A Practical Reason for Moving Beyond Smart Part Numbers

During a process review session this week, I got involved in a terrific conversation about Smart Part Numbers. You know what I'm talking about - those cryptic SKU identifiers so popular with the folks in the warehouse, on the shop floor, in production planning. There is logic and structure to the characters and the numbers, structure that codes identification and classification details onto those bin labels. We are having problems with item WC1-644-A019910 Oh, that's because the trim press is…

Suburban Robots that Monitor Reality (The Internet of Things)

13 March, 2013
Internet of Things, Purposeful Innovation
6 Comments

Another month, another presentation - something I am trying to do more of this year, somewhat to the detriment of my blog post frequency. However, I may have one or two new posts to put together based on the content of this deck. Here's a link to the slides I am presenting this week (Thursday 14 Mar 2013) in Rolling Meadows, IL and next week (Thursday 21 Mar 2013) in Chicago. The title is The Internet of Things - part…

IT Strategy for the Fast Twitch Crowd

This evening (Monday, 11 Feb 2013) , I did a presentation on Developing IT Strategy in a "Consumer IT" Environment - an expansion on some of the ideas that I have written about previously. I’ve posted my slides here – I realize that they do not “stand on their own”, and need some explanation, but if you weren’t in attendance and are interested in hearing more, let me know in the comments - happy to review with anyone interested. Developing IT Strategy that Connects…

Ten Bucks in Ten Minutes

6 February, 2013
Out of the Box
0 Comments

I really do like networking events - group meetings with other with other IT professionals, discussing topics of common interest, with a reasonable amount of vendor / consultant-sponsored gentle selling, and/or some solid job networking with fellow techs looking for their next successful step along the career path. However, I admit to a wee bit of boredom with buzzword-laden presentations or war stories focused on project successes that mean so much to you (but nothing to me). We are all…

Reading for Understanding – Business

You are only as good as what you know, and half of what you know comes from books Truth be told, it's not an original thought - I heard it many years ago, but it rang true for me personally. I still have many of my old college textbooks - engineering volumes bound in impressive faux leather, including a massive, near-mint copy of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics - 60th edition (note: collectors, make me an offer!). Over the years,…

Four tools to bridge from Raw Productivity to Sustainable Results

I've noticed a definite trend in the "best practices" wing of the Productivity building; it goes by many names and takes on a few different forms, but the idea is rooted in a few simple concepts: Focus on the Critical Few: Multitasking does not work - plan for doing three things per day, and allocate your time accordingly Done is Better than Perfect: Learn to recognize "good enough", perfection is the enemy of progress. Ignore Details Early On: Get a skeleton out…

Developing an IT Strategy: Approach

Previously: Timing The new year approaches, and most IT groups aspire to start out with a completed IT Budget, derived from a well thought out set of short-term Objectives, that align with an IT Strategy - that itself aligns with the overall Corporate Strategy. If your timing is a bit off, and you haven't established these connections with the process yet - where do we begin? In my last post, I talked about Timing: get in the conversation early, take…

Developing an IT Strategy: Timing

In some companies, IT struggles to find a voice amid the other functional areas of the business - Finance, Operations, Sales and Marketing, even Human Resources. "Business Alignment", a regular item on lists of Top 5 IT Concerns each year, pops up because (I believe) it's difficult to glibly draw a line connecting IT systems and projects to the changing priorities of most organizations. I will admit to a small amount of cynicism here - part of the problem is…

Five Lessons on Social Media from an Unexpected Source

A true-life story of collaboration in action; social media done right, with plenty of lessons learned. Because coffee!

Four Required Behavior Changes for Enterprise Social Media

18 September, 2012
Change Management, Social Media, Popular
1 Comment

Can Social Media technologies and practices translate well into your organization? Think differently about these four behaviors inside your teams - the right changes will drive the benefits.