It is hard to escape from the word innovation; from CVs to performance appraisals and company mission statements, it is omnipresent. In the 1990’s it was synergy; in the 2000’s it was collaboration. Today the must use word is innovation. The expression innovation has its origins in the Latin word…
It’s a chip crunch and you’re the CEO. Let’s try my new calculator for a bit of fun. You have recently been appointed the CEO of a major semiconductor company. Set your good die per wafer targets, factory output and the average selling price of your ICs and CPUs. What…
The richest man in the world is changing jobs. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is to be replaced by Amazon Web Services’ Andy Jassy. What does the culture look like in Jassy’s AWS, and are there any implications for Amazon? The culture at AWS is one of constant iteration; an organisation…
Starting a new job is stressful. People talk in strange and new acronyms; they ask you to post information to shared drives whose location is a mystery to you. You barely know where the restrooms are. Once again, you have a total beginners mind. I find all this quite unsettling,…
I have worked in industry for thirty-seven years, and I have often come across a blame culture within some of the organisations that I worked for. A blame culture is a predisposition within an organisation to find an apparent, simple reason for why something bad has happened. (Rosling 2019) It…
I frequently hear semiconductor companies proclaiming the low leakage of their transistors. But what do they mean and why should we care? Many expressions describe transistor leakage; leakage, off current, standby current, sleep current, IOFF and many more. The terminology is confusing and perplexing. These expressions describe one aspect of…
It was 41 years ago that I started my physics degree at Strathclyde University. I found physics a challenging and demanding area of study, especially the mathematical knowledge that it required. In 1980 I was introduced to the world of Fourier transforms, FT, I froze, I was afraid, I just…
For many years, I have advised teams of engineers and scientists on how to adopt lean thinking to improve processes and systems. Recently I have been reflecting on how I can use lean practices at a personal level to make me more effective at achieving my own personal and professional…
I often hear companies complain that they have an overload of data. They complain that they have more data than they can process. My exploration of the Readiness of Irish Manufacturing for Industry 4.0 determined that the primary focus area of Industry 4.0 in Irish manufacturing was the area of…
I am dreadful at chess. I remember in 1983 trying to beat my Atari 800XL at chess, but even on level one, I could never win. In 1983 the predetermined intelligence of a computer program had me defeated. Fourteen years later, IBM’s Deep Blue chess computer beat the intellectual titan of…
