2009年6月28日星期日

Visit to KMB Bus Captain Training School

Chartered Quality Institute, Hong Kong branch, organized a technical visit to KMB bus captain training school, located at Shatin, on 27 June 2009 and my wife, as CQI member, joined the event.

KMB has about 4300 buses and more than 8000 bus captains. The training school aims to make all captains known about the company policies, captain disciplines, driving skills, and guidelines for services providers. The school principle introduced the training to bus captains based on both theory and practices.

A training scheme has been developed for beginners and on-job captains. A standard training model is ready for beginners. Any captain arranged to a new routine, a routine with changes, or to drive a new type of bus, would have training before the job taken.
Re-training for captains resumed to work after holidays (longer than 30 days) and for captains needed additional instructions (e.g. after accident or related to complaint) are considered. Further, high level training sessions are constructed for excellent captains to enhance their service behavior and skill, so as to assist them to develop their career.

Bus Driver Simulation Training

During the visit, bus history and types of training bus were reviewed.


My wife learnt that KMB training school has a very good documentation system on training manual development. For a new bus, Training Team would assign a staff to attend the training provided by the bus supplier. Then, the respective training manual would be written by the staff. All records of the development are properly documented, including training certificate provided by the bus supplier, draft training manual, comments from involved persons on the draft manual, good draft of the manual, and the acknowledgment of the established training manual by the trainer.

My wife said the visit was organized very well and the content was useful. KMB colleagues shared with participants with valuable experience to deal with training.
Group photo taken

2009年6月14日星期日

Innovation / Creativity Management (BS 7000-1:2008)

Recently, I have read an article entitled “Channelling Creativity(1) which stated the way to create the future in an organization through a standard to guide innovation management. In the article, the author introduced the standard BS 7000-1:2008 “Design Management System – Part 1: Guide to management innovation” and the key objective was to extend readers’ perspectives beyond technical innovation on products.

Let’s review some definitions of related terms below (2).

Creation: an original product of human invention or imagination
Creativity: the main tool to develop innovation
Discover: to be the first to find or observe a place, substance, or scientific phenomenon
Invent: to design and/or create something which has never been made before
Innovation can be defined as:
· the act of something new
· something newly introduced
· implementing new ideas to create value
· a contrary to established customs

The distinction between “Invention” and “Innovation” is that invention is the creation of a new idea or concept, and innovation is turning the new concept into commercial success or widespread use.

Another famous term will be correlated to Creativity / Innovation is TRIZ (The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving”. The father of TRIZ is Genrich Altshuller. He born in the former Soviet Union and joined the Army during World War II. After the war, he was assigned to the Navy as an inspector of inventing, a job which he saw as an opportunity to help inventors find creative solutions to technical problems. He studied 200,000 patents and selected 40,000 patents as representing the most effective solutions. He found that evolution of an engineering system is not a random event, but governed by certain patterns. TRIZ has Altshuller’s 39 parameters and 40 principles (3).

Genrich Altshuller said “My only intention in this book is to show that the process of solving technical problems is accessible to anyone, important to learn, and very exciting to work through” (4).

After reading Altshuller’s book, it is observed the application on TRIZ requires people with strong fundamental scientific knowledge (especially physics and chemistry) so as to use its methodology to solve different problems.


The standard BS 7000-1:2008 (Design Management System – Part 1: Guide to management innovation) gives guidance specifically in the design and development of innovative and competitive products that satisfies customers’ perceived needs and aspirations in the long-term future (5).

There are 16 stages to managing innovation at the organizational level as follows:
Stage 1) Review current innovation practices to determine potential for improvement
Stage 2) Create future vision
Stage 3) Draw up mission statement relating to innovation
Stage 4) Distil innovation objectives and strategies from organization’s overall objectives and strategies
Stage 5) Determine the innovation highway
Stage 6) Plan introduction of new approach to innovation
Stage 7) Communicate essence of innovation mission, objectives and strategies
Stage 8) Promote an innovation-nurturing culture
Stage 9) Reinforce infrastructure and expertise to manage innovation
Stage 10) Draw up master innovation programme
Stage 11) Implement programme and support new approach to innovation
Stage 12) Evaluate progress and contribution of master innovation programme
Stage 13) Build distinctive competencies and competitive advantage through innovation
Stage 14) Document, share, publicize and celebrate achievements through innovation
Stage 15) Enhance organization’s reputation through innovation
Stage 16) Review and refine overall approach to innovation

It can be interpreted as organizational innovation management (OIM). OIM is addressed as a kind of managerial method, which provides an organization with an underlying momentum for innovation, encouraging and facilitating the development of inventive ideas from an organization-wide perspective.


Creativity / Innovation can be generated from two situations. One can be produced from systematic approach such as OIM, TRIZ, BS 7000-1, and the other created from chaotic circumstances such as illumination (洞悉) and Eureka (頓悟). (Eureka means “I’ve found it!” in Greek.)


A great idea for creativity / innovation could be a common or simple thought. Sometimes, it could also be irrational, unsafe and unacceptable.


I like to quote Albert Einstein’s statement to conclude the creativity:
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”


Reference:
(1) Alan Topalian (2009) “Channelling Creativity”, QualityWorld (www.thecqi.org), Vol 35, Issue 6, pp.28 – 31.
(2) 方勵行 “Introduction to Innovation Management”
(3) John Terninko, et al. (1998) Systematic Innovation: An Introduction to TRIZ, CRC Press LLC.
(4) Genrich Altshuller (translated by Lev Shulyak) (1996) And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared – TRIZ, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, Technical Innovation Center, Inc.
(5) BS 7000-1:2008 “Design Management System – Part 1: Guide to management innovation”

2009年6月4日星期四

六四民運的啟示

記得當年六四時候,我正在考中學會考。六四後入了城市理工攻讀應用科學,我從來不主動參與政治活動。

轉眼間,今年已是六四民運二十周年。偶然找到太太在二十年前購買的兩本書:「悲壯的民運」及「北京學運 – 歷史的見證」,再加上不認同近年香港各政黨的政治表演,決定通過閱讀這兩本書重新認識六四。

從四月十五日 – 胡耀邦逝世至六月九日 – 鄧小平亮相展示實力,令整個學生運動升級是於四月二十六日在人民日報的社論「必須旗幟鮮明地反對動亂」。看過「悲壯的民運」一書,它是用日誌方式記錄所有發生的事件〈包括當年新聞報章的報導〉。發現中國政府有多次機會可以和平解決學生運動,及當中有斷斷續續可以緩和的時機,但最終結果是血腥鎮壓,確實不明白!

當知道「改革歷程」一書是趙紫陽的完整錄音,第一時間買回家中閱讀。發現當時共產黨內的政治鬥爭很激烈,最終犧牲了學生及導致趙紫陽下台。

六四民運的啟示〈首兩點適用在辦公室政治〉

(一) 公司遇有重大事時,高層不可外訪!
四月二十三日,趙紫陽出訪平壤期間由李鵬代理主持常委工作,他把學潮情況說得非常嚴重,最終引至4.26人民日報的社論。﹝社論節錄在「改革歷程」第一部份 二十七頁﹞

(二) 不可把老闆推到前臺!
四月二十五日,鄧小平同李鵬等的內部講話被李鵬向各級幹部廣泛傳達,引至4.26人民日報的社論。雖然鄧小平不滿李鵬大範圍傳達他的講話,但李鵬壓中了。〈這是非常危險的!〉 ﹝「改革歷程」第一部份 二十九頁﹞
五月十六日,趙紫陽透露鄧小平是舵手。他本來是要維護鄧,結果引起大誤會。如推卸責任,在關鍵時刻把鄧拋出來。趙紫陽完全壓錯了! 〈這是非常非常危險的!〉﹝「改革歷程」第一部份 六十五頁﹞

(三) 言論自由和獨立思考的重要
「破惘」一書記錄了以下破除謬誤的句子和方法:
言論自由的意思是指容許他人提出不同的意見,卻並不表示不容許駁斥他人不同的意見,更不表示意見無所謂對錯,不表示永遠無須辯論。
破除謬誤的四不架構如下:
· 不一致的謬誤:邏輯 / 自相矛盾、自我推翻、雙重標準
· 不相干的謬誤:人身攻擊、牽強類比、偷換論題〈即離題謬誤〉
· 不充分的謬誤:以偏概全、假值傳遞、居後為果
· 不當預設的謬誤:循環論證、混合問題
如要深入研究,請閱讀李天命的「思考藝術」 (終定本)。

本人認為言論自由和獨立思考是非常重要的,更重要的是用科學方法來求真。對於平反六四,我認為要再過多三十年〈一般平反動作會在事件五十年後發生〉,待中央機密文件解凍後才有希望。現在最重要的是把所有有關六四的書籍收藏於圖書館內,供日後人民閱讀。

今晚是六四民運二十周年,我和太太在家中紀念六四學生及死難者。

順便一提,在「破惘」中對科學方法有以下說明:
它的核心是 〝假設演繹法〞:
第一步是 界定問題
第二步是 提出假設
第三步是 邏輯演繹 (即進行推理)
第四步是 以觀察或實驗來檢驗真偽

參考書
悲壯的民運 (第四版) 明報出版社 一九八九年六月 (港幣二十元)
北京學運 – 歷史的見證 (第二版) 星島出版社 一九八九年七月 (港幣五十元)
改革歷程 趙紫陽 (第一版) 新世紀出版社 二零零九年五月 (港幣一百二十八元)
破惘 – 思之旅(星篇) (第五版) 李天命 明報出版社 一九九六年七月 (港幣六十二元)
李天命的思考藝術 (終定本) (第五十八版) 明報出版社 二零零八年一月 (港幣八十四元)


悲壯的民運

北京學運 – 歷史的見證

改革歷程