Welcome back everyone! I can't wait to talk about today's topic, Technology! That is right, the word that all geeks love and hold dear is the last segment of our current discussion.
Though we love this topic often we must convince someone higher in the pay scale that money and resources should be expended. To do that we must think about how to best apply the technology rather than relying on the, "This is so cool!" effect. Many managers and employers can only see the money and manpower expended when they hear those words.
Before we talk about upgrading or implementing we have to think about the question posed by the author of "Good to Great" on his web site JimCollins.com.
"Why is there so much hype and fear about new technologies, and what can you do to view new technologies with objective equanimity?" - JimCollins.com
Objective, that is the key word here. Discipline demands objectivity when the goal is greatness.
The lessons learned from the study were clear. Technology cannot catapult a company to greatness, it can only accelerate the rise or fall.
The companies from the "Good to Great" study that made the transition mastered the process of determining which technology would benefit them most and mesh with their hedgehog concept. If a technology does not mesh then there is no need to pursue it.
Lets look at the example of Walgreens Pharmacy and their application of technology.
Walgreens
In the late 1990's the technology boom was in full swing and Walgreens appeared to be behind the technology curve.
The Wallgreens approach to technology is all about adherence the hedgehog concept. The most convenient pharmacy experience possible.
- Fill your order online and pick it up at your local Wallgreens along with a gallon of milk and some toothpaste.
- Don't get out much? Then have it shipped to your house.
- Travel a lot? Not a problem. All Walgreens Pharmacies are linked together so you can get your prescriptions filled almost anywhere in the country.
Walgreens operates on a simple metric of profit per customer served. Which means efficiency, quality, and convenience all have to mesh. The right technologies not only make this possible but make it highly profitable. The wrong technology is the death by a thousand cuts from poor customer satisfaction.
Instead of leaping in to the fray Walgreens methodically built and tested the web technology and the interaction with the network of stores. Enhancing their already efficient system and adding to the performance based on profit per customer visit.
That is all well and good for Walgreens, but what does it mean for those of us in CAD, design, and engineering? It is an example of the judicious application of technology to the Hedgehog concept and the discipline to only introduce what helps our processes as a whole.
My company charges for time on a cost per hour basis, so the economic driver is productivity per man-hour expended.
In the company I work for, we have many clients from many industries, but all of them have some things in common.
So the tools that are most valuable to my company are the ones that ease the difficulty of working for multiple clients, with multiple standards, in multiple disciplines and capitalize on the common ground.
- All clients have drawing sets that need to be managed, so we implemented Sheet Set Manager by developing a master format that met our needs and then adapting it to each client as they come in. This adds approximately 2 hours to the initial client setup but saves us nearly ten hours in the actual lifecycle of the project, varying by project size.
- All clients have a CTB and specific Fonts that they use. A central location was created on our server for storage of these files and all machines are mapped to this location and given read access. Rarely do we have an issue where fonts do not load properly or the right CTB file is not present.
- All clients require that files be sent back to them at project completion. We use eTransmit on all client submittals to make sure that external reference files are gathered and pathed appropriately.
- Plotting takes a significant amount of time when the drawing sets become large. So we made sure each of our employees knows how and when to use the publish tools for plotting. Allowing more time for production and quality control.
In each case the technology tool was introduced for a specific purpose, in line with the idea of productivity per man-hour expended. If a technology is "cool" but does not enhance the overall productivity of the drafter, it is left behind.
I know for a fact that there are many companies out there that operate in a, "This is how we have always done it." mind set. In my opinion few thing are more dangerous than that.
I talk with clients every day who cannot seem to understand how the introduction of an efficiency, that will save them 10% or more on their time expended per project, is worth the few hours it might take myself or one of their team to implement it for everyone.
Like the principle of First Who which says, "The right people are a companies greatest asset." The principle of Technology Accelerators says, "The right technology is a companies most useful tool."
The wrong technology, or technology implemented for the wrong reason, is equivalent to a big whole that resources and money are shoveled into.
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