I had an interesting discussion today regarding why so many engineering students fail to finish their university degrees. The discussion boiled down to the insight that a frequent mistake that we do in academia is to put to much of the blame on the students themselves. True, every university student is and should be responsible […]
After several days of volcano-related writings, it’s time I return to something that’s closer to my “core competency”. As a university lecturer and researcher I’m involved in both student recruitment and improvement of the study environment at my workplace. Perhaps the most important question that I and my colleagues face on an almost daily basis […]
The idea of lean product development (LPD) came naturally when lean production evolved into the more general concept of “lean thinking”. Product development is different from manufacturing because, as soon as you target non–trivial development tasks, they will contain a degree of risk that introduces variation. You can’t remove this variation, because economic rewards in […]
According to an article in yesterday’s Dagens Nyheter, the Swedish board for study support, CSN, expect a steep downturn in the number of university students sometime in the years 2012 to 2013. Many Swedish universities have had a soaring number of applicants over the last two years. This is in stark contrast to the situation only […]
In a previous post I touched upon the sandcone model, which may provide a powerful metaphor and model that link the process of strategy to content. I’ll now try to relate the sandcone model to idea that inventory is like a river where dangers lurk under the surface: “As the level gets lower, boulders appear.” […]
I’m intrigued by the so-called “sand cone model” which was proposed by Ferdows and de Meyer (1990). The idea was that companies should develop their capabilities in a certain order in order to become competitive. Ferdows and de Meyer suggested that all companies must start with quality. The picture illustrates that when you develop your […]
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