extent of transformation of the potential of youth to skills which are of need for the contribution to society.  One can always identify flaws in the execution of the other stakeholders while pretending their part of the deal is in perfect order.  The outcome is a poor overall process, meaning there is a big gap between expectation and outcome in the quality of education and the loss of opportunity in creating capable talent.

 

One of the messages from looking at education as a performance equation model is that all the three ingredients have important role in influencing the outcome, and weakness in anyone can have adverse impact on the result.   (Although it could be argued that all the three do not have equal weightage.)  Another consideration is that the quality required in the final product can help decide the stringency in the process – for high performance product, no expenses may be spared and perfection in each process will be targeted, while for product requiring lower performance demand, more leniency may be permitted.  The education process does not follow this concept.  It is taken for granted that inherently there will be a level of variation which the process will be unable to smother.  Thus, variation is not only expected, but also identified by grading and certification.  In many situations it is attempted to create or highlight the gradations.

Timely tools

Timely tools

 

2/2/16

 

More is not necessarily merrier.  These days we have more tools available for any task and no one is certain which of these are helpful and which hinder.  Take the example of time monitoring.  May gadgets offer at least four versions of time related tools, and the user is expected to know what he wants and chooses the tool he thinks is right for the job.  Although each of the tools can help you to get to what you want, they may not really be helpful to your cause.

The four tools are the clock, the stopwatch, the alarm and the timer.  You may also have access to other related tools such as calendar, reminder, etc. which I will ignore presently for this discussion.  The clock is the most impersonal of the lot, it cares least about its users and his/her needs, but it is aligned to something else beyond your realm, such as the planet or a city or an institution.  It is the choice of the user to align with it or not.  Thus, it relieves the user of his/her responsibilities to act in a timely manner.  You may say that your clock is 15 min ahead, but that does not imply you are 15 min ahead, or you are aligned slightly ahead of the rest of the clock users.  It only means arbitrarily you are on a different scale.

The alarm is a device to help you to get aligned with the clock, and again it is the user’s prerogative whether he/she wants to subjugate to this demand.  The alarm will work as per your instruction, not in the aspect of assisting or helping you, but more in the fashion of commanding or instructing you.  Thus, it is helpful to those who want to get subjugated to some external (or internal) authority, perhaps in the interest of being in sync with the outside world, not necessarily with the inside you.

The stopwatch is good if you are racing against someone else.  But the more frequent scenario is you are racing against yourself, and to time that the stopwatch is not very good.  I know that many trainers and athletes use the stopwatch for this purpose, but the intent behind this is to compare and compete against an opponent who might not be there physically but is very much present in the mind and in the books.  There is nothing wrong competing against a challenger, and it is a great motivator for many professionals and organizations, but the mindset is that of a follower, not a leader.

The only real tool is the timer which lets you decide the time you think you require, informs you whether you have succeeded or not.  Improvement comes from allocating time for an activity and sticking by it to accomplish with a certain degree of perfectionism.  While other tools help to provide you with information, context and alignment with the outer world, the timer allows you to decide, define and inform how effective you have been and thus direct you towards improvement.

 

Time, Management, Balance

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays

 

7/11/15

 

It is the holiday season in India with the grandest of the festivals falling smack in the middle of the week, buffeted with the preparatory days of shopping, cleaning, spending, gifting, greeting, etc.  You get caught in the clichés and spread them around to your family, friends, acquaintances, business partners and other random folks.  It is also a time to boost the economy by encouraging certain kind of businesses to flourish and encouraging people to spend through discretionary money – which come into the form of bonuses, advances, offers, deals and other business inventions.  Big festivals also have stories behind them which are retold so that traditions and customs are built.  Nowadays we also get to hear the explanations and purposes of the customary practices, like why sweets are prepared and shared, etc.  The explanations I have never heard but suspect is the underlying reason for all festivals is that the customary practices force you to get out of your comfort zone and expose a little of your vulnerability.  These create a greater bonding with the other members of your clan and society, and enhance the social stability of the group of interacting individuals. Thus, when people lived as tribes several millennia back different tribes were closely knit but their relationship with other tribes were mostly adversarial because they competed for the same resources until a point of time till they could integrate.  The festivals provided that scope for integration.  Even today among warring neighbors the reason for animosity is the lack of willingness to integrate.  You can’t hope to achieve peace among two distinct groups when attempts to integration are fought against – like inter caste marriages, trading of goods or services, etc.

Holidays can be a source of happiness or also unhappiness.  What is the distinguishing conditionality?  I believe it is the exercise of planning which turns a holiday to be remembered or forgotten.  One school of thought is that holidays (or Sabbath) is a time to stop doing the routine, which includes the planning your day.  This idea says that the holidays are meant for recharging your mind and body and the way to do that is to rest and recuperate; which means you don’t do the thing you do normally on a working day – get up, get ready, have breakfast early, prepare your lunch on a clock work, etc.  On a holiday get up late, skip breakfast, have brunch, watch a football game or catch up with non-essential activities, etc.  The other school of thought is that you plan in greater detail about your holiday time because that is a rare time.  You plan how you want to spend each hour of your time, so that you can get things you want get done.  This might involve planning for taking a trip to a picnic location, purchasing of the nick knacks, making a reservation, etc.  Thus, the time and effort which goes into planning and then following through your plans takes more energy than you would spend on a normal working day.  The question is which of these leads you to happiness.  When there is a mismatch between your activity and your psyche there will be unhappiness.  If you laze around consciously and deliberately that is as good as working meticulously with intent.  But when you feel forced to follow a path because you want to fit in with the Jones, it becomes a source for anguish.  If you outsource plans for holidays even from a professional when you would rather laze around or get rained out of your picnic or church social misery catches up quickly.

Happy Holidays whatever your persuasion.

Ideas

Ideas

 

14/10/16

 

Ideas are dime a dozen:  This does not mean all ideas are worthless or cheap.  It generally means ‘there are varieties of ideas – most of which are not just not good’.  It also means that within this large number of mediocre ideas there is a possibility of some good ideas which when put to use can bring about magic.  That’s why it is said that to have good ideas, you need to have a lot of them.

The trouble I have is that ideas are fickle, they have short lives and unless they are captured by sharing or recording, they disappear.  Not necessarily they are lost, but may resurface again, but never in the original form, but with some subtle or large change.  Again, it may not be often that these revisions or changes bring about improvements, only rarely which might be the case.  So, in an error-prone process, unless we have a system to amplify the positives and eliminate the negatives, progress becomes difficult – this is the biological paradigm which is applicable to most other systems as well.

The cheapness of ideas also implies that ideas in of themselves aren’t sufficient.  They need followers, propagandists, executors and evangelists.  A good example to illustrate this point is the current flavor of the US presidential election process. There are two schools of ideas which are being pushed by the two major candidates to attract the voters.  One is the conservative idea which states that in spite of US being the best country in the world, it is not doing very well and it needs fixing by someone who has no experience of operating the current system of governance.  That is, if you put a new comer in charge who will bring about a total change which will somehow bring out the inherent best.  The other idea is that you have an experienced public servant as the candidate who knows what needs fixing and they will get fixed.  The irony is that the former is a radical idea which attracts the conservative voters and the later is a conservative thought that attracts the liberal voters. An army of evangelists of these different persuasions is pushing these ideas to drum up support.  But the question remains (at this point) will the ideas be acted upon, or they are just rhetoric, and if acted upon will the great country emerge from its muddle or will some other reality become apparent?

 

Actions, Election