PURPOSE OF LIFE

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” – Mark Twain

Consider a hammer. It's designed to hit nails. That's what it was created to do. Now imagine that the hammer never gets used. It just sits in the toolbox. The hammer doesn't care.

But now imagine that same hammer with a soul, a self-consciousness. Days and days go by with him remaining in the toolbox. He feels funny inside, but he's not sure exactly why. Something is missing, but he doesn't know what it is.

Then one day someone pulls him out of the toolbox and uses him to break some branches for the fireplace. The hammer is exhilarated. Being held, being wielded, hitting the branches and the hammer loves it. At the end of the day, though, he is still unfulfilled. Hitting the branches was fun, but it wasn't enough. Something is still missing.

So he longs for more action. He wants to be used as much as possible to knock things around, to break things, to blast things, to dent things. He figures that he just hasn't had enough of these events to satisfy him. More of the same, he believes, is the solution to his lack of fulfillment. 

Then one day someone uses him on a nail. Suddenly, the lights come on in his hammer soul. He now understands what he was truly designed for. He was meant to hit nails. All the other things he hit pale in comparison. Now he knows what his hammer soul was searching for all along.

We are like the hammer. We don't realize what will end the emptiness, the lack of fulfillment, in our lives. When we understand our purpose of life, it will fuel our drive. Once we know why we are here, we can get busy fulfilling the purpose of our life, as we understand it at the moment.

 

Everyone will have a different definition based on their experiences in life and their own set of values. When we do something that we believe is meaningful, we achieve a sense of our own worth and place in life.

Today is the day for us to determine, what does purpose of life mean to us?

Interpersonal relationships fail and businesses fail because of poor problem solving.  The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1995) defines a problem as: “A doubtful or difficult matter requiring a solution” and “Something hard to understand or accomplish or deal with.”

Stages of Problem Solving

Effective problem solving usually involves working through a number of steps or stages, such as those outlined below.

Problem Identification:

This stage involves: detecting and recognizing that there is a problem; identifying the nature of the problem; defining the problem.

The first phase of problem solving may sound obvious but often requires more thought and analysis. Identifying a problem can be a difficult task in itself. Is there a problem at all? What is the nature of the problem, are there in fact numerous problems? How can the problem be best defined? By spending some time defining the problem you will not only understand it more clearly yourself but be able to communicate its nature to others, which leads to the second phase.

Structuring the Problem:

This stage involves: a period of observation, careful inspection, fact-finding and developing a clear picture of the problem.

Following on from problem identification, structuring the problem is all about gaining more information about the problem and increasing understanding. This phase is all about fact finding and analysis, building a more comprehensive picture of both the goal(s) and the barrier(s). This stage may not be necessary for very simple problems but is essential for problems of a more complex nature.

Looking for Possible Solutions:

During this stage you will generate a range of possible courses of action, but with little attempt to evaluate them at this stage.

From the information gathered in the first two phases of the problem solving framework it is now time to start thinking about possible solutions to the identified problem. In a group situation this stage is often carried out as a brain-storming session, letting each person in the group express their views on possible solutions (or part solutions). In organisations different people will have different expertise in different areas and it is useful, therefore, to hear the views of each concerned party.

Making a Decision:

This stage involves careful analysis of the different possible courses of action and then selecting the best solution for implementation.

This is perhaps the most complex part of the problem solving process. Following on from the previous step it is now time to look at each potential solution and carefully analyse it. Some solutions may not be possible, due to other problems like time constraints or budgets. It is important at this stage to also consider what might happen if nothing was done to solve the problem - sometimes trying to solve a problem that leads to many more problems requires some very creative thinking and innovative ideas.

Finally, make a decision on which course of action to take - decision making is an important skill in itself and we recommend that you see our pages on decision making.

Implementation:

This stage involves accepting and carrying out the chosen course of action.

Implementation means acting on the chosen solution. During implementation more problems may arise especially if identification or structuring of the original problem was not carried out fully.

Monitoring/Seeking Feedback:

The last stage is about reviewing the outcomes of problem solving over a period of time, including seeking feedback as to the success of the outcomes of the chosen solution.

The final stage of problem solving is concerned with checking that the process was successful. This can be achieved by monitoring and gaining feedback from people affected by any changes that occurred. It is good practice to keep a record of outcomes and any additional problems that occurred

Source: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/problem-solving.html

"SEVEN FORMS OF WASTE" CONCEPT

 

The idea of eliminating waste originates from the Toyota Production System. Taiichi Ohno, who is considered as one of the founding fathers of lean manufacturing, dedicated his career to establishing a solid and efficient work process.

During his journey, Ohno described three major roadblocks that can influence a company’s work processes negatively: Muda (wasteful activities), Muri (overburden) and Mura (unevenness).

In Lean, waste is any activity that consumes resources but brings no value to the end customer. Based on his observations and deep analysis, he categorized the 7 types of waste (7 Mudas), which later became a popular practice for cost reduction and optimizing resources.

1. Transportation

This type of waste is when you move resources (materials) and the movement doesn’t add value to the product. Excessive movement of materials can be costly to your business and cause damage to quality. Often, transportation may force you to pay additionally for time, space, and machinery.

2. Inventory

Excessive inventory is often the result of a company holding “just in case” inventories. In such cases, companies overstock themselves in order to meet unexpected demand, protect from production delays, low quality or other problems. However, these excessive inventories often don’t meet customer’s needs and don’t add value. They only increase storage and depreciation costs

3. Motion

This kind of waste includes movements of employees (or machinery) which are complicated and unnecessary. They can cause injuries, extended production time and more. In other words, do whatever is necessary to arrange a process where workers need to do as little as possible to finish their job.

4. Waiting

This is probably the easiest waste you can recognize. Whenever goods or tasks are not moving, the waste of waiting occurs. It is easily identifiable because lost time is the most obvious thing you can detect. For example, goods waiting to be delivered,  equipment waiting to be fixed, or a document waiting for approval from executives.

5. Overproduction

Having in mind that waste is anything that the customer is not willing to pay for, it is easy to realize why overproduction is Muda. Producing more means that you exceed customer’s demand, which leads to additional costs. Actually, overproduction triggers the other 6 wastes to appear. The reason is that excess products or tasks require additional transportation, excessive motion, greater waiting time and so on. Furthermore, if occasionally a defect appears during overproduction, it means your team will need to rework more units.

6. Over-processing

This type of waste usually reflects on doing work that doesn’t bring additional value or it brings more value than required. Such things can be adding extra features to a given product that nobody is going to use, but they increase your business costs. For example, if a car manufacturer decides to put a TV screen in the back trunk of a vehicle, probably nobody will use it or find value in it. Even more, it will cost resources and it will increase the end price of the product for something that customers are not willing to pay for.

7. Defects

Defects can cause rework or even worse, they can lead to scrap. Usually, defected work should go back to production again, which costs valuable time. Moreover, in some cases, an extra reworking area is required which comes with additional exploitation of labor and tools.

 

 

CREATING A REVOLUTIONIZED MANAGEMENT CULTURE

The name and reputation of W. Edwards Deming first caught the attention of a few Ford Motor executives in 1978, when they were trying to figure out how the Japanese automakers were outdoing them in car quality and design.

Deming's work and fame popularized the PDCA cycle which has the idea of deductive and inductive learning built into the learning and improvement cycle in the Deming wheel. Deming's message was that quality is everyone's responsibility.

His successful principles of emphasizing quality and customer satisfaction that helped turn around Sony, Fuji and Toyota were embraced in many countries.

Creating a revolutionized management culture with the widely adopted Total Quality Management (TQM) and six sigma Deming's basic philosophy was set down in these 14 points:

1. Create a constant purpose for improving products and services planned for the long term resisting short term solutions that compromise quality

2. Adopt the new philosophy. Be prepared for a major change in the way business is done. It's about leading everyone to quality output not simply managing

3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.

4. Use a single supplier for any one item. Instead minimize total costs by working with a single supplier.

5 Improve constantly and forever. Every process for planning production and service. Just keep doing plan, do, check, act.

6. Use training on the job. Build a foundation of common knowledge and train for consistency. Train workers to see the role they play in the big picture.

7. Adapt and institute leadership. Don't just supervise. Support each staff member so that they can do his or her best. Be a coach instead of a policeman.

8. Drive out fear. Workers do their best when they feel valued. Free from the fear of ridicule demotion or being fired for expressing their concerns.

9. Break down barriers between staff areas using cross-functional teamwork can build understanding between departments and reduce adversarial relationships.

10 Eliminate slogans exhortations and targets for the workforce. Don't let catchphrases like excellence in service stand in for leadership. Communicate your expectations and then praise people face to face for doing good work.

11. Eliminate management by quota. Deming said that production targets encourage high output and low quality

12 Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship allow everyone to be proud of their work without being raided or compared

13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self improvement for everyone.

14. Put everybody in the company to work accomplishing the transformation methodology alone won't bring success to a company.

Much depends on the context - A company's leadership, its culture, the ownership, their funding etc. What we see is that today's best practices for business, stand on the shoulders of a long history of critical thinking.

STAY STRONG

I know is not easy to just speak to us and reflect on our journey call life. That’s why I wanted to share it with you, as difficult as it is to share it. This is not the end of the life. I know it feels like it, but believe me it isn't. They are literally the only thing in this world that can break and then fix themselves into something stronger. The next few days, weeks, or even months might be the hardest of your life. And I know that every day feels like an eternity, time stretches seconds into minutes and days into lifetimes, but you have to stick it out.

Stay strong as we face this situation to combat COVID-19. Take things day by day. Don't rush ahead and try to do something stupid. Rushing is typically what leads to most stupid things anyways. Do things day by day. Let's follow the instructions given to us by Government agencies in oneness. Let's not pass false rumours. Let's not get panic.

This is one time in our life we are facing such unexpected situation. But we will overcome this phase. Let's stay in faith that God will open doors to combat this situation. Let's take precautionary measures to break the chain of spreading. Support all the government initiatives. Its through self-discipline we would be able to move forward and it could only be done through social distancing and self-isolation. Love one another. Pray that God have mercy on the people across the globe and relieve us from this epidemic soon. Pray for all the health professionals and their families who are extending their dedicated support during this time of need.

Let's stay strong and build back better!