A huge space debris is coming down ..

On the right we see the International Space Station that has been up there since year 2000 continuously occupied as a space collaboration initiative of the countries of US, Russia, European Space agency, Canada and Japan.  Sadly India and China, the two most populous countries of the world and the next two super powers do not find a pride of place in the ISS initiative.

Why has this lapse happened on the part of global space powers ? Especially when both India and China have even reached the planet of Mars on their own initiative.

Space debris has always been a problem in the interstellar space and this time it is at the low earth orbit. About 2.9 T space debris (20 year old 48 units of Nickel Hydrogen batteries) that powered the International Space Station released by end 2020 is set to hit earth around the first six months of 2023. 

This old battery has been up there at 408 km attitude since 2000 for 20 years. It is said it will take another 2.5 years for it to enter earth;s atmosphere. Once it enters atmosphere, it will mostly burn down before it reaches the earth, 

It has been replaced by 24 units of  the more efficient Lithium ion batteries.

The same Li-ion batteries power your mobile phones and laptops, thanks to Yoshino, Whittingham and  Prof. JOHN Goodenough who shared the 2019 Chemistry Nobel prize for its invention.

How long will this space collaboration last ? We are not sure. But the ISS is a great example of international space collaboration between the countries that matter especially US and Russia.

Some facts on ISS : (from wikipedia)

The International Space Station is a modular space station in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies:NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA. The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements. Wikipedia

View on Maps: google.com/maps/space/iss
Orbital speed: 7.66 km/s; (27,600 km/h; 17,100 mph)
Orbits per day: 15.54
Days in orbit: 22 years, 3 months, 15 days; (7 March 2021)
Orbital inclination: 51.64°
Orbital decay: 2 km/month

ISS has a life upto 2024, another 3 years more, but the life can even be extended upto 2028. Will the world collaborate , this time not forgetting India and China on another global space collaboration, we have to wait and see. Or will India and China on their own launch their own permanent space stations to the wonderment of the existing five powers ? 

Click here for a Popular Mechanics article on what is the future of ISS and other space stations countries may launch ? 

George..

Going Green - how to be carrying it out and winning too ..

Most of us rush to implement green projects as we are aware of the competitive advantage it brings to us in the long run. 

 Click here for the HBR paper Growing Green .

Is it that easy ?

Before going green, the three most important questions we need to ask of the green project are the following

Is it feasible ?

Is it desirable ? and 

How would it be implemented ?

Finally after having decided to go green, how would you make the transition to your advantage.

Click here for the HBR paper Winning in the green frenzy ..

Can solar power plants turn power positive ?

It was a great news to read that Adani Green's Kamuthi solar project in TN turns water positive.

https://www.aninews.in/news/business/adani-greens-kamuthi-solar-project-turns-water-positive20210311164248

Largest container ships ..

Largest container ships HMM Algeciras click here

List of top 10 container ships of 2020 .. click here 

How container ships are stacked  click here

Case study on recycling used shipping containers click here

What makes Aravind Madurai excel in eye care ?

In a study published in HBR of 2010, carried out by Prof. Vijay Govindarajan, Tuck School of Business and Prof. S Manikutty from IIM Ahmedabad, (click here) five factors were identified as being responsible for the success of Aravind Eye care.

First it is the extremely high levels of efficiency, while an ophthalmologist in an eye hospital does almost 1-2 cataract surgeries per day, an Arvind hospital eye doctor does about 15 cataract surgeries a day, almost 10x.

Secondly so many surgeries are done daily in the hospital, besides the high level of medical expertise of the doctors, the Intra-ocular lens that the hospital manufactures on its own, it is able to sell at $5 apiece, while an imported IOL would cost anywhere above $80. The low cost of the lens helps support cheap surgeries and thus results in increased cost efficiencies in a vicious cycle.

The third factor is the economies of scale and assembly lines concepts that are taken from the industry helping increase operational efficiency, besides organising outreach camps nearer to the customer to generate the necessary demand. 

While Aravind Hospital does not invest much in advertising or other frill activity, it invests heavily in the latest state of the art machinery in the hospital and top world class training and exposure for its doctors and nurses, which is the fourth factor.

The fifth factor is the value set imparted by the founder Dr. V Govindaswamy in eradicating needless blindness from the country that has helped the hospital in offering more than 50% of its surgeries to the needy people in society free of charge and giving world class trainig to medical personnel from other hospitals at very low rates.

A later article by Prof. Vijay Govindarajan in HBR of January 2012 points of the audacious nature of Aravind's goals and how the hospital has managed to rise above expectations. Click here .. The benefits of lower costs of labour and process innovation steps have helped Aravind steal the limelight and become one of the world's top and high quality eye care centre.  

I have been asked by MBA students, would the Aravind eye care system have survived in another culture or country ? According to me, the high population always ensures a high demand for Aravind services. The high poverty levels in society puts pressure on the system to offer high quality low cost services to the masses, pushing the system to continuously strive for innovative methods of functioning and service delivery. 

George 

Toyota visit on first of March 2021 ...

It was a great visit to Toyota on March 1, 2021 from Alliance University, Bangalore. The visit was initiated by Surekha Madam. Her passion and interest never faded throughout the 5 hour visit. We reached Bidadi around 8.45 AM.

After initial security checks etc we were inside the Toyota premises at Bidadi by 9.15 AM.

We were taken to the Toyota Technical Training Institute (TTTI) situated inside the campus. While we were going to TTTI, Miyawaki forests which are intense greening drives undertaken by Toyota under the leadership of Prof. Miyawaki himself, could be seen on either side. Of the 434 acres campus 25 acres are part of the Ecozone where the Miyawaki forests are grown.

After exchanging initial pleasantries and tea/coffee, we were taken around the TTTI to showcase Toyota's capabilities in training its 10th pass interns with holistic development to take up positions inside the factory. 

Toyota is extremely proud of the fact that it is sending individual entries in the World Skills Competition and has been winning prizes, recognitions and accolades over the years. 

(left) Alliance team with Surekha madam, Sajan Mathew, Sajan (from Toyota), George Easaw, Reeba Madam.

 

We were also taken to the different training areas and labs where the Gurukul students were preparing for the Skills competition which included Robotics, IoT and 3D Machining areas.

The visit next took us to the shopfloor. The pressing, painting, chassis fitting, trimline and final assembly areas were shown around. The importance of Takt time and how it changes with variability in customer demand was stressed heavily by the Toyota team. We were also taken to the final rollout testing area too where after checking for any water leakages, the vehicle is checked for any loose bolts and nuts etc before being taken to the tracks for extensive road tests on the vehicle condition. 

Mr. Sajan Edakkal from TTTI at Toyota accompanied us throughout the visit and was very helpful with clearing all our doubts. Mr. Bhat from TTTI and Mr. Jagadeesh from the HR dept spared their valuable time to be with us, guide us and clear all our queries.

The main purpose of our visit was to explore joint areas of collaboration and training for faculty and internship opportunity for students. Reciprocating our interest we look forward to a Toyota team visiting us in the campus this weekend or next to take the discussions forward.

The final part of the visit included a visit to the high quality ISO 21000 certified mess hall. (click here for my earlier writing on Toyota getting the coveted ISO 21000 certification). Due to the Covid scare only very less management staff are coming to campus as they are having WFH option. The regular workers are working in two shifts during this Covid time.

George.

The contradictions that drive Toyota ..

We have heard of the Toyota Production and the 8 step Toyota Business Process. 

How does Toyota thrive in the midst of contradictions ? It is a great story spread over a century, when Sakiichi Toyoda went to US at the beginning of the twentieth century  and studied the US Supermarkets. He thought of ways to make the Toyoda textile mills textile output error free by carefully planning Jidoka (human automation) on looms to stop when the cotton fibre broke.

Click here for the 2008 HBR paper on the contradictions that drive Toyota's system.

There are three forces of expansion and three forces of integration.

The forces of expansion are 

• setting impossible goals
• local customization
• experimentation 

The forces of integration are 

• values from founders
• up-and-in people management
• open communication
  

Any organisation would need the forces of expansion and forces of integration to keep it properly focused and planning to grow. 

Setting impossible goals are being in every line of automobiles in the market is not the right strategy as per Micheal Porter, but Toyota believes in setting such impossible goals for its employees.

Toyota believes in customising its products in each country it enters with the result they remain highly customer focused with many models to choose from.

Any big goal is broken down into smaller ones and then experimentation is done on these small goals. Failure is not fatal, but leads to organisational learning, provided the employee follows the follow instruction culture.

Looking at the forces of integration, these help give the company a sense of direction and purpose.

The founders values include 

• continuous improvement
• respect for people and their limitation
• teamwork
• humility
• putting customers first and 
• importance of seeing things firsthand

People management  is very unique in Toyota. Any person who is incompetent is not sent away, instead is retrained with on-the-job training and put on the task, this ensuring employment for life, an alien concept in other automobile companies.The training it imparts to employees helps instill humility in them. 

Open communications enable information flows freely across the hierarchies, across functions and seniority, outside the organisation to suppliers, customers and dealers. Employees listen to opinions and comments in an open environment. The employees are encouraged to seek information from the source itself than having it from other sources, avoiding confusion and uncertainty in the communication.

The above six forces that tend to expand the company and unite it together are very vital to the success story of Toyota. These factors ensure the company stays on track of Continuous Improvement and Respect for People which forms the main two foundational principles of Toyota. 

The author has been interacting closely with Toyota plant in India, Toyota Kirloskar Motors in Bangalore since 2011 and is very much aware of the Toyota culture and contradictions as outlined above.

George.