“Human workers in the future will need to be creative to fully realize the benefits of all the new things for the future—new products, ways of working and technologies. Robots currently can’t compete with humans on creativity. The future workplace is going to demand new ways of thinking, and human creativity is the key to it. “ - Bernard Marr, “The 10 Vital Skills You Will Need … [Read more...]

In 2014, my family relocated from Danville to El Dorado Hills, California, just one year after I decided to shift the focus of Managed Solutions to smart manufacturing endeavors (you can read the entire story starting with “The Adventure Begins”). During our new home search, much of my work supplies were in storage, which forced me to work more resourcefully. When we did find … [Read more...]

Thank you to any and all veteran’s reading this, I appreciate your service. This year we've seen a lot of people struggling and grinding their way through adversity. Recently one of my Manufacturing Industry contacts, Andrew Stackpole, posted a brief but sincere message. His hashtags, and the accompanying photo drew me in: I decided to investigate his art site. When I … [Read more...]

Today, many of you are likely recovering from a much smaller than usual Thanksgiving Day of food, friends, and family. With that in mind, today is more like a “Two-Minute Gemba.” I recently finished reading "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!", an autobiography by physicist and overall curious character, Richard Feynman. Feynman was involved with the Manhattan Project, an … [Read more...]

If you hadn’t noticed, it’s been a little while since our “bi-weekly” newsletter landed in your inbox. I am writing this hastily because I didn’t want to miss the chance to wish you very Happy Holidays and all the best starting out your 2021. I actually got derailed in several areas this month. Going into Christmas week, I had a forced upgrade of our phone system (imagine if … [Read more...]

I have two old notebooks I often carry to customer meetings in which I have spent countless hours writing down ideas and doing “free form” planning and thought exercises. Recently, I came across an old note to myself to “check the beginning of the red notebook for ideas”. It was from a screenshot of a digital Kanban system I used prior to our current platform for project … [Read more...]