Webinar on Low-Cost Automation with Festo

Low-Cost Automation (popularly known as LCA) is the introduction of simple pneumatic, hydraulic, mechanical, and electrical devices into the existing production process or/and machinery, with a view to improving their productivity. These would also enable the operation of this equipment by even semi-skilled and unskilled labor, with a little training. 

This will involve the use of standardized parts and devices to mechanize or automate machines, processes, and systems. LCA is a technology that creates some degree of automation around the existing equipment, tools, methods, people, etc, using mostly standard components available in the market with a low investment so that the payback period is short. The current financial crisis faced all over the world has posed tremendous challenges to the manufacturing organizations. Even at low volumes, and large variety, they have to be competitive with minimum investment. Low-cost automation can play an important role in this situation.

Fall seven times, get up eight times: Vijay Batra

Mr. Soichiro Honda in 1948 bought five hundred tiny cylinder military surplus engines, attached them on to the bicycles along with a chain, and thus began his journey to be a major automobile manufacturer in the world. 

From buying the tiny engines, he went on to manufacture the tiny engines. Along the way he met an investor who became his partner Mr. Fujisawa. 

In 1952, one day Mr. Honda and Fujisawa approached Mitsubishi Bank for a million-dollar loan, so they my import machinery from America and Germany. They took the bankers for an evening of entertainment, giving them a fantastic time, they narrated jokes, sang songs, and took the spirits high with alcohol. The Bankers had a great evening. Next day the bankers refused to give the loan, as they felt reluctant to trust a company lead by “two clowns.”

Mr. Honda and Mr. Fujisawa remained resilient, got the loan, and kept gaining momentum to become one of the best automobile companies in the world. 

Honda’s way of working was to set the goal, be it technical or commercial and try one approach after another, and not giving up till the goal is achieve. 

 Honda also had to struggle to be able to enter the four wheeler market as Ministry of Industry and Trade, which was the regulatory agency issuing licenses for Japanese companies to enter any industry made it very challenging, yet Honda prevailed.

Today, Honda is one of the few companies that is strong both in two wheelers and four wheelers. 

Honda adopted the Just in time manufacturing system pioneered by Toyota. He insisted on spending most of his time on the shop floor watching the workers closely. He was referred to as “Mr. Thunder” for if he saw careless mistakes being committed by technicians, he would express his anger, and if he saw an engineer being careless, his anger intensity would be even higher. He would often remind his technicians and the engineers “we are not selling clothing or apparel…if a small thing like a bolt or a nut goes wrong, the customer’s life is in jeopardy. 

Honda encouraged wearing of the white jacket as a part of the uniform, there were two objectives, 1. To promote equality among Honda workers, 2. To ensure cleanliness at the shop floor, as any oil leakage would come to notice immediately, as stains on the workers clothes. 

Mr. Soichiro Honda said “there are three requirements for making cars and motorcycles. The first is that workers feel pleasure in making the product. The second is that dealers feel pleasure in selling the product. And the third is that customers feel pleasure in buying the product. 

Mr. Honda’s lifelong guru was Thomas Edison and started working as an apprentice at the age of 15. It is said that once, when a schoolteacher scolded him for not finishing the assignment, he reacted by saying that a school diploma was worth less than a movie ticket. Mr. Honda kept learning and by the age of 31 had 100 patents to his name and was known to have excelled in making piston rings and supplying them to Toyota. 

His obsession towards attention to detail, along with initiative and maintaining a strong relationship between the technicians and the management were pillars for the Honda company’s success. 

He often exhorted his team members to remain optimistic is challenging times, not to wait for perfect conditions and to keep working towards achieving one’s goals, day after day, after day. 

Article by Vijay Batra

Ganesh In The Boardroom – Our Inspiration

Ganesha's big head inspires us to think big and think profitably; the big ears show openness to new ideas and suggestions; the narrow eyes point to the deep concentration needed to finish a task well; the long nose encourages curiosity and learning

Ganesha is known throughout South Asia as the fountainhead of wisdom and courage. When laying the foundation stone of a building, he is invoked. No new business or industry is started without a prayer to him. Prayers to Ganesha precede every Hindu religious ceremony. Travellers on lonely roads pay homage to the elephant god at roadside shrines; trusting Ganapati to remove every danger from their path.
As a student of management, I was fascinated enough by Ganesha to research the subject. Clearly, there is much we could learn to become more effective managers. Management is always the major chunk of the problem on the job; in business and at home.
Symbols have been one of the most effective ways to communicate ideas since the dawn of civilization. Let's look into the symbols of Ganesha to get our managerial inspirations.

PRESENTING A GOOD FRONT

Ganesha's excellent image took thousands of years to evolve. In Hindu mythology, Brahma stands for creation, Vishnu for preservation and Shiva for destruction. Ganesha, son of Shiva and Parvati, took his unique place among these principal deities because of his wisdom and courage.
Emerging as early as 1200 BC, about the time of the Mahabharata, Ganesha has been worshipped by devotees across the country. He is believed to embody Om, the sound from which the world was created, and Yak, the first word.
Early representations of Ganesha show an elephant-headed warrior with the beard of a rishi, a sword and snake in one hand and a quill in the other, with a trident to one side—the embodiment of both courage and wisdom.
Later, in the Deccan region, Ganesha was pictured with a sheaf of corn and sugarcane, with a mouse as his vehicle. Invoking him made it possible for farmers to eradicate their worst problem, namely rodents, insuring a bountiful harvest. Ganesha is thus the guardian and protector of success, in this case, a good harvest.
Mythology is replete with stories of the origin and qualities of Ganesha. Many of these tales, which figure in the Puranas, poke good-humoured fun at the gods in their all-too-human predicaments. They teach the truths, beliefs and values of religion in the simplest ways possible and leave a lasting image in the minds of adult and child alike.

INSPIRATION FOR MANAGERS

I have found inspiration in Ganesha's wisdom and judgment, his ability to solve problems and remove obstacles, his capability as a communicator, his goal-orientation and his adaptability. These qualities were much needed by our forefathers as they advanced from hunters to agriculturists. More than strength, they needed wisdom and judgment to survive. These qualities are no less at a premium today, especially for managers.
A Ganesha manager likes people, all kinds of people with their diverse skills and aptitudes, and he likes to work. He enjoys bettering his records. He is forward-looking, with clear and friendly eyes. He likes to set goals and solve problems, and because he is stimulated by this challenge, he becomes better and better at it. He likes to help others realize their goals. He nurtures his own understanding and discrimination by reflecting on his own and others' experience. He always operates at 150 per cent of capacity; he knows that's what keeps him happy and growing.
The opposite of the Ganesha manager is Gobarganesha—literally, a cow-dung Ganesha. Full of himself, he has no time for others. He's always oppressed, always overburdened. He carries his problems around instead of solving them. He's wary of change. He can't lead others, and he has no self-defined goals. The fact is, he doesn't know what he wants to be or do. It never occurs to him that this is something he needs to sort out himself. He makes others feel tired and unhappy.
A Gobarganesha avoids action and shuns the spotlight. He shrinks from challenges and wallows in self pre-occupations. He may do what he's told, but grumbles through the effort. He wastes the latent potential within himself.

REMOVER OF OBSTACLES

Ganesha, son of Shiva and Parvati, is Vigneshwara, the Remover of Obstacles. And thereby hangs a tale. It is said that Shiva and Parvati didn't always see eye to eye. A nagging bone of contention was Shiva's insensitive lack of concern for Parvati's privacy. Shiva, who travelled a lot, would think nothing of strolling into Parvati's private chambers when he returned. Irked, Parvati posted Nandi, Shiva's attendant bull, to guard the door of her palace. The instructions were clear and precise: no one was to enter her chambers while she was in the bath. Nandi proved inept and inefficient. He was fired and Parvati fashioned her own attendant. A goddess in her own right, she 'created' a son out of the saffron paste she removed from her own body.
When Shiva returned from his travel, Ganesha placed himself squarely at the entrance of Parvati's chambers. There was no getting past him. Mythology has an enraged Shiva using his army, his associates and their armies, but to no avail. Finally Ganesha was beheaded by unfair means.
To keep Parvati's maternal fury at bay, Shiva was compelled to use his powers to revive Ganesha, who was given the head of an elephant. Shiva blessed him and decreed him to be worthy of worship forever. He also gave him the name Vigneshwara, one who can remove obstacles.
With an elephant head, a potbelly, and a mouse for a vehicle, Ganesha had many obstacles to overcome from the outset. Did he run away and hide? No. Did he try to bluff? Never. He met obstacles head-on. He converted perceived disadvantages into advantages.

SYMBOL OF WISDOM

The elephant head is the over-seeing, all-seeing, eternal witness, the unmanifest supreme. Below the head is the belly, the symbol of the manifest, the mortal.
Ganesha is the lord of all, manifest and unmanifest. The memory of an elephant is, of course, proverbial. Ganesha's twisted trunk represents the zigzag path to wisdom. It reminds us that there is no direct path, that we must turn right and left in the search for truth.
The elephant ears are like winnows that separate the wheat from the chaff. All experience must be subjected to scrutiny to determine what is essential and what is nonessential. This is a critical aspect of judgment. The discerning and the wise do what they must and let the rest be.
Ganesha's endearing potbelly is equated with space; it is vast enough to hold all wisdom and all life. Gentle and harmless, he uses his great strength only when provoked. Good managers can draw a lesson from this.

GOAL-ORIENTED

The elephant seems to swerve as it walks, but keeps to the path. He makes it to his goal with unhurried grace. Ganesha rose from the ranks to hold high office. He was in the right place at the right time.
Ganesha's vehicle, the lowly mouse, stands for the dark, fertile forces of the earth into which it burrows, avoiding light. As a recurrent threat to the harvest, it had to be tamed. But the rat also represents swiftness of movement. He burrows with his sharp teeth, chews through anything, and squeezes out of the smallest hole. In this way, he proves an excellent transport for Ganesha, who has to be everywhere and anywhere at short notice to remove obstacles.

THE WRITER AND COMMUNICATOR

It is believed that Ganesha penned the Mahabharata. The sage Vyasa, under instructions from Brahma, dictated the Mahabharata to Ganesha. Vyasa was to dictate without pause and Ganesha was to understand every word and thought and its implications before writing it down. In the process,Ganesha honed his intellect and became wiser.
There is a lesson here for managers: as speakers or listeners, we must understand and cogitate deeply on the implications of spoken and written words. The Mahabharata, or for that matter any important document, should not be read in a hurry. To benefit optimally from the Mahabharata, one should proceed in slow and deliberate steps, ensuring complete comprehension and sustained reflection at every stage. The ability to write is one of the basic traits of a good manager. Good writing and good communication is possible only when thinking is clear and understanding deep.

QUICK-THINKING PROBLEM SOLVER

Once Shiva and Parvati acquired a pot containing the nectar of supreme knowledge. Both their sons, Kartikeya and Ganesha contended for it. The hapless parents set up a competition. The rules read that the first one to go around the world seven times would be declared winner. Kartikeya, a man of action, instantly started circumambulating the world on his peacock. With a mouse for a mount,Ganesha needed to do some quick thinking. Using the mental library in his big head, he analyzed the situation, did the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) and realized that he was constrained by his bulk and slow mount. For inspiration, he went through the Veda floppies in his mind to arrive at an essential truth: one's parents are bigger than anything else in the world. So,Ganesha went around his parents seven times and claimed the pot of nectar.
Due to his unique form, Ganesha could absorb symbols over the centuries. Choosing adaptability as a way of life, he acted, observed, reflected and updated his image. When he found a better way, he adopted it. A god who changes with the times is a good one to emulate.

Attributes of enduring family businesses

Family businesses are an often overlooked form of ownership. Yet they are all around us—from neighbourhood mom-and-pop stores and the millions of small and midsize companies that underpin many economies to household names such as Tata Group, Ahuja Group, Birla Group, and Reliance Group. One-third of all companies in the S&P 500 index are defined as family businesses, meaning that a family owns a significant share and can influence important decisions, particularly the election of the chairman and CEO.

As family businesses expand from their entrepreneurial beginnings, they face unique performance and governance challenges. The generations that follow the founder, for example, may insist on running the company even though they are not suited for the job. And as the number of family shareholders increases exponentially generation by generation, with few actually working in the business, the commitment to carry on as owners can’t be taken for granted. Indeed, less than 30 percent of family businesses survive into the third generation of family ownership. Those that do, however, tend to perform well over time compared with their corporate peers. Their performance suggests that they have a story of interest not only to family businesses around the world, of various sizes and in various stages of development, but also to companies with other forms of ownership.

To be successful as both the company and the family grow, a family business must meet two intertwined challenges:

1. achieving strong business performance and
2. keeping the family committed to and capable of carrying on as the owner.

Five dimensions of activity must work well and in synchrony:

1. harmonious relations within the family and an understanding of how it should be involved with the business,
2. an ownership structure that provides sufficient capital for growth while allowing the family to control key parts of the business,
3. strong governance of the company and a dynamic business portfolio,
4. professional management of the family’s wealth, and
5. charitable foundations to promote family values across generations.

Almost all companies start out as family businesses, but only those that master the challenges intrinsic to this form of ownership endure and prosper over the generations. The work involved is complex, extensive, and never-ending, but the evidence suggests that it is worth the effort for the family, the business, and society at large.

New Product Development Process

In business and engineering, new product development (NPD) is the complete process of bringing a new product to market. A product is a set of benefits offered for exchange and can be tangible (that is, something physical you can touch) or intangible (like a service, experience, or belief). There are two parallel paths involved in the NPD process: one involves the idea generation, product design and detail engineering; the other involves market research and marketing analysis. Companies typically see new product development as the first stage in generating and commercializing new product within the overall strategic process of product life cycle management used to maintain or grow their market share.

The Eight Stages

1. Idea Generation is often called the "NPD" of the NPD process.
   • Ideas for new products can be obtained from basic research using a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats). Market and consumer trends, company's R&D department, competitors, focus groups, employees, salespeople, corporate spies, trade shows, or ethnographic discovery methods (searching for user patterns and habits) may also be used to get an insight into new product lines or product features.
   • Lots of ideas are generated about the new product. Out of these ideas many are implemented. The ideas are generated in many forms. Many reasons are responsible for generation of an idea.
   • Idea Generation or Brainstorming of new product, service, or store concepts - idea generation techniques can begin when you have done your OPPORTUNITY ANALYSIS to support your ideas in the Idea Screening Phase(shown in the next development step).
2. Idea Screening
   • The object is to eliminate unsound concepts prior to devoting resources to them.
   • The screeners should ask several questions:
     • Will the customer in the target market benefit from the product?
     • What is the size and growth forecasts of the market segment / target market?
     • What is the current or expected competitive pressure for the product idea?
     • What are the industry sales and market trends the product idea is based on?
     • Is it technically feasible to manufacture the product?
     • Will the product be profitable when manufactured and delivered to the customer at the target price?
3. Concept Development and Testing
   • Develop the marketing and engineering details
     • Investigate intellectual property issues and search patent databases
     • Who is the target market and who is the decision maker in the purchasing process?
     • What product features must the product incorporate?
     • What benefits will the product provide?
     • How will consumers react to the product?
     • How will the product be produced most cost effectively?
     • Prove feasibility through virtual computer aided rendering and rapid prototyping
     • What will it cost to produce it?
   • Testing the Concept by asking a number of prospective customers what they think of the idea – usually via Choice Modelling.
4. Business Analysis
   • Estimate likely selling price based upon competition and customer feedback
   • Estimate sales volume based upon size of market and such tools as the Fourt-Woodlock equation
   • Estimate profitability and break-even point
5. Beta Testing and Market Testing
   • Produce a physical prototype or mock-up
   • Test the product (and its packaging) in typical usage situations
   • Conduct focus group customer interviews or introduce at trade show
   • Make adjustments where necessary
   • Produce an initial run of the product and sell it in a test market area to determine customer acceptance
6. Technical Implementation
   • New program initiation
   • Finalize Quality management system
   • Resource estimation
   • Requirement publication
   • Publish technical communications such as data sheets
   • Engineering operations planning
   • Department scheduling
   • Supplier collaboration
   • Logistics plan
   • Resource plan publication
   • Program review and monitoring
   • Contingencies - what-if planning
7. Commercialization (often considered post-NPD)
   • Launch the product
   • Produce and place advertisements and other promotions
   • Fill the distribution pipeline with product
   • Critical path analysis is most useful at this stage
8. New Product Pricing
   • Impact of new product on the entire product portfolio
   • Value Analysis (internal & external)
   • Competition and alternative competitive technologies
   • Differing value segments (price, value and need)
   • Product Costs (fixed & variable)
   • Forecast of unit volumes, revenue, and profit

These steps may be iterated as needed. Some steps may be eliminated. To reduce the time that the NPD process takes, many companies are completing several steps at the same time (referred to as concurrent engineering or time to market). Most industry leaders see new product development as a proactive process where resources are allocated to identify market changes and seize upon new product opportunities before they occur (in contrast to a reactive strategy in which nothing is done until problems occur or the competitor introduces an innovation). Many industry leaders see new product development as an ongoing process (referred to as continuous development) in which the entire organization is always looking for opportunities.

For the more innovative products indicated on the diagram above, great amounts of uncertainty and change may exist which makes it difficult or impossible to plan the complete project before starting it. In this case, a more flexible approach may be advisable.

Because the NPD process typically requires both engineering and marketing expertise, cross-functional teams are a common way of organizing projects. The team is responsible for all aspects of the project, from initial idea generation to final commercialization, and they usually report to senior management (often to a vice president or Program Manager). In those industries where products are technically complex, development research is typically expensive and product life cycles are relatively short, strategic alliances among several organizations helps to spread the costs, provide access to a wider skill set and speeds up the overall process.

Also, notice that because both engineering and marketing expertise are usually critical to the process, choosing an appropriate blend of the two is important. Observe that this article is slanted more toward the marketing side.

People respond to new products in different ways. The adoption of a new technology can be analyzed using a variety of diffusion theories such as the Diffusion of Innovations theory.

A new product pricing process is important to reduce risk and increase confidence in the pricing and marketing decisions to be made. This is described as an integrated process that breaks down the complex task of new product pricing into manageable elements.

The Path to Developing Successful New Products points out three key processes that can play critical role in product development: Talk to the customer; Nurture a project culture; Keep it focused.

It is also worth mentioning what incremental, platform and breakthrough products are.

• Incremental products are considered to be cost reductions, improvements to existing product lines, additions to existing platforms and repositioning of existing products introduced in markets.
• Breakthrough products are new to the company or new to the world and offer a 5-10 times or greater improvement in performance combined with a 30-50% or greater reduction in costs.
• Platform products establish a basic architecture for a next generation product or process and are substantially larger in scope and resources than incremental projects.