Strategic thinking is often described as reflective dialogue about the future so that one can avoid pitfalls as well as take advantage of opportunities. It is a process whereby you learn how to make your business vision a reality by developing your abilities in team work, problem solving, and critical thinking. Strategic thinking requires you to envision what you want your ideal outcome to be for your business and then works backwards by focusing on the story of HOW you will be able to reach your vision.
Put another way, strategic thinking is the ability to think systemically, with a whole systems perspective which often transcends what the organization is currently engaged in.
Strategy
Strategy is a term that comes from the Greek, strategia, meaning generalship. Strategy is what you do and it is, in many respects, where you invest your funds and resources. A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, most often “winning”. Strategy is different from tactics or immediate actions. Strategies are intended to make the problem or problems easier to understand and solve.
Strategy is about choice, which affects outcomes. Many organizations survive – and do well – for periods of time in conditions of relative stability, low environmental turbulence and little competition for resources. Over time, virtually none of these conditions prevail in the modern world for great lengths of time for any organization. Therefore, we have the need for strategic management.
Strategic management is necessary in situations where an opponent blocks the way to an objective. Strategic Thinking breaks the chains that currently anchor you in survival mode. Strategic thinking requires that you take a critical look at the underlying factors that lead to successful strategic planning.
Strategy should be adaptable rather than a rigid set of instructions which is why strategic thinking is so important.
Thinking
Thought or thinking is a mental process that allows human beings to model the world and to deal with it effectively according to their goals, plans, ends and desires. Thinking strategically is not a dry or boring way of thinking, on the contrary, it is a creative, and powerful skill that energizes people and prepares the person and their organization prepared for the unknown future.
In strategic thinking, there are four viewpoints to take into consideration when forming your business strategy:
* Environmental view
* Marketplace view
* Project view
* Measurement view.
On the other hand strategic thinking is about synthesizing, about using your intuition and creativity to formulate anunique perspective or vision of where the organization should be heading.
Planning
Planning is the organizational process of creating and maintaining a plan. It involves the process of thinking about the activities required to create a desired future on some scale. As such, it is a fundamental idea or behavior. This thought process is essential to the creation and refinement of a plan, or integrating it into other plans.
Strategic Planning on the other hand is a discipline, which can include innovative elements but essentially focuses on the rigor of making sure how to get from one position to another without falling off the cliff.
Strategic planning is about analysis. In other words, it is about breaking down a goal into steps, determining how the steps could be implemented, and identifying the possible consequences of each step. Many people assume that strategic planning, strategic thinking, and strategy making are synonymous. To the contrary, strategic thinking is a complimentary and critical addition to the process of strategic planning, implementation, and management.
Unfortunately, few strategic decisions are made in the context of a formal process. This typically happens because a company’s most important strategic decisions are often made as developments unfold. The use of a formal process for strategic thinking and effective execution is crucial to effective performance improvement and productivity enhancement. Maintaining competitive advantage requires an action plan – the allocation of responsibility for different outcomes to specific people who are passionate about seeing them through, and the development of appropriate incentives to motivate the right kind of behavior.
Effectuve execution of strategy requires an understanding the link between planning and strategy development. It requires broad-scale and effective information gathering, clarification of the mission and issues to be addressed, exploration and development of alternative strategies, and an emphasis on the future implications of present decisions.
This requires the determination of “what are the necessary thinking patterns to handle the paradigm shift that are associated with change?” The best intelligence comes from inside organizations that can influence the success of your project. A SWOT analysis is crucial to any strategic thinking process! It helps define the attendant goals developed as a result of the strategic thinking process
Goals
Creating a strategy for any organization involves defining goals and intermediate and short-term objectives,. Your goals are the broad results you wish to achieve over the long term. Your objectives should flow naturally from your goals.
Be clear on the goals and outputs, make the “SMART”
* Specific
* Measurable
* Agreed-Upon
* Realistic
* Time-Specific
In addition:
* Ask yourself what things are important to the organization?
* What perspectives do senior managers have toward organizational priorities, and more specifically, your work team
* Which of your priorities or goals have the best chance to be viewed positively at any given moment.
It is critical to ask if the right thing is being done within the context of the organization’s strategic direction (mandate, vision, mission, core values and goals and objectives (expectations).
Conclusion
Strategic thinking is pretty much like viewing a movie – it allows you to see things from “higher up. Strategic thinking is an attempt to think through as many “results” that come from our actions that defeat our purpose.
Strategic thinking is an ongoing process rather than a one-time event. Strategic thinking is not always easy nor should it be. Strategic thinking involves synthesis, using intuition and creatively forming, a shared vision, of where the organization should be heading if it is to survive and prosper in the current and future market place.
Brice Alvord has over thirty years experience as an internal and external performance improvement consultant. He holds a BA in Sociology/Psychology from Central Washington University and an MBA degree from City University of Seattle. He is the author of over two dozen books on continuous improvement and training.
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Company leadership is its most important and critical Resource. Not just the CEO but leadership qualities throughout a company are paramount. There are many qualities of a good Company Leader so it is important that your Management Team have diverse backgrounds and qualities that their “sum” can supplement each other’s weaknesses with strength. In order to foster good Leadership within an Organization, you must first have a CEO with many leadership qualities in order to successfully promote and provide clear strategic direction and guidance throughout management’s structure.
The CEO is a critical position in a business as this person is the one responsible for every decision, direction and action of the company. CEO’s knowledge comes less from school education and more so from the bottom up through the ranks. As CEO you are allowed very few mistakes so development and successful implementation of the Company’s Strategic Plan is paramount.
A CEO has a certain innate talent for his particular business, along with extensive business experience at all levels, but as important are the key qualities a Leader has within which make him a successful CEO. These Leadership qualities are:
1. Determined and Self-Disciplined: CEO is focused on the important Goals to be carried out by his Strategic Management Team.
2. Inspires the Troops: CEO has strength of character and he uplifts his employees, inspiring them to follow.
3. Makes Timely, Decisive Decisions: CEO is unwavering and confident.
4. Has a Clear, Simple Vision: which is carried out in the Company’s Strategic Plan.
5. Very Strong Communication Skills: Can teach, articulate and define a clear, powerful, straight-forward company message.
6. Street Smart: CEO is savvy, sharp, clever, quick on his feet, with the training of years experience in the “ranks” of various businesses. CEO also has Talent.
7. Inspires Employees to Follow Through Charisma: CEO is a magnet exhibiting attractive qualities, charm and style so others will follow his lead.
8. Strong Intelligence: CEO is naturally smart and has well rounded, diverse knowledge.
9. Very Strong Ethical Standards: Solid character and chooses the high road, instilling that throughout the Company.
10. Not Egotistic: Essential for success as a Leader is the control of Ego. Ego never gets in the way of good business.
11. Works on Performance: CEO demands performance of himself as he does with his people. Performance improvement is a daily discipline and mindset.
12. Learns Quickly: CEO adapts quickly to changes and has very high level adoptive learning capacity.
13. Flexible: CEO sees the merit in a Strong Strategic Plan, yet knows when to redirect Management as necessary to correct problems which arise.
14. Knows Personal and Professional Weaknesses: CEO can perform a self audit and shore up his Management Team and Key Employees where he is weak or lacking.
15. A Great Listener: CEO must be able to listen to his Board, his Managers, his employees and customers to gauge where his business stands in its Strategic Plan.
16. Actions are Implemented with Clarity, Consistency and Commitment.
17. Utilizes Different Leadership Approaches as Needed: CEO can utilize a Strategic Approach, an Expertise Approach, a Human-Assets Approach, a Box Control Approach and/ or Change Approach for the given business climate and situation.
18. Exceedingly Fair yet Tough.
19. Humbled by Numerous Business Learning Experiences.
20. Never forgets who He or She is as a Person: Clearly knows what he or she stands for.
21. Dynamic and Multi-Talented: Taps a very diverse knowledge and experience base.
The CEO is multi-faceted, buffeted by many years of diverse experience throughout all levels of business. The CEO has a firm understanding of everyone’s role in a Company and sees to it they have the Process and Resources to implement the Company’s Business Plan. The effective CEO is an Entrepreneur, daring to always walk the envelope between success and failure, knowing when to pull back and regroup and when to aggressively move forward to exploit the market. CEO knows he or she didn’t get their alone and understands how to assemble and utilize a highly talented Management Team. Most importantly, the CEO cares about the lives of his employees and what is good for them and their families. The CEO is accountable to his people.
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The materials, equipment, and processes used in the metal stamping industry have proven to be less costly than the original methods of forming metals and alloys into definite shapes. Metal stamping is the method of bending, clipping, and molding sheet metal or coil metal by stamping and pressing the material into the desired forms. The shaped metal is plated with nickel, tin, or some other metallic elements to protect it from corrosion. The most commonly used metals are steel, aluminum, zinc, and nickel. They are low cost, strong, durable, hard to break, portable, and non-toxic.
The precision machining industry in North America has been on the decline due to two factors: the chronic inflation in the price of raw materials and the transportation of same, and a high level of outsourcing to China and India. Outsourcing hasn’t struck the metal stamping industry as profoundly thanks to the proximity of the Great Lakes, around which it is concentrated.
The fire-and-brimstone method of forging is harmful to the environment, costly, and hard on the employees. Forming metal this way requires making the steel semi-molten so if the temperature is not estimated correctly (the workers would guess by experience decades ago) when the forge drops there are often rejects that have to be set aside, reheated, reworked, or scrapped altogether, slowing production. In a drop forge, the operators’ work environment is a smoking furnace and rhythmic dance of the bars of metal shoot in one side and out the other. Fortunately, there are no ovens or blinding red iron to gaze into when inside a metal stamping factory. Industries that generate large amounts of environmental waste have largely been outsourced to poorer countries.
The major products of the Metal Stamping Industry are things like automotive muffler parts, finer components of larger machinery, equipment and larger metal structures. A common item like a Teflon frying pan would originate from a metal stamping plant, as would oddly-shaped metal containers with edges and rounded bottoms (difficult forms) that you would commonly see in a cafeteria…those deep fryers made of stainless steel have an unusual shape that would be too expensive to make with die-casting. They are deeper than they are wide and known in the industry as deep draws. Deep drawing would be done by metal stamping in a facility that does custom work or can set up for such orders.
There are two branches of the industry, defined by the presses employed by the particular company. The two sections into which the metal stamping Industry is segregated are Mechanical and Hydraulic Metal Stamping. The force produced by hydraulic presses is programmed and are best used for doing the aforementioned deep drawing because they can apply full tonnage over the complete length of the stroke. A hydraulic press is powered by a hydraulic pump to a cylinder or cylinders that drive the slide down. With the pressure preset, a valve can activate pressure reversal so no overload can occur. With this press design and its applications, the die tends to guide the press, so the guiding systems do not have to be as accurate as with a mechanical press that uses a progressive die. A die is a press tool with upper and lower halves that come together under pressure to create the shape of the metal. The upper member is attached to a slide and the lower one is bolted to the “bed” (also called a “bolster”).
Mechanical presses use a mechanical flywheel that can stock up the energy needed to deliver the right amount of force for when it’s time to punch or pierce the metal. If the production runs call for shallow drawing and blanking at much higher speed, mechanical presses would be used rather than hydraulic presses.
In addition to gap and straight-side presses, the shop would also require press controls and automation, coil handling and feeding equipment, safety equipment, light curtains, ram block, brake monitors, lifts and tilts, conveyors, transfer systems, machinery mounts, press mounts, and rotating cam limit switches. The metal stamping industry is critical to make parts for manufacturers – having the right kinds of equipment and knowledge means high production and cost-effectiveness. All of this equipment means that you can have a muffler on your car and enjoy a drink from a deep-drawn aluminum pop can.
Pat Boardman is an SEO consultant writing in respect to Taurus Stampings of London Ontario who use metal stamping machinery for custom metal stamping processes such as deep drawing and difficult forms.
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Online interviews are usually done via text chat, which greatly lessens the efficiency of the communication process. While it is true that teleconferencing, the use of both voice and video, is gaining popularity, most online interviews today are only through online chat. Because of this, important factors like the tone of voice, gestures, and other body movements are not relayed to the receiver. Hence, it is important to take the following pointers into account:
First, be careful with word choice. It is very easy for interviewers to misunderstand you, especially when you use words which have a different meaning at the place where they are located, or words that have too many shades of meaning within standard American English. For example, telling a British interviewer that you love “Free Willy” can cause some discomfort on his part. Make sure that you put things in the proper context. In this case, tell him that you love “Free Willy, the movie” to make sure that you are in the same page.
Second, make sure that your internet connection is stable before engaging in conversation. It is to be expected that the interviewer typically doesn’t have a lot of time to wait for you every time you disconnect. Furthermore, this also sends a signal that he cannot fully rely on you because your connection, the most integral facet of your online career, is unstable. Check all cables, power outlets and whatnot, to avoid any untoward incidents during the course of the interview.
Third, it’s a text-based conversation, so correct spelling and grammar is a must. No matter what kind of job you are applying for, spelling and grammar are very important criteria for most employers. With correct spelling and grammar, an employer will get the idea that you are well-educated. This becomes all the more important when your job is related to the literature, like writing, proofreading, and corporate communications.
Although the difference between online interviews and face-to-face interviews is slowly diminishing, the differences mentioned can make or break your online career.
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Corten is a structural steel grade which is also known as a weathering steel because it forms a protective layer of rust when exposed to atmospheric elements. It is found in a variety of industrial applications including bridge structures and steel framework. And yet in recent years it has become the aesthetic material focus for modern sculpture and is commonly used by leading artists and architects.
So why is there such an interest?
The reason for this popularity is quite simple. Corten is a structural grade steel so has good yield and tensile strength. It has good weldability and forming characteristics too. But the main reason for its growing appeal in the art and architectural world is due to its natural rustic appearance.
As the surface level of the steel reacts with elements in the atmosphere, the material forms its own protective layer of rust which is almost orange like in appearance. It doesn’t need painting or treating in anyway, the steel is for all intent and purposes ’self healing’. The only exception to this is when the material is submerged under water, in which case the outer surface will require treatment of some kind.
It is little wonder then that this steel which requires little maintenance and is interesting and pleasing in colour to the eye, has become such a popular material the new generation of artists, sculptors and architects.
Corten in Modern Art and Architecture
You may not have noticed it, but corten steel is popping up everywhere. A famous example is a sculpture in the North of England called the ‘Angel of the North’ – standing over 20 metres tall and with a wing span of 54 metres across, the sculpture which is located on a hill just outside Gateshead and next to the busyA1 road, welcomes new visitors to the area.
Other applications include:
· Facias for modern buildings including many art and technology museums
· Steel furniture
· Street sculpture
· Modern bridges
· Garden features
· Art pieces
The material is available in two separate grades and can be bought from numerous steel stockists.
For more information about corten steel visit our website at www.masteel.co.uk
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Winterton
Your company has decided that automated manufacturing is the most economical way for your organization to reduce production costs and increase your production throughput. So what are some basic steps that you can take to get the process of designing automation into your manufacturing? You should rely on your most immediate resources to start this process. The employees in your company have the most detailed information about the way that your current manufacturing operation is designed to work. Your employees, both hourly and management, are the best starting point for the most reliable information about how you should build automated manufacturing into your business.
Management should review the current manufacturing operations that are available for automated manufacturing. The initial production line that should be selected for upgrade to automation should be as simple as possible. It may be difficult for your organization to try to automate a very complex manufacturing operation at the beginning of automation. It would be best during the learning process to perform analysis and design for the simplest manufacturing operation available. Choosing may not be an option. If you can choose, the simpler line will help in understanding the automated manufacturing requirements and help later to tackle more difficult operations later.
Once the production line that is a candidate for automated manufacturing is selected, the next task to be done is to form a design team that will be able to evaluate the individual functions of the line and automate this operation. The team should have at least one member that is from the production staff, preferably the line production supervision. These members will have “hands-on” management experience with the manufacturing operation and will be able to give guidance from the management and operational prospective to create the automated manufacturing. Also included in this team should be at least one hourly shift worker from each of the shifts that have experience working on this production line. Each shift should be represented because there may be some variation in the actual production work done on the line on any given shift, even though the production line is the same. A representative of the production planning group should be a part of this team. Production planning lays out the production work flow that goes through this production line, so their expertise will be useful. There needs to be a member of this team that works with computer aided design to document functions and processes in a graphical way as the team does its work. Also a member of the safety department that is responsible for the safety regulations for this production department should be on the team.
With the design team for automated manufacturing in place, each work element on the production line should be reviewed by each member of the team. The detail of this step is very important in that each member of the team should write detail notes about the elements that are currently performed at each work station on the production line. Industrial engineering could possibly give some insight into actual work elements that are required at each work station on the production line. The notes that are made by each team member will invariably have some variation based on the viewpoint of the team member that is writing them. However, some consensus must be reached by the team as to the actual elements that make up the work done at each station in the automated manufacturing scenario. The team can disregard any time standards that may have been put in place by industrial engineering for work stations on the current line. Only the required elements of each work station operation must be determined. After the work tasks are defined and agreed upon by the members of the team, the graphic designer should layout the value stream map of the entire production line to begin the first phase of automated manufacturing.
Using the value stream map each work element at each work station on the production line should be timed for each shift. The values are then averaged to determine a current average process time for each work station. If there are any change over tasks done between actual unit production at any given work station and the start of the unit production at the next work station, those tasks should be timed and averaged as well for each shift. The values for these times should be added to the value stream map. The number of employees involved with the unit production at each work station should be recorded for each shift. This should be a constant from shift to shift, if the production job is the same on each shift.
A value stream map was created with the information that was gathered by a fictitious design team for automated manufacturing. This represents the work stations on a production line that produces stobors, fictitious parts that are part of a sub-assembly that will become part of several fictitious finished products. A stobor is a metal tube that has a polished surface, which will become part of a sub-assembly. The production line makes each stobor from tubing stock that is received from an outside supplier. The design team has gathered data from the two work stations, cutting and polishing, on our fictitious production line.
The first work station is cutting, where each part is cut from long lengths of tubing. The supplier delivers the raw material in lengths that are long enough to make 20 parts. The cycle time for cutting of these parts is 30 seconds. There is no change over time for at this work station. The cutting requires 6 employees, 3 material loaders and 3 material unloaders on each of 3 shifts. This work station utilizes 2 cutting machines to do the work. All parts are placed into a buffer area for the polish work station once cutting is complete. This area takes up 200 square feet of space in the factory area. This buffer usually contains about 7,000 parts that represents about 3 days of input for the next work station. Sometimes there is too much output from the cutting workstation and there is not enough room in the polish buffer area, so the overflow amount is placed in inventory in the warehouse.
The cycle time for the polishing work station is 2 minutes. Change over time for this work station between cycles is 5 minutes. The work station is run during 2 shifts and uses 4 employees, 2 tube polishers and 2 material unloaders. There are 2 polishing machines at the work station. A buffer are for the sub-assembly production line has been set up to hold 800 parts. This occupies 100 square feet of factory space and will hold 2 days of production input for the sub-assembly production line. The remainder of parts coming from the polishing work station are sent directly to inventory for use in production later. More on the continuation of this process later.