What is an asset?

One of the often quoted examples (challenges) over business definitions is the case of gaining a common definition of the term “Customer” within an organisation. This can result in lengthy debate over whether a customer is the person who pays the bill, who recieves the goods, is a branch office of a purchasing organisation etc. etc.

A recent conversation reminded me that there is another area where there is difficulty gaining a common definition, and that is ensuring that there is a common definition of the word ‘asset’. Without common definitions, investments in data, processes and systems may be put at risk and the effectiveness of business decision making may be compromised. (more…)

Would you allow this…?

One of the greatest factors which can lead to the degradation of quality of information relates to the behavior of users, data administrators and external parties. I have referred to this in a previous post “There is no such thing as a data quality problem…” which was deliberately being a little provocative in order to make a point. In this related post I will explore an interesting contradiction in staff behaviours related to physical assets and behaviours related to information assets.

As some of those who know me will appreciate, a lot of my experience relates to the world of physical asset management and maintenance management, however, some of the points I raise also relate to more general business contexts.

(more…)

Making performance improvement real

Last week I visited Haldex Concentric in Birmingham who manufacture pumps for commercial vehicle engines. They are shortlisted for an award at the Midlands Excellence Awards, to be announced this week.

They have instigated a continuous improvement approach to improving their productivity using both Six Sigma and Lean approaches. This allows them to clearly demonstrate their improvement in productivity over time. Their approach to reporting business performance demonstrates both simplicity and effectiveness. (more…)

Business Efficiency Tools – Stronger in combination?

As a believer in taking the medicine I prescribe I’m always on the look out for opportunities to develop and improve my skills. Hence I recently attended an event at Midlands Excellence where Julian Beaney led a very informative morning discussing the various business efficiency tools in common use.

I admit to being a bit of a cynic about putting all my eggs in one basket when it comes to delivering improvements. I’ve seen too many people try and blind their customers with science by slavishly following a set route rather than remembering what the aim of the task is. Hence I was also very interested to see what other practitioners would say about the various tools.

(more…)

Why application based user groups do not work

Many larger organisation with enterprise wide applications set up user groups to promote application usage, to help resolve system issues and to help plan future enhancements to the application. These groups, in my experience, do not deliver suitable business benefits and can either become a ‘talking shop’ or an excuse to berate the IT department/directorate consequently, the wider business does not see them as adding value.

In this blog post I expand on the nature of the problem and make suggestions for a better approach.

(more…)

Assertiveness – a key life skill?

Last week I was delivering a training day which focussed on assertiveness for half a day. Out of the 10 delegates for the afternoon only one was male and most of them were in their 20s. The majority of them were confident and mixed easily with the delegates they didn’t know. However, when asked to give a two-minute presentation about themself and their role at work, concentrating on their skills and abilities most of themwere very shy and avoided talking about themselves. One delegate didn’t manage to say anything at all – I’m not that scary really! (more…)

Enigma and Bletchley Park – Lessons for today

I went to a lecture by Dr. Mark Baldwin yesterday on the Enigma encryption machine used by Germany during World War 2 and the work of Bletchley Park in breaking the Enigma codes. The successful breaking of the codes has been stated as having shortened the war by around two years.

If you are not familiar with the Enigma encryption machines, they used a combination of rotors which encrypted and decrypted letters, had 26 keys for data entry, illuminated letters to provide the output and used a number of plugs which could further strengthen the encryption.

What fascinated me were a number of common factors which provide lessons that are still very relevant today:

  • The balance of complexity and simplicity
  • Development of process
  • Overcoming the impossible (more…)

Similarities between data quality issues and computer security security approaches?

I went to a very informative presentation last night by Professor Mark Ryan of Birmingham University. He is a specialist in computer security and the pitfalls of different approaches to computer architecture. It was a thought provoking presentation, particularly Mark’s views that a lot of current computer security issues stem from a potentially misguided desire by Microsoft to make platforms open and to allow automation of tasks. (more…)