De Ja Vu

Ever wonder why a perfectly tested product fails for at least one quality check. Why a software program designed, developed and tested by the most superior programmer still comes up with issues when tested by the User. Or why in spite having defect prevention, quality control and a perfect software development environment still engulfs a gamut of problems when similar programming is done all the time. These questions are defended by alternate ways in today's software world and treated as an enigma. Here I explain the most fascinating of the explanations.

IT Project Portfolio Optimization

It is a very typical problem faced by organizations today that IT Departments have limited IT Budgets, resources and a significantly larger number of projects to execute. Additional constraints like

Configurator as a Controller

Product Configurator stands at a confluence of Sales, Design engineering and Manufacturing. With this vantage position, it becomes a powerful tool for the management to exercise control over these core/strategic operations while at the same time benefiting all the recipient functions. A real win-win if you can pull it off!

The Fuzzy Engineer

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by and that has made all the difference” is the favourite quote that inspired me always. Many years back, when we took a software oriented career, we perhaps thought we were taking the road less travelled. Soon we found that the road was getting crowded. All people around us (and we too) were speeding in a hurry, overtaking each other, changing lane, jumping signals and many times causing accidents! One confusion prevailed among our software community though- if they are an absolute engineer or just a shade of an engineer.

Lean or Mass Customization

Today almost entire manufacturing industry is struggling with growing number of product variants or SKUs in their portfolio. Henry Ford’s mass production appears a Stone Age technique. At the same time expectations to deliver the customized products quickly at competitive prices are increasing. Traditional way of managing and selling products i.e. unique numbering at end-item level can no more deliver desired efficiencies.
Hence, Lean customization is way forward.