Knowledge quotes..

Enthathishayame .. K J Yesudas ..

Gospel song "Enthathishayame" -  Carnatic classical rendition by K J Yesudas ..

https://youtu.be/6E2M5kbQtSI

More on 5 Whys ?

Why we Indians take pride to demean our own great culture and history ..

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but it is the illusion of knowledge - Stephen Hawking

I have come across many who believe that Indian culture was very inferior to the European and Arab culture throughout history.

The chart given here was prepared out of research carried out of the economic history of the world by U of Groningen, Netherlands from 1 AD to 2000 AD.

Regarding the global educational scene, the Platonic Academy was founded by Plato in 387 BC. It lasted for another 900 years intermittently in Athens. Aristotle also set up school in around 335 BC for about 400 years. (ref. wikipedia) Organised learning happened around from 800 AD to 1200 AD, teaching diverse subjects, the only centres of education from India and the Indus valley, Nalanda, Taxila and the like.

By 12 th century, the first centre of modern day learning came up in the western world in England in Oxford and Bologna, Italy, from the ashes of Nalanda. Only from 1500 AD we find the Europeans copying discoveries, to start with the gun powder from China (without paying any patent fees) and some knowledge in medicine, astronomy etc from India and China, others coming from Greece and Persia. Harvard U in US followed up in late 17 th century ..

This also saw the beginning of colonisation of the East  because of developments from the scientific revolution of the 15 th century and Industrial revolution of the 16 th century. This was but a dark scar on Europe who aggresively colonised different parts of the world including the Americas. 

Pattanam excavations of earthen ware of 500-1000 BC
pic courtesy - The Hindu.

The trade that happened between South India, particularly Kerala, Coimbatore etc and the western world around 500-1000 BC is given in the text below as quoted by The Hindu in their link given here ..

"Gold coins, topaz, coral, copper, glass, wine and wheat were imported from Rome, while pearl, diamonds, sapphire, ivory, silk, pepper and precious stones were exported from the west coast. Casson estimates that a 500-ton ship could have carried goods equivalent to the price of 2,400 acres of fertile farmlands in Egypt. While another archaeologist, Federico Romanis, estimates that one ship carried nothing less than 68,000 gold coins worth of goods."

http://m.thehindu.com/features/magazine/in-search-of-muziris/article418904.ece

The prosperity of the state of Kerala 500-1000 years before Christ walked in Palestine is given in the link above..

By looking at the graph of research from U of Groningen, Netherlands, it is very clear which two countries of the world were the most prosperous till 1700 AD. We find that from 1 AD to 1700 AD, India (South Asia) and China controlled 75% of global GDP or wealth. The mighty Egypt and Italy (Roman empire) contributed barely 10%. What a concocted version of history we were made to believe ! South Asia generated at least four times the combined GDP of Europe, Italy and Egypt, year upon year ..

The holy sacred land of India was kind, open and tolerant enough to accept the migrants from the poverty stricken, war-torn, diseased, politically threatened, isolated people from Arabia, Europe and Africa. Trade also flourished with other countries. First they came as traders, religious leaders and then became aggressors and finally conquered our land and plundered our wealth. 

The United States, where Indians started migrating to from 60s, looking for jobs, education and economic prosperity, makes its appearance on the world scene only by 1700, just 300 years back, being the most immature of cultures and civilizations of the world. These Indians had no qualms of ditching their motherland and settling in another land, out of ignorance of the greatness of their land. It is a fact that in a short span of time US has influenced world culture and has made rapid strides in science and technology, helping the world go ahead. But who knows whether this is the knowledge that is needed for the survival of mankind and humanity in the long run or will result in its destruction !!

Let us not demean the great culture of our motherland because we were not given enough opportunities, treated unfairly by our motherland in terms of jobs and economic opportunities because of reservation system existing here that had noble plans to raise the status of the original owners of the land, the tribals. India is among the very few countries of the world, that even to this day, cares for these original owners of the land. Other great democracies have decimated them to beyond recognition and feel proud about his massacre.

Ask not what you coutry can do for you, ask what you can do for your country - John Fitzgerald Kennedy

It is the fault of contemporary society that we were made to believe that the Romans, Syrians and other white skins were a superior race, when we were tribals living in forest, at the mercy of nature and animals, superstitions and false beliefs. It was the kind heart of the white man and people from Europe and Arabia that actually saved us. What a debilitating and concocted thought ..

Without peace, understanding, tolerance, forbearance, liberality, open and broad mindedness, magnanimity, sympathy and charity in the society, how could a society be so thriving and advanced then ?

Beware of false knowledge, it is more dangerous than ignorance - George Bernard Shaw

The Pattanam (in Cranganore area of Kerala) excavations to unravel the Muziris Indian heritage has just excavated 10% of great South Indian heritage. The other 90% is yet to be carried out and to see the light of the day ! Let us patiently wait to understand more of our ancestors and their version of life, trade and commerce..

Check out www.muzirisheritage.org in the coming days !!

george

PS : India as mentioned in UoG research comprises of South Indian kingdoms.

Top 20 Maturity quotes ..

Lean Manufacturing game played in Alliance University, Bangalore..

It was an interesting lean manufacturing game which we played in the class this morning.  

A lean video

The game enabled the students to understand many concepts related to manufacturing in general and lean in particular and the final relationship between the need to reduce waste, improve quality and finally improving the profitability of the company.

The tabulation sheet for the game is given here ..

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Objectives of the game :

1. to teach the concepts and benefits of assembly line, push and pull manufacturing

2. to create awareness of concepts relating to waste reduction and quality assurance, quality inspection 

3. to teach concepts of raw material inventory, work-in-process inventory and finished goods inventory

4. to teach the concept of profitability in manufacturing and how lean manufacturing combined with pull can improve profitability

5. to teach the concept of producing to exacting standards as set by the customer, with penalties for each unit of incomplete output.

6. to teach the concept of  cycle time computations, balancing the work load between work stations to see that no workstation takes more processing time than the cycle time of the line.
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Players needed : 4 students each to a team, max four or five teams.

Procedure : Each team is asked to assemble any design of paper planes that can fly, from used half A4 sheets in any predefined sequence as decided by the teams, which they should not deviate from later.

The game has four sessions to be played with students 

A white board is needed with marker pen to draw the customised designs to be drawn on the upper side and bottom side of the wings and to keep track of profitability computations. (click the link for free Google spread sheet provided by the author ..)

Items needed for each team : 

1. 50 sheets of used A4 sheets 

2. Sketch pen, 1 no.

Game is played for 4 sessions.

Session 1, push type of production, producing as much as possible, with defects, low quality output and good quality output mixed.

Session 2, pull type of production, demanding customer asking for high quality and low output

Session 3, pull type of production, demanding customer asking for higher quality and high output

Session 4, pull type, very demanding customer asking for higher output and penalty for each incompleted unit of output. 

The customer is only willing to pay for completely finished units of output, not for incomplete work-in-process, defects of final output and lastly the customer also gets the freedom to penalise the manufacturer if the needed output is not met.

Quality Inspectors are assigned one from each team will inspect the quality of output from other teams, in any random order after each session of the game. One unit from each batch can be flown by the quality inspectors to check for the airworthiness of the plane. 

Session 1 

Demo of Push Manufacturing leading to quality problems, defects and hence losses. 

a. Each team of 4 members were given enough A4 sheets of papers and asked to make as many planes as possible in assembly line manufacturing during a 5 minute time period,

b. Different teams can make different models, but they should be consistent with whatever models they are making.

c. After manufacturing, each plane had to be customised by having some set simple designs, like three equal length lines, three circles equally distant  etc. painted on each of the plane wings on the top side and the under side etc...

d. At four workstations in the assembly line, the teams had to assign work to each player and get maximum output out. The players will work very fast hoping to maximise the output.

e. After 5 minutes time is over, the output from each teams is checked by the Quality Inspectors.

f. Final profit computation : Profit = a - (b+c+d)
                 a. Profit of Rs (or $) one lakh is given for each completed and accepted high quality plane.
                 b. Each work-in-process, at any stage, except for RM, results in deduction of Rs (or $) 50,000.
                 c. Each defective part from the output also results in processing costs of Rs. (or $) 50,000 and is deducted from the final profits.
                 d. Each unit promised but not completed ( in Session 4) is charged a penalty of Rs.(or $) 50,000 and is deducted from the final profits.

g. The profits of each teams are written on the white board for everyone to see (including the profit computations, Profit = a - (b+c+d)

The game is then repeated for Session 2, a pull setup, where now instead of the teams manufacturinghow much ever they want to, they are aked to manufacture as per the customer demand of 5 planes in a 5 minute time period.

The final profit calculations as in the prevous case are done.

In Session 3, the customers ask for higher number of planes to be manufactured, say 8 planes in a 5 minute time period and the calculations are carried out as given above.

In Session 4, the customer gets even more demanding, besides asking for 8 planes in a 5 minute time period, he wishes to impose a fine of Rs (or $) 50,000 for each plane not delivered.

At the end of the game, which can be completed in about 90 minutes, the players will get idea of balanced production, working to reduce waste and defects, improving value in the output and improving profitability among others.

The tabulation sheet for the game is given here ..

(If you have benefited by playing this game with your students or industry participabnts, pl do drop in a word of appreciation and thanks to geasaw@gmail.com .. Thanks .. )

Copyright George Easaw 2016, Alliance University, Bangalore, India.

George Easaw.

Great ideas for innovation .. FREE !!

There are THREE pressing problems in hand needing great innovation .. This is a challenge to the people of the world.

All these problem areas need not be looked only as social innovation, it is social innovation and can bring great financial benefits to the innovator company.

1. Waste collection and disposal, solid, liquid and gaseous wastes ..

2. Traffic Management 

3. Simple healthcare management tool

Besides I can think of yet another great innovation opportunities in the area of urban housing, urban transport and urbanisation. Water would be the commodity on which future wars would be fought, says this report from Dr Upmanu Lall, Director of Columbia Water Centre.  Effective water management practices covering Rainwater harvesting, waste water processing and recycling are exciting areas which can bring great benefits to mankind.

Let the smart people of the world work on these ideas and make the world a better place to live. Unless, we come up with great innovations to tackle the problems faced here, the countries of the world will constantly be at war, trying to get at each other's throats and resources.

george.