Sampling the Future(s)
About 30 years ago, I sat outside a seminar room at a product design conference. I recall meeting Tom Matano. In the 1990s, Mr. Matano was an icon and rock star in the industrial design world. He was the head…
Uzumeri
COVID By the Numbers
I haven’t written a post for nearly two weeks because I was engaged in a small project to stretch and enhance my skills. It’s been a year or two since I built a decent statistical analysis in R and Shiny.…
The Strategy that Beats COVID
In this post I strongly recommended that people read two articles by Tomas Pueyo that lay out a context and strategy to beat COVID without totally trashing our economy or allowing millions to die. Now, I would add a link…
COVID – The definitive roadmap?
The Hammer and the Dance! OK … this does it. These two (long) articles paint the clearest picture of the COVID dynamics and our options that I have seen so far. They are both on Medium, so they are easily…
COVID – Time to swallow pride
Every day, the story of COVID becomes more alarming. Americans will die … the only question is how many, how fast and who they will be. Will we be like China and South Korea … or will we be like…
Humans make COVID lethal
The big mistake by some people, especially President Trump, is to style COVID as a quasi-human adversary. President Trump’s repeated references to the “Chinese Virus” are not only racist, they are immensely and technically wrong. IMO, broadcasting this error on…
COVID: An Imagination Shortage?
As I listen to expert epidemiologists explain the structure of the pandemic and anticipate the devastating shortages that might come next, my gut says that our “system” (President, politicians, healthcare industry, manufacturers, supply chain pros, and pretty much everyone else)…
COVID Lockdown Mechanics
Disclaimer: I am not an epidemiologist. I do have a pretty good grasp of the behavior of complex systems in a variety of fields. FWIW, I would love to be wrong in this analysis. I wasn’t planning to start writing…
Toward a Video-for-Operations Ecosystem
Imagine an industrial facility with dozens of video cameras that continually record and store video of plant operations … for weeks, if not months. If the cameras are strategically placed, they will capture a visual record of nearly everything that…
Self-Writing (almost) Video SOPs
Over the years, we’ve asked people if they love writing standard operating procedures (SOPs). Their answer is almost always NO !!! SOPs (AKA work instructions or written procedures) are the lifeblood of standard work and continuous improvement. How can something that…