system thinking – STIMS Institute

It took only 50 years for a Tech. Giant to share the reality with the public?

Following is a brief excerpt from the recent NYT essay titled: Bill Gates Warns A.I. Is More Dangerous Than Big Tech Will Admit https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/26/technology/bill-gates-ai-risks.html

In an hourlong interview, he said his industry was downplaying the risks, which he believes include mass unemployment and bioterrorism.
Mr. Gates said technological advances had truly stunned him three times: In 1980 when he first saw a graphical user interface, which led to the modern personal computer.In 2022 when the leaders of OpenAI came to his house to demonstrate what would soon become ChatGPT. And this year when he looked closely at the advances being made by Claude Code, Anthropic’s A.I. tool.

This shock (“Stunned” as Mr. Bill Gates put it) in the unbridled development in “Technology”, has been the lived experience or nightmare of every manufacturing professional in the USA, since the 1980s later spreading to any professional worldwide!
We have described this nightmare in the introduction to our book:
The System Approach – A strategy to survive and succeed in the Global Economy, published in 2000. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1569902550
We have reproduced this “nightmare” scenario of a manufacturing worker below.

Let us face it. AI and its impact is a bigger monster we face today. But the problems started in the late 1970s! All those who have been claiming “Technology” driven innovation is the savior for all, have been misleading the public with that term – Technology – by which they merely refer to Digital Technology and nothing else. We must come to accept the reality that human dignity as a workforce will be uplifted only through the true evolutions in Technology (an integrated deployment of Science, their applications -Engineering and focussed on collaboration for larger common good – Management). It requires an integrated view of the opportunities, their solutions and the benefits for a larger common goal. We can call this the “System Thinking” and the drive towards that. For details see: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0791860167
Thriving in the 21st Century Economy – Transformational Skills.

A Bad Dream:
Paul Gagnon was seated in a comfortable chair. Next to him, in the conference room was seated his Supervisor, Mary Patterson, a young and successful engineer in the company. It was a new and strange experience for Paul. As a production worker in the company, Paul had never attended any such meeting before now. Along with Paul and Mary, there were several others in the room: Joe Whitehead – the Department Manager, Linda Cook – the Financial Controller, Ralph McCarthy – Congressman and Jack Singer the President of the Operating Unit.
“Shall we get started,” signaled Jack, trying to get the attention of everyone. “We have relied heavily on worker productivity, to keep us ahead of our competition. It is now at an all-time high. I have never seen our workforce as hard at work as much as I see them perform at the present time. We have installed the best information systems, which by the way has helped to wring out significant cost reductions in our operation in the past two years.”
Paul shifted slowly in his chair, more in discomfort of what he had just heard. “By significant cost reduction, Mr. Singer really meant laying off about 40 people from this company, 25% work force reduction? Didn’t Mr. Scott Sealy, the Human Resources Manager, describe this as re-engineering?” reflected Paul.
“Our profitability, even though it is not as high as I would like it to be, is not bad,” continued Jack Singer. “Yet, there is a lot of uneasiness everywhere. On the one hand, we want our workers to be committed and loyal, yet I do not see any way of assuring them of our commitment to their employment. As you know, these are not the good old days, when we can reasonably say that a person is hired for a lifetime, as long as he/she does a good job. Doing the very best in a given job does not seem to be good enough anymore. Yesterday, I was at the corporate meeting. I heard talk about acquisitions and mergers. The guys at the top feel that we cannot be competitive, even with all our improvements. An option being talked about is moving the entire operation to an offshore location. I simply don’t get this,” continued Jack with a sense of frustration that was clearly shared by everyone in the room. “Well, why don’t we go around the room and see what is on everyone’s mind,” continued Mr. Singer. “As you know, we called this meeting to get everyone’s points of view on our current situation and where we are headed.”
“This is not the Jack Singer, I know,” thought Paul Gagnon. “Whatever happened to the orderly introductions and a careful outline of the objectives for the meeting. Jack is good at this sort of stuff. Clearly, something is seriously wrong. Maybe Jack senses something serious but cannot get his arms around it.”
“I am Joe Whitehead, the design manager. In the past five years, my department has shrunk by 50%. I have lost most of my key design talent – the draftsman, the engineer in charge of heat transfer analysis, the design details engineer all been let go, through our re-engineering effort.”

“Joe has always been politically correct” reflected Paul Gagnon.

“We do most of the design analysis overseas and download them through the internet. The way things are going we may not even need many design options, if our customers buy sub assemblies from our competition instead of buying our components and assembling them, as they do now. The word is that our competitors plan to integrate the function of our components into their subassembly. This may even eliminate the need for our components.”
“The days are getting longer and harder “jumped in Mary Pattterson, the manufacturing engineer”. When I came into this job three years ago, we had a tooling engineer, a quality engineer in charge of inspection, a guy for maintenance and I was in charge of process development. Today, I seem to be everywhere. I don’t mind that as long as I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. When I heard of the acquisitions, mergers and move to the off shore that concerns me a lot “sighed Mary.
“We have invested in the capital at an unprecedented rate in the past few years. Yes, they are paying off, but not as much as they are supposed to. When I walk around the company, I get the sense that everyone looks at me as if I am the one to be blamed for all the lay offs. If everyone understood the basic economics, they would know for themselves what is happening and why,” lamented Linda as she stared at the piles of accounting documents, neatly arranged in binders in front of her.
“I simply don’t get it,” said Ralph McCarthy, the congressman in his slow drawl. “When I go to Washington, they tell me about all these wonderful numbers. The unemployment is low. The labor productivity is high. The US economy is at the top. Yet, when I come home, all I hear is uneasiness and a sense of helplessness. Why isn’t life the way it used to be? Simple, where everyone did their job and everyone knew what they were supposed to do. Maybe it is because we have moved from a manufacturing economy to an information economy?”

Paul Gagnon looked around. Everyone had finished their turn. Perhaps he was supposed to say something. The only thought that came to mind was his young son David. What will his life be like when he grows up? Will he be doing the same job as Paul, who now runs a computer-controlled machine, with built in inspection tools? Paul has been busy studying and taking courses just to stay on top of his current job. He knows of several of his co-workers who were laid off, simply because they could not keep up with the changes. Paul had dreamed that David would one day be an engineer like Mary. Nevertheless, listening to Mary and Joe, he was not sure anymore. Everyone in the room, whom Paul had counted as role models for his son, were gloomy and dispirited. “I really don’t know what to say. I really don’t,” muttered Paul.

“Honey, it is time to wake up. What is it you don’t know? You have been saying this all night,” said his wife Susan as she gently stroked Paul, urging him to get up.

“It was all a bad dream, dear. I am glad it is over” said Paul as he woke up, pushing aside the sheets of paper, getting up from the bed. “Honey, there is no time left for dreaming anymore” retorted Susan. “With three of our kids, all going to different schools and both of us working, I don’t even have a moment to rest up, much less a good night’s sleep. I don’t know how you manage to find time for all your dreams”, finished Susan.

Reality: It will be wonderful indeed, if Paul Gagnon’s dream was just that – a dream. However, it is an inescapable reality, a true nightmare! Every one has had shades of experience reflected in this fictional episode. The thoughts of Jack, Joe, Mary, Linda, Ralph and Paul described in the dream are shades of real-life experiences faced by millions of Americans in one way or the other. Let us look at some of the evidence:

STIMS Strategy for life long learning for intrepreneurship

Professionals in every field must constantly equip themselves with the latest skills to achieve new solutions for process problems.

Being adept at ‘Transformational skills’ and ‘system thinking’ constitutes a lifelong learning strategy required to develop a stream of New Solutions, a must to survive and succeed in the 21st century economy

MMI Cover story image

Who exactly are ‘intrepreneurs’?
We hear a constant drum beat for professionals to be entrepreneurial, capable of handling a variety of jobs and problems. This is in total contrast to the standardized
and de-skilled task-oriented replication activities. There are many opportunities to integrate knowledge from various sources – from other workers, knowledge available across departments, with the suppliers as well as with the customers or end-users. The advent of smart phones, Facebook, Google and other search engines also augment this ability to aggregate information from across the globe and convert them into new knowledge. The result is a “new solution” of high added value. They are heralded as “entrepreneurial”. The new term used for such entrepreneur working inside a company – as opposed to a startup operation – is “Intrepreneur”.

Life Long Learning Strategy:

Modern Manufacturing India, a Publication of the Indian Machine Tool Manufactusers Association (IMTMA) carries the cover page article authored by STIMS Institute. This article provides a strategy for life long learning for entrepreneurs and intrepreneurs.

STIMS Cover story MMI Jan. 2018 issue

The MMI magazine January issue can be accessed at: http://www.mmindia.co.in/flipbook/jan2018/

Three levels of System Thinking

In a recent blog post: http://blog.readytomanage.com/how-is-critical-thinking-different-from-analytical-or-lateral-thinking/ three kinds of “thinking” are described – Analytical, Lateral and Critical thinking. Following is our take on this subject:

In our view, every activity and/or solution is an INPUT/TRANSFORMATION/OUTPUT system.

TRANSFORMATION represents the Phenomena pertinent to the activity. Understanding the Transformation implicitly, explicitly or through inference/intuition is the “SCIENCE”. Application of the Transformation to obtain the desired change of the inputs to outputs is the “ENGINEERING” behind the activity or solution. Discerning the Output between the “What?” and “Why?” is the strategic thinking. Ensuring that the desired outputs are achieved by orderly integration – with respect to time, cost, resources and their efficient deployment – of the inputs to effect the transformation is the “Operational” aspect of the activity. Strategy and Operations are the two sides of anything we call as “MANAGEMENT”.

In this Systems thinking there are three levels, which relate to the three aspects described in in the blog post mentioned above

AWARENESS: analytical thinking mainly aims to review the data/information we are presented with (for relevance, patterns, trends etc.) — the ability to clarify the information on-hand and their assignment into the various aspects of the “System” as defined above. It also helps to identify the missing data or gaps and the questions to ask and in what order?

ANALYSIS: Lateral thinking aims to put data/information into a new or different context (in order to generate alternative answers or solutions) — answer the questions raised using the tools of Science, Engineering and Management in an interdisciplinary manner. Today such lateral thinking is part of higher education, but limited to the three disciplines, but mostly as impermeable silos!

SYNTHESIS: Critical thinking aims to make an overall or holistic judgment about the data/information which is as free from false premises or bias as much as possible — ability to answer the question ” 2 + 2 = ?” with an answer, “Why is this question raised in the first place” ? Then find answers which might lead to “2+2 = 3, 4, 5 or Fruit Salad”. In the last case it will be the sum of two fruits (Apple and Orange) with two other fruits (Peach and Banana) together with some ice cream on the side making the whole the Fruit Salad! Hence CRITICAL THINKING can be thought of as third level of SYSTEM THINKING, where the whole is seen as larger (or smaller, if that is the output of the “System”) than the mere sum of the parts. It is an ability to see the picture or pattern, rather than the mere emphasis on the pixels! For more details on System Thinking and the three levels: https://stimsinstitute.com/20151207books/

Transformational Skills and their application as Leadership Imperatives

Recently replying to a Linkedin discussion group under the heading: What are your four timeless key leadership imperatives? , we posted the following as the timeless leadership imperatives:

— Help others so that they can help themselves.

— Always keep an eye on the “stake holders” and their needs.

— Use what you have learned and learn what you need to know.

— Everyone is a leader; your role is transient until someone else takes that role!

Here we discuss how these leadership imperatives are linked to the Transformational Skills:

Help others so that they can help themselves

Words do have meaning. But, if the same word has different meanings between the leader and the team, then there is no common language. Words which are frequently used such as Product, Process, Application, Manufacturing, Science, System, Output, etc. need to have the same meaning between the leader and the team. Ensuring the Common Language is an important Transformational Skill.

While every leader has the instinct to help, it is not often possible (a) due to a lack of role clarity (b) Expectations are mismatched and /or (c) delegation is absent. But, frequently all of these are evidences of a more fundamental problem (i.e.) Absence of a common language!

2. Always keep an eye on the “stake holders” and their needs.

Stake holders are not synonymous with Shareholders. This is the frequent folly of many leaders. To recognize the Stake Holders, the leader will need system thinking, the perspective of a larger picture. Stake Holders are all those who contribute their inputs to the leader’s role viewed as an Input/Transformation/Output system. Every input is a cog in the wheel! Any cog that is ignored and hence becomes weak will in due course render the wheel dis-functional!

3. Use what you have learned and learn what you need to know:

Individual core capabilities are: Knowledge, Experience and People Skills. Core capabilities of any team are: Science, Engineering and Management (Strategy and operations). Core Capabilities of any enterprise are: Finance, Technology (not limited to Digital Technology) and Market drivers. Any leadership effort involves manipulating the Core Capabilities at three levels: Individuals, Team and the Enterprise.

Ultimately the role of the leader is one of a watchman who is fully aware of these core capabilities at each level and deploys them to the fullest extent. It is equally the role of the leader to look for and learn about the holes in the core capabilities and fill them systematically

4. Everyone is a leader; your role is transient until someone else takes that role!

We call this emotional intelligence for leadership. Leader is always one who helps others who in turn can help themselves. This self-help will be fully evident, when the leader’s role is no longer required. That does not imply that the leader himself is not required or useful any longer. Through his/her knowledge of the three dimensions of core capabilities, the leader would have already transitioned to new efforts and initiatives. This of course will also depend on the culture cultivated in the team!

Interview of Dr. Subramanian published in the Efficient Manufacturing Magazine

MANAGEMENT INTERVIEW

A system approach to manufacturing

You will find here excerpts from an interview with
Dr. K. (Subbu) Subramanian, President, STIMS Institute Inc.

• What should be the ideal strategies to survive, succeed and achieve competitive excellence in today’s volatile global economy?

• What is the “Systems Thinking of the Manufacturing Processes”?

• Tell us more about your program with IMTMA to train manufacturing professionals at all levels?

• Can you brief us on your proposed manufacturing eco-system – an approach that can create synergy from all sectors, much needed for a sustainable growth in the manufacturing industry?

• How to set up a suitable supply chain eco-system and acquire capabilities for machine tool components so as to make the overall production more dynamic and growth oriented?

• What should be the role of a CEO in strategy and planning towards operational excellence?

EM Management Interview (1) 12 12