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  17. Mayank Gupta

    BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)

    Mayank Gupta replied to Vishwadeep Khatri's question in We ask and you answer! The best answer wins.

    BHAG - as the name suggests, is an audacious goal for an organization whereas goals should be SMART. BHAG differs from SMART in terms of A and R i.e. Achievable and Relevant. BHAG will be Specific so that it is understood by all in the organization, Measurable so that the organization can validate whether it has met it or not and Timebound (say in another 10 years). However, it might not seem to be Achievable to some, even though the organization strongly believes otherwise. At times, it might also be irrelevant simply because it is audacious or if it something that changes the industry landscape. Answer provided by Venugopal Sudheendra highlights these aspects in the answer and hence has been selected as the best answer.
  18. Vishwadeep Khatri
    Q. 118 "Bells and Whistles" in a product or service are likely to be considered Non Value adding in the "Lean" language. However, they seem to be desirable in certain occasions. Explain with examples, if such features in products and services should be a part of solution in a Lean Six Sigma project. This question is open till 5 PM Indian Standard Time on Tuesday, 18th December 2018. If your answer is selected as the best answer, your name will be permanently displayed in the World's best business excellence dictionary in the making - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/business-excellence-dictionary-glossary/ Please remember, your answer will not be visible immediately on responding. It will be made visible at about 5 PM IST on 18th December 2018, Tuesday to all 53000+ members. It is okay to research various online sources to learn and formulate your answer but when you submit your answer, make sure that it does not have content that is copied from elsewhere. Plagiarized answers will not be approved. (and therefore will not be displayed)  All Questions so far can be seen here - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/lean-six-sigma-business-excellence-questions/ All rewards are mentioned here - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/excellence-rewards/ Important Note - To be able to answer, you need to sign up or sign in 
  19. Manjeet Sachdeva

    BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)

    Manjeet Sachdeva replied to Vishwadeep Khatri's question in We ask and you answer! The best answer wins.

    BHAG for me is always staying ahead of the curve. Competition will be there always the best situation is keeping a mile distance under same operating circumstances and setting new benchmarks. Example If a safety standard is applicable at present to a product and keeping one product at a higher level safety standard is a BHAG. Keeping goal to achieve productivity as 100% is ok as following standard operating conditions. But keeping is as say 110% will be a BHAG. Now from where this extra 10% will come is challenging and sets the ball rolling in direction beyond set parameters or SOPs and venture into area of Lean. Cut down losses Simplify processes Sustain the learning Benchmark new horizons Set new role models All come into picture And believe the taste of success of achieving beyond 100% is altogether different.
  20. Venugopal R

    BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)

    Venugopal R replied to Vishwadeep Khatri's question in We ask and you answer! The best answer wins.

    Benchmark Six Sigma Expert View by Venugopal R BHAG is no doubt a vision for a long-term, usually ten-plus years. It is a transformation goal and aims to position the organization for a revolutionary change. The guideline for Black Belt projects is to have a SMART goal and Black Belt projects need to get completed at the maximum within a few month's time. The strategic element of Six Sigma calls for annual goal setting and deployment of goals to identify the need and opportunities to improve, re-design or newly design processes. The famous approaches viz. DMAIC, DMADV and DFSS are popular methodologies that guide the teams towards executing such projects. While deciding the annual goals for an organization, the senior leadership would consider the BHAG vision and ensure that the annual goals are aligned to steer the organization towards BHAG goals. It then translates to more specific objectives that could be chartered as BlackBelt projects. Thus the Black Belt projects would certainly serve as a vehicle to provide substantial traction to steer the organization towards the BHAG, provided the senior leadership makes use of the Six Sigma organization effectively. However, the Black Belt projects alone may not be sufficient to fulfill the aspiration of BHAG. It will certainly need emphasis on strategic fortitude using tools and methodologies applying creativity and and innovation as well.
  21. Srimoyee Joardar Srimoyee Joardar changed their profile photo
  22. R Rajesh

    BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)

    R Rajesh replied to Vishwadeep Khatri's question in We ask and you answer! The best answer wins.

    Let us see what is BHAG first. Per wikipedia definition, BHAG pronounced as Bee-HAG , is a strategic business statement, which portrays an organisation wide goal which is audacious and is likely to be questionable externally but within the organisation would be regarded as impossible. The term, was first coined by James Collins and Jerry Porras in the book titled " Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies". What BHAG does ? BHAG provides - Visionary goals which are strategic and Emotionally/mentally demanding - Goals to be achieved in the Long term (period of 10-30 years) - the platform by which an organisation can transcend itself to a new level - a platform by which you can be an Industry Leader, because your organisation planning is long term and you are miles-ahead of the rest of the industry players There can be multiple BHAGs in an Organisation. Because we speak about a range of years say 10-30 , we can even have short term BHAGs and long term BHAGs. Examples of BHAG: 1. Microsoft changing the digital world by introducing Personal Computers. Every house has a PC and even offices which used to have only mainframe systems , moved to PC. EVery place is with a computer. 2. NASA's mision on Mars Exploration since 1960 3. Google organising the information all over world and make it accessible to all (eg: Courtesy wikipedia) . More often than not, we say "Google" it to find something, rather than saying, search it in Google. Thats the influence, Google has achieved , because of its audacious goal. Having talked about BHAG, let me discuss on how BHAG can be used in driving Black Belt projects. Here is my take on this. Strongly believe that in a company where Six Sigma culture is not there and if the top brass are Process-Oriented, then BHAG is a great choice. I will correlate here SMART can be applied to BHAG. Imagine now you define that you plan to have a short term BHAG(Say 10 years) for your IT company. In this 10 years, you want 300 Black Belt projects to be done (just for sake of discussion.. Anyways - does it sound Questionable for you? If yes, then that is BHAG- as you are external :-) ). Will expand SMART in BHAG's context 1. Specific: Just for instance - You can suggest how many BB projects to be completed in a year, how many to be started in a quarter, how much minimal value savings you should showcase....such quantifiable needs can be put. This is just only a sample. 2. Measurable: This talks about the measuring techniques. In this context, if we are saying 30 projects / year and across multiple verticals(read sectors) such as Health, Insurance, Banking, Retail, Manufacturing, Automobile, then say we need to take data for 5 projects to be measured across 6 verticals 3. Achievable/Attainable: The goal of 5BBs/vertical per year, should be realistic. If we look at the definition of BHAG, it is likely to be questioned by external parties and not within the organisation which implies the fact this can be achievable. May be a bit of stretching might be required due to nature of the activity, in my opinion. 4. Relevant: This will say about alignment with other business goals (Say another short term BHAG which talks about creating 100 MBBs in 10 years- just an example) 5. Time-bound: All BB projects to complete between 6-10 years and the whole goal to be completed on say, May 29th 2028. As we had seen here, even though BHAG seems to be unachievable, it could be only an external perception. A company would know the strength and weakness of its workforce and would be the best judge to decide what can be a good BHAG for itself. I portrayed two short term BHAGs that could have been a subset of one long term BHAG as well. Conclusion: Every company may not have a BHAG. But companies that successfully implement BHAG can or probably will become pioneers in their industries, though it would be emotionally demanding for the employees of those companies. For Companies, which do not have an inherent quality or Six Sigma culture and if that company is a big-sized one, then probably i feel BHAG has the potential to turn the company from a rookie to an expert process-oriented organisation and storm through the ladder and go up, in its industry. For companies which are having some BB projects, here and there , but require more BBs and MBBs, then having a short team BHAG related to Six Sigma can be driven , but the short term BHAG can be linked to a long term BHAG related to something like Business Process Modernisation.
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  29. Venugopal Sudheendra

    BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)

    Venugopal Sudheendra replied to Vishwadeep Khatri's question in We ask and you answer! The best answer wins.

    BHAG, an acronym for Big Hairy Audacious Goal conceived by James Collins and Jerry Porras indicates long-term goals of companies. While BHAG encourages companies to have clear goals with commitment and confidence of stakeholders, it becomes pretty contradictory as we focus on SMART goals in Six Sigma when compared to goals with a time-limit of 10-30 years. 3 most important aspects which we can consider here for successful implementation of BHAG is: Zeal, Knowledge and Monetary. Would all the stakeholders have the same zeal to work-for 10 to 30 years..? Knowledge - Sufficient knowledge and information plays a critical role here, and finally - Monetary Returns for the company at the end of a project. Answer for all the 3 aspects is to be 'Yes' to think-over if we can use BHAG in the orgnaization. Referring to SMART Goals vis-à-vis BHAG: while BHAG cannot be considered as a driving force for Black Belt Projects - Black Belt Projects can be considered as a driving force to achieve BHAG. Considering examples like NASA (landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth), Google (organize the world's information), Tesla (accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy), Uber (Transportation as reliable as running water, everywhere for everyone), Etc. - every organization must have a clear visionary Big Hairy Audacious Goals which should be a Superset of many Black Belt Projects.
  30. Mayank Gupta started following Change Management, "Special Requirement" and "Special Process" and Blockchain
  31. Mayank Gupta
    This question makes certain known things obvious. We all know about process and their requirements. However, only a very few realize that some processes and requirements are 'Special'. The best answer to this question is provided by Manjeet Sachdeva for explaining the terms and also providing relevant examples.
  32. Mayank Gupta

    Blockchain

    Mayank Gupta replied to Vishwadeep Khatri's question in We ask and you answer! The best answer wins.

    Blockchain is the new technology kid on the block To understand what Blockchain is, let us understand its components 1. Encryption using cryptography: It is like lock and key. You lock the code using a particular combination. Anyone who knows the combination will be able to open the lock. This is how encryption works. In technical terms, it is called a key. There are two forms of keys - private and public. Private key is private while public key is the one which is available to all. In blockchain the public and private keys combine to form a Digital Signature. This provides strong control to the owner of the key 2. Distributed Network: Imagine two people doing a financial transaction using encryption. Only these two people will have the details of the transaction. In case of fraud or a dispute, there is no independent authority to decide who is right and who is wrong. In blockchain the details of the transactions are made visible to validators who are witness to the transaction. They approve and record the transaction using mathematical validations. The distributed network itself is the approving authority. Key details recorded in a block are the amount transacted, timestamp and the digital signature 3. Linking of the blocks: It is like building a chain. All the blocks in a chain are interconnected to each other using a cryptographic key. The linking of the blocks is done for safety requirements so that no one person can change the contents of the block. Even if a hacker wants to change the contents (in one block), he will have to make changes to all the following blocks, else the chain will break. The linking process is called mining, where unique cryptographic keys are identified to link the blocks. The unique cryptographic keys ensure that one block is not used again for another transaction thereby giving it a unique status Using the above three components, blockchain offers the following advantages 1. High level of security 2. Open and distributed network 3. Decentralization 4. Low maintenance cost 5. Round the clock availability Owing to the above benefits, blockchain is touted as the next BIG thing in banking and financial industry. Some of the common challenges which blockchain will address for banks are 1. Banks spend a lot of money in securing our transactions (but we still get to hear that some bank's databases were hacked) 2. Money transfer from one region to another is time consuming and involves a lot of middlemen (who charge a fees for their services). It is for this reason that money transfer is not free 3. Centralized server space for transaction data storage 4. Banking services are not available round the clock 5. Reconciliations to validate the numerous transactions taking place on a daily basis All leading banks (Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase to name a few) across the globe are aggressively looking at using blockchain technology for their services and are also investing in new tech startups working on blockchain technology
  33. Vishwadeep Khatri
    Q. 117 BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) pronounced as Bee-HAG as a concept that proposes setting up of Audacious Business Goals. Should such goals be considered as driving force for Black Belt projects? While answering this question, please keep in mind that in Lean Six Sigma world, we focus on SMART goals (that are achievable), while BHAG is likely to be seemingly unachievable. This question is open till 5 PM Indian Standard Time on Friday, 14th December 2018. If your answer is selected as the best answer, your name will be permanently displayed in the World's best business excellence dictionary in the making - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/business-excellence-dictionary-glossary/ Please remember, your answer will not be visible immediately on responding. It will be made visible at about 5 PM IST on 14th December 2018, Friday to all 53000+ members. It is okay to research various online sources to learn and formulate your answer but when you submit your answer, make sure that it does not have content that is copied from elsewhere. Plagiarized answers will not be approved. (and therefore will not be displayed)  All Questions so far can be seen here - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/lean-six-sigma-business-excellence-questions/ All rewards are mentioned here - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/excellence-rewards/ Important Note - To be able to answer, you need to sign up or sign in 
  34. Manjeet Sachdeva

    "Special Requirement" and "Special Process"

    Manjeet Sachdeva replied to Vishwadeep Khatri's question in We ask and you answer! The best answer wins.

    Special processes are those where the output can not be judged or inspected immediately after its completion. The critical parameters control allows the process to run as desired. However the performance over a period of time or validation of few samples shows that the process was capable of giving the desired result example electroplating, welding etc. Special requirement are those which are expected out of product to exhibit well beyond its stated application Example a 200 amps relay normally operates at 50 to 60 amps current however in case of any short circuit or such emergency it must safely disconnect load up to 3000 amperes. The process control on making relay and design will ensure such a requirement well beyond the stated requirement.
  35. Mayank Gupta

    Change Management

    Mayank Gupta replied to NARESH SHARMA's topic in Debate Halls

    Hi Naresh - Good perspective on change management. One of the main reasons for Change Management being considered as an 'Unholy Nexus' is the fact that EVERYONE is not involved in the decision making which seems obvious. The downside is that everyone wants to be a part of the decision making process as it is considered as a matter of pride. Whoever is left out of the process feels he has been wronged and develops a revengeful state of mind. The second reason is - Few Take Decision but Many Get Impacted. E.g. Government decides to increase the tax (i know I'm taking a very sensitive subject :)). Very few people take this decision as compared to the larger audience that gets impacted by it. Most of the times, the audience does not know why taxes were increased. What they realize is ONLY the additional burden on them i.e. they don't see the big picture (I'm assuming there is one). This is the third reason Resistance to change is inherent in humans. For each task (even the smallest or the most mundane of tasks) our brain wires itself in a particular way. Any change, forces it to re-wire itself which is not always an easy task. And hence the stout resistance. Re-wiring would mean you need to put in extra effort to practice the change. We all want to avoid it. A good change manager pre-empts such challenges early and takes necessary steps to avoid them.
  36. Puneet Vohra started following "Special Requirement" and "Special Process"
  37. dhanapal.madhavan

    "Special Requirement" and "Special Process"

    dhanapal.madhavan replied to Vishwadeep Khatri's question in We ask and you answer! The best answer wins.

    Special Process - Apart from ISO management process, organisation focuses on their process which are more critical to produce / assemble. This special process requires more monitoring controls and evaluations. Eg : Paint process. Paint process requires more monitoring controls like booth temperature, air gun pressure, mixing ratio, skilled operators if it is manual. We need to control all monitoring process, evidence it and ensure the outcome. Special requirement : As per my knowledge, i am not much aware of AS standards. But when I google it , comes to know that special requirement is the one customer is not specified but organisation doing some special activities / process to delight the customer. We , in automobile industry doing such things for want of customer delight even its not in the process or documents. Hope i am slightly touching both the points. Thanks for this forum, which will improve my thoughts as well as knowledge. Awaiting for the next question. Regards, Dhanapal
  38. Venugopal R
    Many of us will be familiar and are likely to have dealt with “Special processes” as defined by ISO 9001. To re-iterate the definition for ‘Special Process’…. They are processes whose outcome cannot be easily measured or evaluated and hence it is very important to ensure the compliance of the process parameters to provide an assurance that the output can be confidently relied upon. The most popular examples provided are Welding, soldering, painting etc. In my experience I have come across some specific examples – for instance the ‘burst strength' for an auto clutch facing will depend upon proper processing and curing of the friction material; this depends upon several process parameters ranging from the appropriate proportion of the pre-mix, the process parameters of the molding and baking process, the extent of force applied for the grinding and finishing operation. Other examples would include ‘Insulation breakdown resistance of wiring harness system’ used for appliances and automobiles. In the IT services industry, many processes are performed directly on the customer’s mainframe with no or very limited opportunity to do any verification or correction. For a banking industry, if the applicable discounts for a product are not withdrawn by the system after the intended period, it causes revenue losses for the bank, which many not be easily recovered. Usage of the right skills and check points is crucial to assure that poor quality does not hit the customer’s processes or the end customer. It is the responsibility of the producer to identify special processes, whether it is pointed out by the customer or not, and exercise and demonstrate appropriate pro-active controls. Coming to the ‘Special Requirements’ as defined by the Aerospace standards, they are bit different from the “Special processes” as defined in the ISO 9001 standards, in the sense that the Special Requirements as per the AS standards are identified by the customer as a product characteristic / performance parameter that have ‘high risk’ of not being met. Factors used in determination of special requirements could include process complexities, past experiences and limitations of industry process capabilities. Identification of special requirements, including the key characteristics and critical items is one of the defined outputs of the phase 2 of the Aerospace APQP. Some examples provided by IAQG guide for 9101 standards include new technology application, new work sharing, introduction of new processes or machines, new competencies requirements. The focus here is on the Product requirements and from the way the standard has defined it, it appears that one of the criteria considered for identifying ‘special requirements’ includes the fact that the product may be produced through a ‘special process'. In the context of this discussion, I would also like to mention about NADCAP (National Aerospace and Contractors Approval Program), which is an industry managed approach to conformity assessment of ‘Special processes’ related to Aerospace industry.
  39. Earlier
  40. R Rajesh

    Change Management

    R Rajesh replied to NARESH SHARMA's topic in Debate Halls

    Hi. Interested in providing my response for this. As you know the adage, Nothing is permanent, so change will be there always and everywhere. Having said this, let me tell what change would cause. There will be always stakeholders who would be benefitted and who get adversely affected by the change. Grudge would be more if the affected parties are more and if the benefitted stakeholders are influential then thats where the issue starts. How often do we see an organisation (read mgmt) changes it's policies which do not go well with it's staffs. This is where it begins. There are other scenarios. Imagine you/your team want(s) to implement changes in your project and there are multiple stakeholders who need to approve this (through Change Approval Board) . You face strong resistance in getting the approval. Why ? It could be because some of the stakeholders afresh affected adversely by your changes either directly or indirectly. Or You did not seek their suggestion(Influential or key stakeholder (s)) prior to implementing the changes or did not provide prior intimation about the changes to them, or the other stakeholders have some ego problems with the stakeholder(s) to whom you are directly reporting(I have seen this happening as well). All these things should be properly addressed. Right business case (for justifying the changes) and stakeholder mgmt are the key for a successful change management. Then Acceptance would happen.
  41. Hemant P. Singh

    Oct-Dec 18

    Hemant P. Singh added images to a gallery album in 2018

    This album contains Benchmark Six Sigma Training Photographs from October to December 2018.
  42. NARESH SHARMA started following Change Management
  43. NARESH SHARMA

    Change Management

    NARESH SHARMA posted a topic in Debate Halls

    Why Change Management is considered an 'Unholy Nexus' and resisted stoutly!
  44. Vishwadeep Khatri started following "Special Requirement" and "Special Process"
  45. Vishwadeep Khatri
    Q. 116 While using Quality Management Systems, you may come across two terms - "Special Process" - used in ISO9001 and "Special Requirement" used in AS9100D. Compare and contrast the two terms with suitable examples. This question is open till 5 PM Indian Standard Time on Tuesday, 11th December 2018. If your answer is selected as the best answer, your name will be permanently displayed in the World's best business excellence dictionary in the making - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/business-excellence-dictionary-glossary/ Please remember, your answer will not be visible immediately on responding. It will be made visible at about 5 PM IST on 11th December 2018, Tuesday to all 53000+ members. It is okay to research various online sources to learn and formulate your answer but when you submit your answer, make sure that it does not have content that is copied from elsewhere. Plagiarized answers will not be approved. (and therefore will not be displayed)  All Questions so far can be seen here - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/lean-six-sigma-business-excellence-questions/ All rewards are mentioned here - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/excellence-rewards/ Important Note - To be able to answer, you need to sign up or sign in
  46. Valan started following Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Pre-Course Study Material
  47. Nandagopal Kulakarni started following Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Pre-Course Study Material
  48. Terry

    Level of inspection for sampling

    Terry replied to Terry's topic in General Discussions

    Thank you for the helpful information Vishwadeep My question was driven by the fact that other quality folks in my organization believe that the "sample" lot of parts require 100% inspection of all part features. I was adamant that this logic made no sense. If you've performed a FAIR why would the Customer require additional parts to be inspected 100%. As to your input; the parts in question have no KC's or Critical features, which would further support my logic.
  49. Rupinder N

    Apples to Oranges Comparison

    Rupinder N replied to Vishwadeep Khatri's question in We ask and you answer! The best answer wins.

    This may have seem liked a textbook question to answer and there lay the complexity in answering the question. Thank you all for attempting to answer; R Rajesh has given some common business situations. We come across many such business situations - the one that we are all aware of is "pre" and "post" improvement comparison in a DMAIC project. Very clearly it is an apples to oranges comparison, as the process itself has gone through changes. This comparison is made possible by using indices such as Cp, Cpk, Pp, Ppk or Sigma Level. There are times when Balanced Scorecards across different divisions are compared - the metrics of the divisions may be completely different, hence an apples to oranges comparison. %age attainment to goal is another way this comparison can be made possible. One may also reason that accuracy rates, defect rates, coefficient of variation can also help make apples to oranges comparison.
  50. Vishwadeep Khatri

    Blockchain

    Vishwadeep Khatri posted a question in We ask and you answer! The best answer wins.

    Q. 115 Blockchain is an emerging technology particularly useful for financial ledgers. Explain how does it work and will it's implementation ensure zero defects in posting financial transactions? This question is open till 5 PM on Friday, 7th December 2018. All rewards are mentioned here - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/excellence-rewards/ Please remember, your answer will not be visible immediately on responding. It will be made visible at about 5 PM IST on 7th December 2018, Friday. Your answer should not be copied from elsewhere. Plagiarized answers will not be approved. (and therefore will not be displayed)  All Excellence Terms discussed so far can be seen at https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/business-excellence-dictionary-glossary/ All Questions so far can be seen here - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/lean-six-sigma-business-excellence-questions/
  51. Vijaya Mohan K

    Apples to Oranges Comparison

    Vijaya Mohan K replied to Vishwadeep Khatri's question in We ask and you answer! The best answer wins.

    Apple to orange comparison leads to best benchmarking in different industries. For example Maintaining hygiene in food manufacturing industry is the key priority requirement at shop floor , they can compare With the best in other industry like 7 star hotels and Airports and implement the best practices at GMP area.
  52. Manjeet Sachdeva

    Apples to Oranges Comparison

    Manjeet Sachdeva replied to Vishwadeep Khatri's question in We ask and you answer! The best answer wins.

    Comparison is in fact between the man skills and the desired skill set required for a task or responsibility. Here an apple and orange can both qualify A professional gathers a set of skills by virtue of knowledge experience training and grooming environment. There can be no similar oranges or apples. All this boil down to comparing the skill set verses the qualifying criteria for a task and thus leading to comparison of an apple and an orange. The key lies in well defined skill set requirement for a task or job and then evaluating the available resources against these skill sets.
  53. R Rajesh

    Apples to Oranges Comparison

    R Rajesh replied to Vishwadeep Khatri's question in We ask and you answer! The best answer wins.

    From what i have seen or observed , general human tendency is to do Correlation and Comparison of things. People correlate one thing to another thing and compare things(objects, persons (read attributes/characteristics)...). Why they do this ? Because the human beings are trained and taught to do so since time immemorial. Man is a social animal with plenty of knowledge!! Human tendency is to go from a 'known' entity to an 'unknown' entity, in many cases. So the comparison starts from there. What are we trying to say by "Apple to Orange" comparison. It does mean that we are trying to compare two different things(in reality it could be about some objects or about some human beings). In the case of human beings, the comparison could be about their characteristics , in a personal context; skill set, experience-level, soft- skills, etc... in a professional context. So why is this important ? Because as a human brain is naturally aligned to compare people , it does not see what/whom needs to be compared with what/whom. This is the generic behaviour which needs to be consciously be changed by every individual to stay balanced. Apple to Orange comparisons , therefore would happen in reality in several cases, though the comparison often would be unfair. Let us see some examples where 'Apple to Orange' Comparison becomes necessary 1. In an IT organisation, an experienced employee(10+ year exp.), resigned from his job. As his job was a billable position, the service providing company found a lesser experienced(1 year) professional to replace the experienced professional. The customer knew the experience of the replaced staff. But a week later, the customer is not happy with the performance of the new staff stating the team that new staff needs to be upto speed and expects the quality as he got from the experienced person. Here clear 'Apple to Orange' Comparison has happened. Both the experienced employee(resigned) and the new employee have knowledge in that technology(Advanced Java) but the knowledge gap is wide. But for the customer, this is immaterial. He needed the same quality as it was earlier. The onus will be on the service provide to bridge the gap but the point is this comparison is made because the customer is expecting the same quality. 2.In an appraisal process in an IT company, all the team members(TM) were appraised. TM1, TM2, TM3 were all experienced in that order - with 10,7,5 years of experience respectively. TM4,TM5,TM6,TM7- were experienced with 4,2,1,1 years respectively. TM5,TM6, TM7 felt that it was unfair to compare them with senior TMs (TM1, TM2). They felt that they were feeling the pressure. Even though the project mgmt team had done some criteria for each experience, still the lesser experienced TMs felt that appraising them with the seniors would not help their appraisal. This is often the case we would come across many teams in many industries. 3. While doing software estimation: a). Say you have a start up company and you have got few development projects. Suddenly you get an enhancement cum maintenance project. Since you do not have an estimation template for an Enhancement , you rely on your estimation template for Development . You compare that (only to see if you get any initial idea) and try to tailor to suit your enhancement project requirements. In reality this could be a failure. b). Say you have an estimation model for Java/J2EE technology . Now you are getting a mainframe project and you do not have an estimation model for it. Now you decide to take a leaf out of your Java/j2EE estimation model and take that as basis for your mainframe estimation. In both the cases, we are making an Apple to Orange comparison ,as we are left with no choice but go from 'known to unknown' entity (to begin with). 4. How many times we would have seen the fact that to find the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) in a sport, we compare people who played the sport in different eras? Imagine how that sport would have been played in each era. Then how will you find GOAT ? Of course. various factors might be considered by the agencies (companies/relevant parties) which decide on the GOAT. Sometimes multiple Agencies who pronounce the result on GOAT, choose different players as the GOAT (they do not concur), because they may choose different factors. So to find the GOAT , we are making an Apple to Orange comparison and we try to minimise this indifferent comparison by bringing in various factors. Otherwise how can you say , who is the greatest cricketing batsman of all time, greatest tennis player of all time, greatest golfer of all time ? How difficult or easy to compare a tennis player who played lawn tennis in a wooden racquet, with a tennis player who played his tennis in synthetic hard court with a graphite racquet? Is there any technique to carry out such a comparison? Honestly am not sure if there is any technique. I could think of few things however which can give some quick guidance , in my opinion. 1. Organisational Process Assets (OPA) - Previous projects could have done like this and could have updated the organisation's repository - Documents could be like logs, Excel sheets, Lessons Learnt etc.,. Those artifacts can have data on the comparable entities and the associated data that was required for each of the comparable entity and the decisions made on the comparison. 2. SharePoint, Online database - Where Information or factors deciding the comparison can be captured; data about comparable entities Conclusion: Comparing things is a human mindset and has become a prerogative. Nothing can stop a person from comparing things . In a business context, this comparison takes importance because of cut-throat competition across the globe in every industry.Therefore , Apple-to-Orange Comparison , even though it may seem not correct, it is becoming increasing essential part of our day-to-day life.
  54. Bheemannadora Sappa

    How can we measure the Morality?

    Bheemannadora Sappa posted a topic in Manufacturing

    We all know PQDCM, But i don't know how to measure the Morality. Please help me.
  55. Bipin Dabholkar

    Training Feedback

    Bipin Dabholkar replied to Mayank Gupta's topic in Training and Consulting Feedback

    "A well designed course covering almost all six sigma concepts, with a clinical approach towards problem solving methods,...and yes, with an equally good mentor...." - Bipin D , Manager, SBI Life insurance
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