Solution providers – STIMS Institute

According to the analysis, in a recent blog post: These 150 People Are Ridiculously Successful and All Have the Same Career Path: None https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/career-advice-one-could-give-zachary-karabell the site reports: The real lesson is not some shared attribute that contributes to career success. The lesson is that for these 150, and surely for the hundreds of others who could also have joined this list, what matters is personal passion and vision, not some paint-by-numbers guide. In fact, few if any of these individuals followed a familiar playbook and that might just be the real key. The greatest success comes from the indelible marriage of a unique idea with uncommon individuals addressing needs that are widely shared. This Next Wave may find their futures bright, and they may encounter more turbulence as they flow into the next stage of their careers. But all of them are addressing real needs that someone will address and solve if not them and if not now. We can thank our collective lucky stars that for all the troubles that swirl through the world, so many are striving with such determination, vision and skill to improve the collective us.

Every one of the examples cited in the link above highlights individuals who created and implemented “NEW SOLUTIONS”: addressing real needs that someone will address and solve if not them and if not now. So, the success comes to those few who are relentlessly focused on New Solutions as opposed to those who merely execute tasks (do what they are asked to do). We have described this field of opportunity in great detail and the evolving Binary Economy: Success for the few who identify, develop and deploy NEW SOLUTIONS and low wage opportunities for the many who execute tasks required for the REPLICATION SOLUTIONS.

What happens to the millions who are not naturally gifted to identify such New Solutions? Our glamour and adoration of these few naturally gifted successful persons should not become a source of despair and inaction to help the millions who may fall by the wayside (and who are now the economically impoverished middle class?)

Is there a frame work to define what a solution is? How do we frame a need as a New Solution? What happens to those whose economic situation does not permit them to dedicate their life and mortgage their future into a new opportunity? May be every new solutions is not a new startup company? Will not focus, hard word and determination be enough? I posed these questions to my recent class of students, who are being trained and educated on the principles of System Thinking and Transformational Skills.

The class consensus was that, while these are the basic desired qualities, the System Thinking and Transformational Skills provide a platform, a strategy and/or a game plan to identify, develop and execute your efforts for new solutions and potential future success.

Every solution is an Input/Transformation/Output system.
Every New Solution is an unmet need that fills the gap that exists at three levels:
1. Knowledge, Experience and/or interpersonal relationship for individuals.
2. Science (or knowledge of the Transformation), Engineering (application or use of the transformation) and/or Management (What? Why? How? and When?) to exploit the Transformation.
Opportunities for any New Solution can come from:
1. Developing a common language to articulate the need and the solution as a system
2. Identifying the missing gaps (core capabilities) as mentioned above.
3. Development and use of Diagnostic tools.
4. Making such tools available on the go (through Apps. If required)
5. Promoting a network of users and providers with common needs
Success of the New Solution depends on:
1. Relentless focus on the entire chain — from beginning to end (Discovery X Development X Use) without any breakage.
2. Empathy and a willingness to help users to succeed and then make hay out of it (and not in the reverse order).

We can transform common and ordinary individuals -not a rare few by chance, but many by design – with a game plan and a strategy so that success comes to them from the indelible marriage of a unique idea with an uncommon individual skill sets to address the needs that are widely shared.

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In a recent CEO Forum organized by MGTL, Dr. K. (Subbu) Subramanian, President STIMS Institute Inc., offered his vision of the 21st Century Manufacturing and outlined the need for requisite work force skills to meet the emerging needs. This forum was held at Pune, India on Nov. 21, 2014. For a complete presentation, please see: Manufacturing in the 21st Century

Few excerpts:

“Manufacturing” is a collection of (a) physical processes enabled by a host of (b) information processes and aided by a collection of (c) pick and place and transfer processes, which at the moment are a combination of physical events and information events.
Core capability for any manufacturing: repetitive use of physical processes, to achieve or USE the “Product” at the required quantity, place and time to meet the end user needs.
Manufacturers have two options: (a) Steady improvement in the processes already deployed; The result is a constant reduction in the explicit knowledge and skill required with respect to the Physical Processes used. Over time, they have become the black boxes surrounded by a myriad of service processes, which are generic and practiced in all companies and industries. (b) Introduction of a stream of new solutions resulting in New Products, New Processes and New Applications/ USE. These new solutions are the result of intense knowledge of the physical processes unique to the manufacturing company.
Breakthrough – step change – solutions will be expected as a routine output of manufacturing professionals of the future. But, in order to sustain such improvements the process has to be managed as a whole – as a system. Constant tweaking or small changes in the system which disturbs the equilibrium of the process cannot be tolerated, if maximum impact is the desired outcome. This will require manufacturing professionals who are simultaneously good at process science as well as process economics, with expertise to integrate knowledge from all available sources.
We find two parallel chains operating across all manufacturing companies (i.e.) Supply Chain which deals with the information processes that interconnect the various tiers of manufacturers and Functional Value Chain, where the physical processes and their exploitation play a silent but foundational role across the manufacturers.
Since the products are enables by processes and the USE is also a process in a manner of speaking, we are left with “Process and its knowledge and the capability to manipulate any process” may be the primary core capability or skill set of future manufacturing professionals! The role of human labor and their employment in large numbers is not a critical need in this description of manufacturing. It is important for policy makers to make note of this subtle but significant point.
Work force skills required for 21st century manufacturing:

Manufacturing Processes	Traditional Sources of Knowledge	New Knowledge Required	Traditional Worker Skills	New Worker Skills Required
Physical Processes	Engineers and shop floor workers with technical training, trade skills and academic education.	· Process Science· Diagnostics· Data and Analysis· Sector specific know-how	Engineers with years of experience located close to the shop floor operations	· System Thinkers and Solution Providers Reliant on Process Science· Reliant on sensors, signals and their use.
Information Processes	Collection of tasks that evolved through the years	· IT· Data Base· Big data· Analytics	White Collar Workers with standard plug and play IT solutions	· System Thinkers· Solution Providers· Customized IT solutions
Pick and Place / Transfer Processes	Industrial work force through many years of training and hands on experience.	· CNC, Robotics and AGV· Drones	· Blue collar workers· Standard work and tasks· Physical effort and de-skilled operations.	· System Thinkers· Solution Providers· Comfortable in virtual control environment

Tag: Solution providers

Career Strategies for success: It is a game plan using System Thinking and Transformational Skills.

STIMS Institute offers its vision of 21st Century Manufacturing.