ISI Innovation Sharing Seminar & Summer Networking 2015

HKSQ exco members (Peter, Simon, Minda and I) attended the Institute of Systematic Innovation, HK (ISI) Winter Networking on 30 Jan 2015 in University of Hong Kong. Dr. Michael Li welcomed us and briefed some new activities in the coming year. The most important event was “The 6th International Conference on Systematic Innovation (ICSI) & The 5th Global Competition on Systematic Innovation (GCSI)” would be held on 15-17 July 2015 in Hong Kong.

The first speaker was Mr. Herbert Lee (Director, ISIHK) and his topic entitled "How to re-sharpen winning edges from those days – Never Say Never". He would like to share two cases to us. The first case was how to prolonging service live of machine by strengthening some mechanical transmission parts. A 12-year-old filling machine needed to run full speed and long hours in daily production (900 bottles / hour). Every 4 screws needed to carry about 1000kg up & down for more than 250 times a day!

Herbert said 6 sigma was able to help to find out the problem and reason but missing how to solute it. However, TRIZ could give a thinking direction to find the solution.

The following table demonstrated how to use TRIZ contradiction table to identify the useful innovation principle so as to extend the service life of screws & nuts. After implemented the new double nuts, less spare parts consumed, less OT paid for labor due to down time and more production hours. The ROI was about 6 months.

Herbert shared the second case was how to re-arrange water distribution system for drastic fluctuation of cooling water demand. Some problems included poor pipe work created unnecessary & unevenly back pressure to some plants, poor cooling effect in some towers and difficult to control water temperature, etc. After the new arrangement, some improvements by automatic control were identified. The ROI estimated to be 3yr. Finally, he concluded “We do not have to live with the pain inherited from history. Our destiny is on our hand & bright future is ahead.”

Mr. Roy Tse (ISI) was the second speaker and his presentation named "My A, B, C, D View of INNOVATION". He shared his innovation through Ambition, Bravery, Career and Dream. He said “Innovation is a new idea, method or invention.”

Firstly, Roy explained “A stands for Ambition” which is the determination to be successful, rich & powerful, etc; and a strong desire to achieve something. Then B stands for Bravery which was actions, behavior, or an attitude that shows courage and confidence. He used two persons “Hitler” and “Einstein” to explain only having Ambition or Bravery but without Innovation, the result was so different. But Innovation usually needs Bravery!

Then Roy shared his Career. (Career means “A job or profession that you have been trained for and intend to do for several years.”). He also introduced the Dream “Something you hope for and want to happen very much”.

Finally, Roy concluded the sequence of ABCD should be D>A>B>C>D(A).

At the end, we took a group photo for memory.

Reference:
Institute of Systematic Innovation, HK - http://www.isi.org.hk/

HKSTP & Alibaba B2B Export e-Commerce Business Seminar

Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) and Alibaba Hong Kong co-organized a seminar named “B2B Export E-commerce Business Tips and Successful Case Sharing” on 29 Jan 2015 in Science Park. As e-Commerce platforms increasingly increasingly mature, SMEs with limited resources can make use of the low-cost but highly effective platforms for developing their businesses. The seminar aimed to introduce the latest business trend of B2B e-Commerce and the best economic useful operational tips to technology companies in Science Park. The summary was showed below for sharing. Before the seminar, we took a group photo for memory.

(Left: Mr. Antony Kwong (Assistant Mgr, Marketing, HKSTP), Mr. Terry Kwok (Senior Account Manager, Alibaba.com), Mr. Jeffrey Lam (Vice-President, Hong Kong Netrepreneurs Association) and I)

In the beginning, Mr. Terry Kwok (Senior Account Manager) requested all participants standup and asked who contacted or used B2B or B2C platforms. Then only few participants had experience on those platforms.

Terry changed the presentation style to invite Mr. Jeffrey Lam (General Manager, EPR International Co. Ltd.) as interviewee for sharing his experience. Jeffrey had established his company in United Kingdom (Loughborough) since 2004. It started selling product via online platform. But he used Alibaba for advertisement in 2006 because of free. Then, he found the method to improve this online tools and won Alibaba Gold Supplier since 2007.

Then Terry asked Jeffrey to share his experience on six online platforms. Jeffrey said eBay had steady publicity and most USA local users for B2C. But eBay’s rule and regulation were tightly and higher charge, moreover, you had better have oversea warehouse. DHgate.com was also high publicity but it changed from B2B to B2C. It was observed the sale was going down but Jeffrey still used. Since it charged per transaction, no transaction mean free. The global sources, Made-in-China.com and Aliababa.com were B2B platform. However, Jeffrey said Alibaba had a function to link all his companies into one platform and got the synergy effect.

Some participants asked how to manage so many platforms. Jeffrey said 2 companies per platform and No sales were employed but platform operators/analyst were employed to handle the order form the platform. Moreover, he shared that social media was then employed for local market (HK – B2C). Because social media (e.g. facebook) used to promote and advertise that was the easier way to spread out the word and best way for user to share their buying experience and also for them to ‘show off’. Then Jerry shared his company pages in Alibaba platform and we found some interested items such as their team’s cute style photos.

Some key points on e-commerce were shared as followings:
- Sell photo not the product (e.g. special photo frame)
- Product description
- Platform look (comfortable and reliable)
For Platform look, Jeffrey said most people looked it from top to the bottom.
Then Jeffrey summarized rules for using online B2B platform as below:
1. The most important item posted first.
2. Differentiation
3. Cross-link
4. Photo-frame

Terry added that there were four phase using Alibaba platform.
Phase 1 – Exposure (Jeffrey case had 600,000 per month)
Phase 2 – Click (It had 3000 to 6000 click per month (~5-10%)
Phase 3 – Enquiry (About 300 enquiry per month)
Phase 4 – Order (It depends on staff. If Jeffrey took the enquiry, it could be upto 95%!)
Jeffrey also give use a tip that the last statement of your reply should be “?” mark, so customer return rate would be increased.

At the end, Terry shared Alibaba e-commerce business tips again. He briefed Alibaba services including Taobao.com (淘寶網), Tmall.com (天貓), Juhuasuan.com (聚划算), Aliexpress (全球速賣通), Alibaba.com (阿里巴巴) and 1688.com (1688).

Then he asked if you want to exposure your product to the world, Alibaba’s multi-language function could help. How do you know your business success in the platform? The data analysis could help to analysis and trace buyers’ behaviors. Moreover, you could find buyer proactively through buyer order platform.

Finally, I presented souvenir to Mr. Terry Kwok and Mr. Jeffrey Lam.

I met Mr. Albert K.P. Leung (Business Development Manager) from Hong Kong Cosmetic Technical Resources Centre which was jointly founded by CMA Testing and Certification Laboratories (CMA Testing) and International Cosmetics (Asia Pacific) Joint Development Centre. We took a photo for memory.

I remember Mr. Lam’s old song also named “Alibaba”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD5QR2-Uwgk 

(ali alibaba alibaba 跟蹤土匪好細心

ali alibaba alibaba 跟蹤土匪好勇敢

芝麻開門芝麻開門 明白了明白了)

Reference:

HKSTP Event & Seminar - http://www.hkstp.org/en-US/News-Media-Events/Events-Seminars.aspx
Alibaba Group - http://www.alibabagroup.com/
Alibaba Hong Kong Facebook - https://zh-hk.facebook.com/pages/Alibabacom-Hong-Kong/546468715385599?sk=info&tab=page_info
Alibaba.com - http://www.alibaba.com/
20141212 - HKSQ Technical Visit to Alibaba Hong Kong - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/12/hksq-technical-visit-to-alibaba-hong.html

HKSTP & HKSQ Seminar on System Approach to Innovative Management

The seminar entitled "System Apprach to Innovation Management – Sustaining Excellence equal to Quality plus Innovation" was organized by Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) and co-organizer by Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) on 24th Jan 2015. The aim of this seminar to introduce the first Innovation Management System standard, Design for Six Sigma and Innovative Tools in systematic way. Before the seminar, whole HKSQ team members took a photo for memory.
(Left: Ms. Minda Chiang (Hon. Secretary), I (Former Chairman), Mr. Simon Tong (Coop member), Mr. Peter Fung (Chairman) and Mr. Vincent Cheng (Former Exco member))

Before the seminar, Mr. Peter Fung (Chairman, HKSQ) introduced some background of Hong Kong Society for Quality to our participants.

I was the first speaker and my topic entitled “Integration of Quality and Innovation Management System”. My content included introduction of ISO 9001:2015 (DIS) and CEN/TS 16555-1:2013 Innovation Management System. In the beginning, I defined a simple definition of Quality & Innovation Management System (QInnoMS) that is a set of elements of an organization’s management system for making better things better.

I briefed a new ISO 9001 standard which followed high level structure under a new ISO Directive Part 1:2012 “Annex SL”; and its some changes such as added risk and opportunity, as well as, enhance top management responsibility.  Then I introduced the first standard on Innovation Management System (CEN/TS 16555-1:2013). I was the first person to introduce this standard in Hong Kong. This Technical Specification was approved by European Committee for Standardization (CEN)* on 21 April 2013 (issued in July 2013).

The model of Innovation Management System (InnoMS) employed PDCA cycle and idea tunnel. It also adopted the ISO Directive Part 1:2012 “Annex SL” structure included “Context of the Organization”, “Leadership for Innovation”, “Planning for Innovation Success”, “Innovation Enabling Factors”, “Innovation Management Process”, “Assessment”, “Improvement” and “Innovation Management Techniques”. Where the Innovation Funnel with different aspects included framing and insight generation, idea management, develop of the innovation project, protection & exploitation of outcome and market introduction.

The last part of my presentation was integrated ISO 9001:2015 (DIS) and CEN/TS 16555-1. It was found that many clauses were similar and could be integrated. The different clauses in CEN/TS 16555-1 from ISO 9001 were Innovation Management Process and Innovation Management Techniques.

Finally, I showed the overall model which combined ISO 9001:2015 model and CEN/TS 16555-1’s Innovation Funnel with Innovation Management Techniques. Then I demonstrated one of cases I employed in Technology Support Centre using TRIZ for sharing.

Mr. Peter Fung (Chairman, HKSQ) was the second speaker and his topic named “Design For Six Sigma (DFSS) Introduction”. First, he surveyed how many participants had experience on Six Sigma and DFSS. It observed little participants had experience in DFSS. He said that DFSS used to help you to deliver better products and services that your customers want and willing to pay for.

Then Peter used Pizza Express as example to explain what situation we employed Six Sigma or DFSS. He said Six Sigma used for improvement but DFSS used for new design of product or service (when improvement was not able to solve the problem). Then he briefed the steps of DFSS included Define (project), Measure, Analyze, Design & Verify (DMADV).

There were many tools which used in DMADV as follows:
D – VOC, QFD, Kano Model
M – Benchmarking, Capability Performance
A – TRIZ & Process Simulation
D – FMEA & DOE
V – SPC & Process Management
At the end he quoted Philip B Crosby’s Cost of Poor Quality Philosophy statement “Quality is free. It is not a gift, but it is free.” And he modified to “DFSS is free. It is not a gift, but it is free.” as Philosophy on Cost of Poor Design.

Mr. Simon Tong (Coop Member, Innovation Sub-Committee, HKSQ) was the last speaker and his topic presentation was “Innovation? Management? System? Yes Innovation Management System”. Firstly, Simon asked some questions “Can Innovation be systematic?” and “Does Management kill Innovation?” Then he used his teacher Mr. Darrell Mann’s answer “It Depends”.

Then he discussed management hierarchy from “Strategies, Business Models” to “System, Policy and Procedure”. (Simply, Philosophy to Methodology to Tools). He found that Innovation had philosophy and Tools (e.g. TRIZ, Design Thinking, UX, etc), but lack of systems to implement those tools. Then he proposed using the framework of Project Management Professional (PMP) to facilitate system approach innovation management.

After that Simon introduced Innovation Capability Maturity Model (ICMM) and there were five levels included “Seeding”, “Championing”, “Managing”, “Strategizing” and “Venturing”. It indicated from process innovation to societal innovation.

Simon questioned us “How to capture future market needs?” Then he introduced us another set of tools from TrendNA which could predict future market trends!

Reference:
HKSQ - www.hksq.org
HKSTP - http://www.hkstp.org/en-US/Homepage.aspx
*European Committee for Standardization (CEN) members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom.

Related articles and seminar summary:
Innovation – From Art to Science - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2009/08/innovation-from-art-to-science.html
Innovation / Creativity Management (BS 7000-1:2008) - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2009/06/innovation-creativity-management-bs.html

HKSQ Student Project Competition 2015 - Briefing

The HKSQ Company Based Student Project Competition aims to offer an opportunity for students to work on an actual industrial case and propose resolution annually. This allows them to gain experience of resolving an industrial problem. The competition included three sessions. The first session is problems selection which problems are designed and would be explained by Sponsor Company. GP Batteries International Limited is the sponsor company in 2015. The second session is factory visit and the last session is presentation of suggested solutions by different universities students.

The briefing session of the competition was performed on 23rd Jan 2015. Mr. Peter Fung (Chairman, HKSQ) led the briefing session. Then Mr. Larry Lee (Customer Services & Compliance Quality Manager) introduced different topics for student teams

There were three topics assigned for students choose included risk assessment, reliability test and customer satisfaction.

After that students from different universities (included HKUST, CUHK, PolyU and CityU) had selected the question.

After the briefing session, the group photo was taken for memory.
Our exco member and guest, as well as students
(Right: Dr. Aaron Tong (Former Chairman), Dr. Albert Tsang (Former Chairman), Ms. Angela Wong (Vice Chairman), Mr. Peter Fung (Chairman) and Mr. Larry Lee (GP))

(Right: Mr. Karson Chui (Former Chairman), Mr. Simon Tong (Coopt member), Dr. Albert Tsang (Former Chairman), Ms. Angela Wong (Vice Chairman), Mr. Peter Fung (Chairman) and Mr. Larry Lee (GP))

Reference:
HKSQ Company Based Student Project Competition - http://www.hksq.org/company_based_competition.htm
GP Batteries International Limited - http://www.gpbatteries.com/INT/

CityU EngD Society AGM Seminar & Dinner 2015

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the CityU Engineering Doctorate (EngD) Society in the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management (SEEM) was held on 23rd Jan 2015. Before AGM, CityU EngD Society organized a seminar entitled “Risk Management in Human Resources” and co-organized by SME Cloud Promotion Campaign. In the beginning, Mr. Jefferson Wat (Vice Chairman – Industry Development, Information and Software Industry Assoication (ISIA)) introduced that SME Cloud Promotion Campaign was funded scheme by OGCIO and operated by SME Global Alliance.

Mr. Danny Ha (Chairman, Academy of Professional Certification) was the first speaker and his topic named “Risk Management in Human Resources”. Firstly, he introduced ISO 31000 Risk Management to us.

Then he classified three types of people in the organization:
Type 1 – Who make things happen (Few)
Type 2 – Who watch things happen (Many)
Type 3 – Who have no idea what has happened (Overwhelming majority)
After that he discussed common problems in organization included “Goals not met”, “High and increasing operating costs”, “High sales but low margin” … etc. (see the table below)

Mr. Ha also mentioned risk and crisis management. It aimed to reduce impact and achieve quick recovery in case of crisis. Moreover, he also identified several risk areas included “Regulatory Compliance”, “Business Ethics”, “Talent Management and Succession Planning”, “Pay and Performance Alignment” and “Employee Training and Development”. Then we used ATV case for discussion. Some participants said the employees in ATV might be loss competitive power and value in the market.

Some examples for identify and evaluate the risks were described. At the end, he introduced two professional certifications. One was Certified Professional Enterprise Risk Manager (CPERM) of ISO 31000. And the other was Certified Professional Impact Assessor (CPIA) of ISO 29100.

The second speaker was Mr. Hench Tai (Sales Manager, Vantis Consulting Group) and his topic named “How HRMS + ERP System to mitigate the risk in HR planning?” He briefed “What is Cloud” and “Business Solutions on Cloud”.

Mr. Tai mentioned Cloud connected Code, Mobile, PC, App Server, Database, Kitchen Sink, etc. Then he introduced HRMS to management workforce performance and CRM to monitor the sales funnel.

After the AGM Seminar, Dr. Amie Lai (Immediate Past President, CityU EngD Society) gave a welcome speech and introduced the new President Dr. Rocky Lam who would lead our Society for 10th Anniversary in 2015.

Dr. Amie Lai briefed some past activities and the executive members.
EngD activities were shown as follows.
20141220 – EMDA Big Data Analysis Awards (Supporter)
20141130 – CityU Discovery Festival (Supporter)
20140920 – Gathering Talk – Innovative Entrepreneurship & 3D Printing (Organizer)
20140917 – Dialogue with CityU President (Supporter)
20140904 – EngD (EM) Orientation (Organizer)
20140516 – CityU Spring Research Conference (Supporter)
20140512 –CityU 3rd Distinguished Alumni Award Reception cum SEEM Industrial Forum (Supporter) (Dr. Peter Ho is awardee.)
20140410 – Seminar on “Intellectual Property (IP) Management for Innovators” (Supporter)
20140403 – Seminar on “Entrepreneurship and Innovation” (Supporter)
20140220 – Seminar on “China ICT Innovation and Entrepreneurship Seminar” (Supporter)
20140122 –Kick-off Ceremony for the 30th Anniversary of CityU (Supporter)

The EngD Society executive members 2015 were:
President - Dr. Rocky Lam (Cohort 2006)
Vice-President - Dr. Herbert Yeung (2004)
Secretary - Dr. Lotto Lai (2005)
Treasurer - Dr. TW Liu (2004)
Board members:
Dr. PM Lai (2008)
Dr. Dave Lo (2005)
Dr. WT Chan (2004)
Dr. Amie Lai (2004)
Group photo taken during the AGM with all cohorts who were participated

Finally, we had a dinner in CityU Chinese Restaurant and continued our sharing.

Reference:
CityU Engineering Doctorate Society - http://www.engd.org/
Engineering Doctorate (Engineering Management) - http://www.cityu.edu.hk/seem/prg-engd.htm

The Gulf Cooperation Council Accreditation Centre and Standardization Organization representatives visit to HKSTPC Laboratories

We were honor that Dr. John Ho (Accreditation Officer, HKAS) accompany with representatives from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Accreditation Centre and Standardization Organization to visit Laboratories of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC) on 22nd Jan 2015. They were Mr. Sultan Altellawi (Development and Marketing Manager) and Mrs. Aisha Fallatah (Accreditation Technician) from the GCC Accreditation Center (GAC); and Mr. Metab Mizani (Comformity Assessment Specialist) from the GCC Standardization Organization (GSO). The aim of the visit is to exchange experience of accreditation scheme between Hong Kong and Arab States of the Gulf. In the beginning, I briefed the background of HKSTPC and our Technology Support Centre.

Then we took the photo in front of my office. 

(Left: Dr. John Ho, Mr. Sultan Altellawi, Mrs. Aisha Fallatah, Mr. Metab Mizani and I)

 

After that we visited Wireless Communications Test Laboratory (WCTL) and Reliability Laboratory (RL) with two new 3D printers. Then we visited to Material Analysis Laboratory and our engineer briefed the operation SEM and XPS to the guest. We also visited IC Failure Analysis Laboratory (ICFAL).

We went to Biotech Support Centre and our engineer demonstrated different biotechnology equipment.

Finally, we visited to the Probe and Test Development Centre (which operated in the class 10000 clean room).

After the laboratory visit, I led visitors into Charles K. Kao Auditorium (also known as the “Golden Egg”). It is a lecture theater with 283 seats. Mr. Metab Mizani and Mr. Sultan Altellawi took a photo for memory.

At the end, we took a photo in front of the Golden Egg and visited Building Green 18 roof garden.

I would like to introduce GAC and GSO below.
GAC's role is to serve the GAC member countries national and public interest by ensuring that member facilities comply with relevant international and Gulf standards and so are competent to provide consistently reliable testing, calibration, measurement, certificates and inspection data to government, industry and the wider community.
GSO aims at helping the GCC achieve the objectives set forth in its charter and in the GCC Economic Agreement by unifying the various standardization activities and following up application and compliance of the same in cooperation and coordination with the standardization bodies in the Member States in an endeavor to develop the production and service sectors, foster the Intra-GCC trade, protect the consumer, environment and the public health, and encourage the GCC industries and agricultural production that would enhance the GCC economy , maintain the achievements of the Member States and minimize the technical trade barriers as envisaged by the objectives of the Customs Union.
The governments of The State of the United Arab Emirates, The Kingdom of Bahrain, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, The Sultanate of Oman, The State of Qatar and The State of Kuwait made agreement for GSO.

Reference:
HKAS - http://www.itc.gov.hk/en/quality/hkas/about.htm
HKSTP Lab - http://www.hkstp.org/en-US/Services-Programmes/Technology-Support-Laboratory-Services/Overview.aspx#.VMD_TUeUchA
GCC Accreditation Center – http://gcc-accreditation.org/gac/
GCC Standardization Organization - http://www.gso.org.sa/gso-website/?lang=en