12.23.08
Posted in Education at 11:29 am by Travis
Top News - Technology key to award-winning district’s excellence.
This district won the prestigious Baldrige Award for excellence. The Baldrige has a very rigorous criteria for meeting excellence. Organizations apply to receive the award and are encouraged to apply even if they know that they will not win. Just going through the process of preparing allows the organization to take a serious inventory of its purpose, mission and goals. The rigors of the award forces the organization to look at aspects that they never considered important to the process, and causes them to take a look at the long term goals set for the organization and how they plan to reach them.
Interestingly enough, the Baldrige is the American counter part of and created as a result of the Deming Award initiated by the Japanese after Edward Deming helped them rise to manufacutering supremacy. Florida Power and Light is one of the few American companies to receive a Deming Award.
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Posted in Digital Divide at 12:56 am by Travis
Chamber backs broadband deployment–without Net neutrality laws | Politics and Law - CNET News.
That’s right, no regulation. Did wonders for the mortgage and financial industry.
“An estimated $60 billion has been invested in broadband infrastructure by the communications industry this year,” William Kovacs, the U.S. Chamber’s vice president for environment, technology, and regulatory affairs, said in a statement. “Given these turbulent economic times, federal policy must continue to support this high-level of investment. This will spur job growth, innovation, and consumer choice.”
Go and check the updated information from the OECD.
Let me get this straight, they have spent $60 billion and want no government “interference” that would stifle competition and innovation. We pay on average $53.00 for an average download speed of a blazing 9Mbs. Japan on the other hand pays on average $41.00 for an average speed of 96 Mbs! Well now, that’s money well spent. If the UAW wasn’t involved, we could get that download speed up to at least 10 or 11 Mbs! 60 billion and only 3% of the US is fiber while Korea and Japan stand at 39% and 45% respectively. I want to see a receipt.
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12.14.08
Posted in Media, business at 12:51 am by Travis
It’s a shame that many in the press have sold their souls to corporate interest, otherwise they would inform the public about truths with the struggles of the auto industry and stop blaming organized labor for their ills. I find it ironic that NBC who produced a documentary called “If Japan can, why can’t we?” does not mention anything about Dr. Deming’s work, but instead continually push the issue of high labor cost being the main issue for the failure of the Big 3. I have a new interpretation of the adage, “Hindsight is 20/20.” Sometimes to see the present clearly, you have to look at the past. I spend a lot of time reading journals and visiting the Government Accountability Office website. One article in particular talks about the issue of foreign investment into the country in the 80’s from Japan to not only build plants, but parts suppliers also.
One of Deming’s philosophy’s of quality management stated that you must first understand the “process” of what you are doing, or you really don’t know “what” you are doing. According to Deming, the process of manufacturing existed far beyond the worker on the assembly line. Management must take ownership of the parts of the process that are beyond the control of the worker such as parts suppliers. He believed that companies must not base the relationship of the supplier strictly on being the cheapest. The auto industry had the nasty habit of trying to build a car and them inspect it for quality. Deming stressed that quality must be everyone’s responsibility from the floor to the boardroom and that it must be continuous and every improving.
What the media fails to tell you is that US automakers and their Japanese counterparts do not manufacture cars the same way. The Japanese were admired for their efficiency, but that is because their “process” was more refined than the US companies. Deming’s philosophy also included creating an atmosphere of collaboration. The parts companies were part of the actual design of the cars instead of receiving engineering drawings saying, “Build this!” as they did in America. Parts manufacturers were also strongly encourage to reduce variables that caused them to create defective parts and constantly make the process better each time.
The Japanese used the “Just In Time” method which meant creating just enough parts needed for the cars being produced at the time and bringing the parts to the floor “just in time” for them to be assembled in the car. The parts were also pre-assembled into sections. For instance, a whole dash assembly may be brought to the floor instead of installing all of the parts individually for the dash on the assembly line. The “just in time” method reduced inventory cost. The parts suppliers knew that not having the parts right when it was time to assemble them could greatly effect the assembly process due to the absence of backups, therefore parts manufacturers had to get it right every time.
Enter the 80’s. The foreign car makers were starting to take over, so the automakers and their congressional allies cried foul. Japan tied one hand behind its back and voluntarily reduced the number of cars that it imported to the US. Instead of the US companies working to refine their process of manufacturing, they went the “if you can’t be ‘em, join ‘em” route. They began to partner with the Japanese companies to produce vehicles. Do you remember the “Geo” line of cars? This was a joint venture between Toyota and GM if you call slapping your name of the vehicle after it comes of the line a joint venture.
What really took the automakers under was parts, and the irony was that we could have had the Japanese by their “lug nuts” in this area, but since many of the automakers were still housing their own parts departments and the fact that the quality level was no where near the foreign companies, we had to play second fiddle, again. We could not supply the foreign car makers with parts because we were not familiar with building sections of the car and delivering them just in time to the line with little or no defects. In all honesty, we did not stand a chance with their refined process that took decades in the making. We did not understand the process! Some parts manufacturers developed successful relationships with the foreign companies only after they adjusted to the rigors of Deming’s quality control process. The cost associated with making the cars came more from the lack of quality control and lack of efficient manufacturing processes. The working suffered during this time period because many of the the US car makers stopped making parts and started using the foreign car parts makers because the quality was better and cheaper.
Deming was also a strong believer in making the worker feel good about his job, creating an atmosphere that cause workers to produce quality which fostered a since of pride in what they do. When people feel as though their work means something and that it is obvious that management sees them as an extremely needed part in the process, you don’t need a union. When foreign car makers bring outsourced work back into the company to keep people working instead of kicking them to the curve as your first solution to a slow down, you don’t need a union.
For more information on this subject, go spend time over at the Government Accountability Office website. www.gao.gov Here is more information about the automakers and parts manufacturers.
Next I will tell what happened when the US companies discovered Deming.
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12.08.08
Posted in Digital Divide at 10:24 pm by Travis
I am still trying out the browser. First, I am amazed at the people who balk at a “black only” browser as if something like that really exist. Does it mean if you are non black, it won’t download? Let’s be real about it, though the content may be preset on the browser, you can still go anywhere on the net and get any content you want black, white or other. Does the existence of this browser mean that if I search for anything other than “black stuff”, I won’t get a return?
I am bothered by the fact of people suggesting what black folks need or don’t need. Why not criticize the program on the merits of it technology. Does it work as well as Firefox? Is it as safe as Firefox? Will black folks use it? It remains to be seen. I am more concerned with the content that will be present on the browser. I am for empowerment, not fluff. I am assuming that those that oppose the ethnic browser are concerned about the images and content that has crippled our communities for decades being the sole purpose of this endeavor.
If the issue is a browser that will continually dumb down the consciousness of the community, we don’t need a special browser to push foolishness to the black community. We have plenty of TV networks, radio stations, music artist, videos, comedians and others that have this on lock. The internet is a vastly unregulated arena. Trust me, there is room for one more browser. If we have black dating service websites, black cosmetic websites and any other website geared to one particular ethnic group, then why can’t there be an ethnic centric browser? I doubt if black folks with take over and control the internet with their own “black” browser.
If black folks should be doing anything, it is learning how to manipulate the current technology to benefit the community at large. Build websites that validate so that search engine spiders can crawl them, and other folks can find them. We still have major black entertainment sites that don’t use RSS for their news, force you to listen to audio clips that could be podcasted or at least pushed out as an RSS feed. Many of us are not using Twitter or any social networking technologies on our websites. We still depend on tradtional media and feel as if we have to have their validation to present the news to our communities. I don’t know if you have heard or not, most of them are in trouble. The Tribune Company has filed for bankruptcy. We have outlets such as Mogulus and U-stream to present our own version or perspective, but we don’t use them or know that they exist. There are powerful networking opportunities on the web. Maybe the new black browser will bring us into another level of consciousness.
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11.16.08
Posted in business at 9:38 am by Travis
It’s not what you think. The Americans had been warned decades ago. You’d be surprised who helped them.
Edward Deming Pt. I
Edward Deming Pt II
Edward Deming Part III
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11.04.08
Posted in General at 11:31 pm by Travis
Numerology Vibes: The number 44
Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States. What does the number 44 mean? Check this out.
“44 is a powerful number. Know why? Because the 4 vibrates with paying attention to detail and building a solid foundation for the future.
In 44, that effect is doubled.
Plus, the two numbers (4 and 4), adding up to 8, have an umbrella vibration of effective management, controlling group dynamics, building large structures (buildings, bridges, organizations), and financial control.”
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Posted in black history at 10:50 pm by Travis
Well, he have crossed the threshold. Barack Obama is the next president of the United States. Thank you Fredrick Douglas, Martin and Corretta Scott King, w.E.B. Dubois, Fannie Lou Hamer, Metger Evers and all those who have gone before, paved the way and sacrificed their lives. The great cloud of witnesses. Now, it is our turn to pave the way for the next group. We pray and receive the mantle of persistance, dedication, faith and courage to take on this next level of responsibility. America has just made a step in the right direction.
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11.03.08
Posted in General at 11:00 pm by Travis
I took some time to go to the community forum at UCA this evening. The forum was to discuss the recent events that happened just over a week ago that resulted in the death of two UCA students. Although the crowd was rather large in number, I was rather disappointed with the fact that only a handful of members of the black community were present. The discussion included a timeline of events, and plans for the future. Vice President of Student Affairs said that they have been given a 3 week window to recommend an alert notification system for the university. The question and answer period offered some interesting questions.
What is being done now in light of the event? They have doubled patrols and police presence on the campus. Some parents expressed disappointment in the fact the cellular service was useless during the event even though several tower exist on campus. The fact the it was not ‘breaking news’ to the local media. I heard about it on CNN. One parent even said that if it had been news about the Hogs and/or coaches, it would have been breaking news. One parent had a problem with the local media because they interviewed his son identifying him by name on TV that was seen across the country before the suspects were even caught, thus possibly endangering his son’s safety. A lack of notification on the school’s website was a problem for some because that is where a lot of people went for information.
It all came down to what technology is available to notify and communicate with the general public and students. Honestly, a lot could have been done with some simple web 2.0 technologies. The school could have benefited greatly from a Twitter account.
The question for the university is how do you make the school safer, and not turn it into a police state and destroy the collegial atmosphere that draws students to the campus? Time will tell, but these decisions should not be driven by emotions, but logic and reasoning. They must think long term especially when it comes to involving technology. There are plenty of companies out there that will sell them anything they want, but sustainability is always going to be a major issue.
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10.27.08
Posted in General at 9:52 pm by Travis
A friend of mine who was sending some friends a quick twitter message got googled by CNN and posted his twitter message and photo. He was posting about the incident here in Central Arkansas at UCA. It was rumored among college students that the altercation was a spill over from a conflict on another campus. He was relaying this informatin to his Twitter followers when CNN picked it up and put him on blast this morning as an on the scene iReport. He was nowhere near the scene and just communicating with friends.
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