Trends to Watch in 2012

Posted on January 11, 2012 by

In last Janaury, we outlined some key trends for the year 2011.

On the same lines, we discussed with electrical professionals, experts and analysts to mine the trends for 2012.

In this newsletter, we carve out the ‘trends to watch for 2012’ for professionals related to electrical systems.

Year 2011 was slightly sluggish for the Indian power scenario. India continues to face significant shortages, both energy and peak to the tune of 10-12%.

  • With the nuclear plants at Jaitapur and  Koodankulam facing resistance from locals to slow progress on the overall power generation capacity in public sector, the demand still outpaces the supply. Events at Fakushima in Japan further intensified the questions on safety of nuclear power.
  • Jitters were also felt after coal mining problems in Andhra Pradesh and other regions as we still depend on black gold for more than half of our total power requirements.
  • Meanwhile, the industry, especially the large ones, have aggressively added captive power plants to insulate themselves from the ups and downs in Indian power scenario.

With the above macro-drivers in view, given below are some of the key trends that are likely to lead our work in 2012.

Advantage Automation

In 2011, we had highlighted three factors that would drive automation – Change in mindset to evaluate lifecycle costs rather than product costs, availability of technology and need to cut cost and dependencies on human resources. This and the next year, these factors driving the automation trend are likely to intensify further.

Influx of affordable automation systems and products from South East Asian countries and availability of expertise in India will see greater adaptation of automation in electrical systems. Prices of components in say temperature monitoring, lighting systems etc. have began to stabilize over the last few years.

With a mixed economic outlook ahead in 2012, cost cutting is likely to occupy the center stage. Power remains both a significant cost component as well as an opportunity to create savings. Automation will continue to be a major tool to extract cost savings from power.

Networked and Informed Power

In 2011 we saw home AC’s, refrigerators and TV’s being integrated with the web through internet. We believe a similar trend is underway in industrial systems.

Year 2012 could see some successful pilots in connecting and greater integration of electrical systems to the web. With more equipment enabled on Ethernet, the components can stream it’s performance or health through the internet from a remote location.

Electrical professionals can monitor the health of systems on the go or from some central location. However, this also means the professionals have to pick up and master new skills that allow them to take advantage of this technology.

Availability of information, as opposed to the current system that requires physical checking of equipment or component for updates, means far better control and convenience.

This also means more time for professionals in maintenance which could be now focused on getting a better performance from the system rather than a more singular focus on maintaining system uptime.

Small Opportunities for Big Gains

In 2012, we will have to mine for more number of smaller opportunities for power savings for two reasons. One, the larger ones typically cost more. Second, the sheer number of small untapped improvement opportunities that exist today in the industry is huge.

For example, retrofitting existing lighting systems for lower power consumption and better working experience could be one such area. Although it’s the AC’s or some manufacturing equipment that consumes significant share of power, the costs of upgrading or changing the same might be inhibitive in an uncertain economic environment. Peripheral opportunities of saving power like lighting systems etc. become more attractive in sluggish economic environment.

Welcome Renewable Energy

A relatively lower clarity on emerging power scenario and attractive benefits (tax as well as savings) on renewable energy, solar and wind will gain greater prominence. Many companies would be seriously looking to meet 1-5% of their total energy requirements from solar, wind or both. After initial glitches the success of wind farms in Gujarat, pockets of Maharashtra, Karnatak, Tamil Nadu etc. could translate into greater awareness and adoption of renewable energy by the industry.

Today, investments in Solar and wind energy are affordable due to reduction in overall price and the possibility of investing in relatively smaller units. In fact, solar energy is pegged to be at an inflection point in both commercial and domestic applications in the next two years. As professionals in the electrical field we need be abreast with the developments and be proactive in adopting the same to stay competitive.

We sincerely hope that the above outline helps you to extract specific action points for the year ahead. Please let us know your thoughts and feedback on the trends in 2012. We would be happy to share your ideas with other members on e-power platform.

 

Posted in Opinion | Leave a comment

Getting the Best from your Battery

Posted on December 14, 2011 by

With uncertainty in grid power supply, Batteries have become an important element of electrical systems today.

A greater dependence on computers, especially in business and commerce means the performance of batteries is critical to business continuity. However, most electrical professionals often complain about batteries not meeting the promised life and frequently failing to deliver performance when it is needed the most.

A simple but systematic testing routine of batteries will help in early detection of problems before they affect performance.

Battery maintenance approach

Just like a human body, periodic checks are also required on batteries to understand its health so that remedial action can be taken before any permanent damage is done. We discuss below a set of some basic checks that should be conducted to ultimately derive best performance from batteries.

Visual Inspection

Simple visual inspection of batteries is important. Look for cracks, leaks or signs of corrosion. It helps to prevent water accumulating near battery storage area and to keep the surroundings clean.

Frequency of check: Fortnightly

Operator skill level: Basic

Voltage tests

Float voltage is a good measure of battery life. Float voltage is the constant voltage that is applied continuously to a voltaic cell to maintain the cell in a fully charged condition. The appropriate float voltage varies significantly with the chemistry and construction of the battery, and ambient temperature.

A low float voltage is an indication of undercharging. The cells will not supply to full capacity when required. Low float voltage may be caused due to sulfation. If battery tests for high float voltage, there is a possibility of overcharging. Overcharging increases the temperature and can also lead to pre-mature acid corrosion.

Frequency of check: Monthly

Operator skill level: Moderate

Current Tests

Float charging current is the DC current flowing in battery when the battery, charger and load are connected in parallel. High float current could often be read as a sign of thermal runway in future.

High float currents could be caused by short circuit or even a high float voltage. Ripple current could be caused due to faults in charging circuit often related to diode or a rectifier.  Higher ripple current can also cause heating of batteries.

Frequency of check: Quarterly

Operator skill level: Moderate

Temperature

Battery temperature is an easy measure of overall health. Higher temperatures reduce the life of battery and can damage the battery permanently in the long run. Higher temperature is just an indication of a problem and other tests are required to understand the root cause.

Frequency of check: Fortnightly

Operator skill level: Low

Specific Gravity

Specific gravity is a key parameter in battery operation. It is defined as ratio of weight of solution to the weight of equal volume of water at a particular temperature. However, specific gravity does not indicate the capacity of the battery.

Specific gravity decreases close to that of water during discharge and is at it’s highest in case of full charge. A comparison of changes in voltage and specific gravity during charging and discharge indicate the performance of the battery. However, methods to measure the same may not be practical in normal operating conditions.

Frequency of check: Quarterly

Operator skill level: Moderate

Impedance and Conductance Testing

Impedance increases with age of the battery, while conductance decreases. The test method involves applying a small AC voltage “E” of known frequency and amplitude across the cell and measuring the in phase AC current “I” that flows in response to it.

Parameters like Impedance that change with age of battery are a good measurement of State of Health (SOH) of the battery. Impedance and conductance testing are reliable, safe, accurate, fast and they don’t affect the battery performance.

They can be carried out while the battery is in use or they can be used to continuously monitor the battery performance, avoiding the need for load testing or discharge testing. Full load cycle testing carried out once every year will yield accurate information and provide an excellent baseline for impedance testing.

Frequency of check: Quarterly

Operator skill level: High

We hope these techniques take you a step closer towards achiveing the best performance from batteries and help you to ensure business continuity.

 

Posted in Maintenance@e-power | Leave a comment

Remember Everything

Posted on November 30, 2011 by

 

Cellphones and laptops have become our primary channel of communication with colleagues at work, friends or family. Today, capability of our gadgets can limit or strengthen our interaction. Some add-on software applications on cellphone or laptop can help to improve your productivity, significantly.

‘App of the month‘, is a new series in e-power featuring highly useful software applications for your laptops, workstations or mobiles. e-power is an effort to help you improve your productivity at work. With this series we hope to take it to next level. All featured applications are selected through an intelligent research process and we hope you find them useful.

As we use less and less of paper, our work tables are neater but the computer desktops have got cluttered. Computers and mobiles have fundamentally altered the way we work. But switching to these digital media have also thrown up challenges in organizing information.

Online note taking tools like Evernote or Onenote can solve the challenge of collecting, organizing, managing and sharing information using a single platform. With these tools you have a paper note-book like experience across mobile and laptops.

We review Evernote, a leading ‘note’ making and archiving tool with 11m users worldwide. Microsoft Onenote is a simillar tool available with the MS-Office suite.

What is a note?

A ‘note’ could be anything. A text, address, photograph, scanned image, attached file with some text and table or any of these combined with each other. A ‘note’ can be tagged, arranged into different notebooks or folders, searched by any of these or the content inside the note.

Evernote allows you to create a note from a desktop application, a web based application (if you are not on your machine), a mobile phone or a tablet. Every piece of information added or updated from any of the devices is backed-up on the web.

‘Clip to Evernote‘ is another highly useful function. For using this utility, one has to just install a add-on for your Internet browser. Say, you are reading an article on the web and there is a piece of information: a paragraph or a photo that you want to save for future reference. With Evernote all you have to do is select the paragraph or photo and just ‘Clip to Evernote’.

Evernote Web Clipper

You can then access, edit, annotate this clipped information from your mobile, desktop or web.

Remember White-boards, Slides,Book pages or Furniture designs …..

Evernote account come with an email address. Say, you are at a presentation in a conference and you really like this slide in the presentation. Well, take a snap and mail it to your Evernote email address. This way you can save the notes, diagrams on your white boards, hand-written notes from sticky notes or notebook, travel expense receipts, important documents like passport etc. or any other thing useful for future reference.

Remember Travel expenses, Emails, Project notes or Engg. Drawings ….

Evernote can be integrated with several other software tools that we use everyday. For example, integrating it with Outlook allows you to directly clip and send paragraphs from mails to Evernote. Other interesting add-ons include Click.to, Nozbe (project management software), Expensify (expense management tool). You can access the whole list here.

         

Evernote website has a section on how professionals from different fields are using it to improve their productivity.So, get on to a note making application and remember everything!

 Evernote Peek for exam preparations on Apple ipad 2


Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Plan to Manage Power Quality

Posted on November 15, 2011 by

The past issues of e-power have featured discussions on understanding and basic management of power quality.

In this issue of e-power we explore  practical guidelines for addressing power quality issues within the company to achieve 24X7 uptime.

Every electrical system is unique

The approach to address power quality issues at every facility will also have to be different. A facility centric preventive maintenance plan is the first step to better power quality. Establishing index for various electrical parameters like voltage, current, power etc. has emerged as an innovative approach in power quality monitoring.

A regular monitoring of these indices is effective in identifying and solving problems caused by power quality.

Every problem has a history

Analyzing power quality is a bit like annual health check-up. The doctor monitors various parameters in view of various factors like age, lifestyle etc. and classifies it as a problem. For example, high blood pressure at young age is a problem that needs deeper intervention but at relatively old ages it is more about keeping it low through medicine. Similarly, analysis of electrical systems has to be performed in view of its historical trend.

System disturbances and historical trends have to at the center while analyzing data for indices. For example, if the system performs without a problem within 1% limit in voltage unbalance  this could be considered normal for that system. Only those data patterns or ranges of the index that have a clear association with disturbances in the past have to be observed and managed for better power quality.

Understanding the difference between acceptable and abnormal power quality events based on the change in indices may require long experience of working with the in-house electrical systems. 

The electrical system can be configured for continual or periodic monitoring of the electrical indices discussed above. While a continuous monitoring system is ideal, it can also be costly.

Proactive steps to manage electrical indices

Once the normal values for electrical indices are identified for a particular system, it is easier to identify the problems at system or equipment level. Tracking of historical index data can be useful in revealing the extent to which change in one parameter affects others. Proactive steps can then be taken in through scheduled and predictive maintenance.

In the earlier newsletters, we have already discussed about two critical issues concerning power quality – that is, having the technology to monitor power quality and dedicated manpower to own up that responsibility. Using electrical indices discussed above could serve as the next step in solving your power quality challenges.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Insights From Life and Work of Steve Jobs ….

Posted on October 12, 2011 by

The founder of Apple Inc., legendary Steve Jobs passed away on October 5, 2011. Jobs also was co-founder and previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios.

Steve had a very challenging childhood. A college dropout, Steve will be known for challenging the norm. His commencement speech at Stanford University will always remain as the best presentation of his life, philosophy, values and work.

The India Connection.

Steve travelled to India to visit Neem Karoli Baba at his Kainchi Ashram in the late 70′s in search of spiritual enlightenment. He adopted Buddhism along the way and had his head shaved and also wore traditional Indian clothing. He later said that people around him who did not share his countercultural roots could not fully relate to his thinking.

This is a collection of insights from Steve’s life, his writings, interviews, videos and articles on the web.

Seven Insights From the Life and Work of Steve Jobs

  1. I was worth about over a million dollars when I was 23 and over 10 million dollars when I was 24, and over a hundred million dollars when I was 25 and it wasn’t that important because I never did it for the money.
  2. The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.
  3. You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will connect somewhere in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road, will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path path.
  4. In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains or the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.
  5. I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates.
  6. We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know. And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.
  7. …Almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Ensuring 24X7 Uptime in an Economic Downturn

Posted on September 14, 2011 by

Capital expenditure, executive travel, company sponsored sports matches are some things that vanish during times of economic downturn. Investments in many other critical areas are also cut down.  While cutting investments has a definite short term impact, cutting those in electrical technician or maintenance related areas may create functional deficiencies in the long term.

But budget constraints are a hard fact. How does one ensure a 24X7 uptime without denting the finances?

In-house or Outsource? 

Today, there is an increasing trend of outsourcing non-core tasks and sometimes even shifting core maintenance jobs to contract basis. Most companies respond to the downturn by bargaining harder with the contractor. This approach offers only a short-term solution and is often unsuccessful when it comes to maintaining 24X7 uptime.

 

 

 

 

 

Economic downturns demand that employees at all levels take-up a greater responsibility. But greater responsibility without the competency to handle the work at hand can be fatal. Use of competency mapping approach for in-house technicians offers a robust solution.

Competency is defined as the combination of knowledge, skills, and abilities that when effectively applied, produce a successful performance in a defined function or activity. Competencies are observable, measurable, and can be developed to reinforce competitive advantages and future performance.

Competency Grid of Technicians

Effectiveness of any technician, in-house or the one on contracts, can be measured on the basis of two factors – how quickly one is able to locate the problem and how effectively one solves the same. Most technicians pick their skills through ‘on the job’ learning. ‘On the job’ learning is not exhaustive and thus leave serious gaps in performance of a technician.

Preparing a detail competency grid of in-house and technicians and those working on contract based on the factors mentioned above will help understand the gaps in maintenance early on.

For example, after preparing this grid one may realize that there are very few or no technicians with hands-on experience on servicing complex generator synchronizing systems. Even minor problems with these systems may directly impact the production and hence 24X7 uptime is all the more critical.

A focused training that provides targeted instructions as well as application to specific practical problems can be taken up. Such focused training exercises will help to improve the cost discipline of the maintenance department as a whole.

An Inventory of Technician Competencies 

While the costs of technicians in maintenance are low, with a direct impact on critical business operations (ex. production), even a small failure can spiral into a huge losses.

Such losses may have a serious impact on the overall business in times of sluggish economic environment.

Maintaining an inventory of technician competencies can also help to decide in what needs to be outsourced and what to expect from outsourced resources. It can help to move away from the current model of ‘x’ people are required to maintain ‘y’ machines to a more efficient and effective skill driven staffing model.

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Flexible Electricity – Introducing Virtual Power Plants

Posted on August 30, 2011 by

India’s Power sector faces a number of challenges. Generating enough power to match the increasing demand, distributing power, especially in remote areas, controlling power theft… the list can go on. Obviously, the solutions to all these challenges also have to be different.

In this newsletter we discuss the concept of Virtual Power Plants, which could provide an interesting solution to a few critical challenges faced by India in the area of Power.

The Problem of Peak Demand

Consumers don’t ask for permissions before starting an electrical device. If consumers are to be supplied power with stable voltage and frequency, the power generated at any instant has to be kept close to the load imposed. The power plants have to continuously forecast the load that could be imposed on it at different times of the day. Again the consumption varies according to the climatic conditions by daily, hourly and even shorter time frames like in case of festivals.

At the power plant this means always maintaining some reserve capacity to match the peaks in demand. This additional power has to always come from burning coal or oil as there is little control over sources like wind or solar when it comes to stepping-up power generated. Virtual Power Plants are emerging as a solution to the problem of generating additional power to match the peak demand.

Virtual Power Plants – An Effective Solution

Today, relying solely on grid power might be suicidal. Back-up Power generation is inevitable.

Many companies are shifting to cogeneration, CHP (Combined Heat Cycle Power), DGs etc. to meet their power requirements. A Virtual Power Plant turns this back-up power generation capacity distributed at multiple locations to meet the peaks in demand. VPP involves participation from a large number of small players from different areas each with his own power generation capacity.

A Virtual Power Plant is a centrally controlled IT network that is connected to remotely distributed power generation sources. In case of a rapid rise in demand the central grid creates an electronic trigger for the centralized system.

This system then automatically puts-on various sources connected to it to meet the rise in power demand. All this power is pooled into the grid and supplied to consumers during peak demand.

The Real Advantage of going Virtual

There are two prominent advantages of VPP participants: One it earns revenue from an unutilized asset that is back-up power generation capacity. Second, it is mostly observed that while these back-up capacities are thoroughly tested they often tend to fail while taking the load. As a part of VPP, these back-up power equipment run from time to on full load conditions. VPP thus enables both better utilization and maintenance.

The concept of VPP is relatively new. A UK based company Flexiticals connected to the National Grid is a live example of Virtual Power Plant. With an ability to monitor and manage power at consumer level, VPP create an unique opportunity to lower the power consumption on need basis. For example, if a thousand home in a locality are incentivised for turning off the lights or lowering their power usage when needed can solve the peak demand problem. Both these aspects of VPP offer interesting opportunities.

Virtual Power Plants in India

The concept offers very promising opportunities in a power starved and vast country like India. Virtual power plants can be effective in managing the peak demand for power and avoid at least some power-cuts. The excess back-up power capacity of the industries/ an industry cluster can be used to power-up the nearby villages through existing grid.

Use of Diesel Generators as a reliable source of power is rising in the industries. In the IT/ ITeS industry the backup power will bring business to standstill. Now imagine with use of VPP a department in a company is intimated about the need to cut down on power consumption. Machines that are not required at that moment can be shut down, lights switched off (wherever possible). Low hanging opportunities for reducing power cuts could be implemented quickly to alter the demand in power.

For more information on Virtual Power Plants read the articles mentioned below:

Posted in Innovation@e-power | Leave a comment

The Story of Winning….

Posted on August 15, 2011 by

We will celebrate 65th Independence Day this 15th August 2011.

For the last few years, Independence Day has also come to mean being inundated with SMS wishes, ‘special independence day offers’. We are made to witness same debates in media on the ‘state of country after ‘X’ years of independence year after year.

With all the above every 15th August makes us think about one thing in particular – how have we done as a country? As we watch, think, argue with friends, we try and assess if the ‘glass is half full, or half empty?’ It’s a tricky argument, especially when there are enough stories to support both the sides. Could we, as a country, have done better?

Some people have not just thought about it but tried to be a solution through their actions. ‘Vayam‘ (We in Sanskrit) is one such team working in the tribal areas of Thanne and Nasik district.

On the occasion of this Independence Day, we share with you an inspiring story of change.

We all are aware about flagship program of Government National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). While the program has brought employment benefits to a large number of poor families, it has also been in the news for some wrong reasons. This story is about the fight of villagers to achieve their rights under NREGA in tribal areas of Thane and Nasik. Thanks to Milind Thatte, a volunteer at Vayam who contributed this story for e-power:

The Story of Winning – by Milind Thatte

NREGA, as implied by the name is about right to work. It has a provision that if someone demands work, it must be assigned to him within 15 days. Villagers in tribal areas are mostly unaware of this clause.

Usually, their procedure to get new work assigned under NREGA was to apply and wait endlessly at the mercy of Officials.  Other workaround was – approach a political party representative, who then used to call a few of his ‘contacts’ and get a new project. The interaction with officials or party workers also meant standing before them like a criminal, facing the abuses and even paying some bribe.

Vayam helped the villagers to learn about the law. Armed with the knowledge of the 15 day clause, Villagers could now pressurize Gramsevak or Tahasil office for speedy assigning of work. However, in spite of cooperation from the Gramsevaks a few villages were still not able to get new projects through NREGA. Vayam volunteers along with the villagers used information to their advantage and got the officials to assign new projects.

Right Information at the Right Time 

Central government has a website for NREGA. This site has a record of every laborer’s family. Any citizen can access the details on the site like – the number of days for which work was awarded in previous year, the amount paid to the laborer etc. Using the network of friends from the city, Vayam team in villages found information about four-five families in a village and took the printouts of these records. The prints reached the villages only to create turmoil.

While the NREGA records showed that a payment of Rs. 30,000, the laborer’s family had actually received just Rs. 8,000-10,000. The family which was supposedly given Rs. 74,000 on paper had earned just Rs.12,000-13,000 in reality. In case of some families, payments (on paper) were done to people who were already dead.

Obviously, the realization of how much money was siphoned-off in their name by Government Officials angered the villagers. Officials from concerned government departments were shocked and turned restless. In order to curb the source providing information to tribal villagers they threatened Vayam volunteers. When volunteers did not pay any heed to the threatening, the same officials tried to ‘settle’ the matter with bribe.

Vayam volunteers told them that the matter can be sorted but entire village has to be taken into confidence.

About 10-12 villagers and the government officials sat down in an open space. “If our village is awarded two cement dams and a nursery as work under NREGA we will return all printouts”, said the villagers. The officials agreed, in fact they had no choice, and villagers won. (ofcourse, villagers were aware that the printouts could be obtained whenever they wanted the information)

We can win, and if need be we can win again – villagers now had the confidence.

It’s a small win…just about five villages. Not a significant achievement compared to the magnitude of the problem. This is not something unusual as well. And this makes such wins absolutely achievable. One has to learn the law, organize, move ahead intelligently and have a strong will power.

The names of villages, volunteers, government officials have not been included in the story, because we believe this fight is not about a particular village. This is a fight we all have to face….. and win.

We stay in tribal villages. People who could not clear  SSC/ HSSC exams, coming from poor families and searching employment after the farming season in rains is over – are our volunteers.

Even we wanted our democratic rights. But how do we fight to get them?  Swords? Guns?

Fighting with Guns and Swords in our own country was not acceptable to us. And we chose not to block roads, raise slogans, or do a rally.

But we decided that if we have to fight the law it has to be fought with a law …..and so we set out to learn and use the law. We did it and we won.

You can reach Milind Thatte at vayamindia@gmail.com. To know more about Vayam‘s work please visit www.milindthatte.com

Posted in Opinion | Leave a comment

Project Premortem

Posted on July 30, 2011 by

“A project is complete when it starts working for you, rather than you working for it.”

We are proud to introduce this new section @ e-power focused on Project Management.

Today, our work, short or long term in every area is better viewed as a part of some Project rather than just a ‘job’. Personal and professional goals too, are better seen and planned as Projects, otherwise they are just wish lists.

The art and science of effective project planning, management and execution is critical to an individual’s success. This section will focus on sharing some out-of the box, unconventional but practical ideas on project management. We hope our efforts will help you to plan, manage and execute projects better.

Project Premortem 

Typically, people spend huge amount of time and efforts to analyse the cause of failure, after the project execution. In premortem, people brainstorm by imagining different factors for project failure, before the project launch.

A research conducted in 1989 by Deborah J. Mitchell, of the Wharton School; Jay Russo, of Cornell; and Nancy Pennington, of the University of Colorado, found that prospective hindsight – imagining that an event has already occurred helps to improve the ability to correctly identify future outcomes by almost 30%.

Premortem helps to improve the ability to see-through the risks, slip-ups in planning beforehand and can drastically reduce the probability of project failure.

Premortem Advantage 

Often project planning is done by a small team of experienced professionals. This team has a somewhat detached view of the project. The plan is then communicated to people who are expected to implement the project. The plan could be highly exhaustive and excellent. But because people implementing the project did not get an opportunity to participate in developing the plan, there is a tendency to not own the project plan.

Premortem brainstorming in projects solves this problem in two ways. One, it enables all the teams to participate in the process of project planning. The discussions will be extremely helpful in critical assessment of the plan from all aspects.Two, it facilitates a precious analysis of reasons of project failure without actually carrying the burden of failure.

Conducting Premortem 

Gather the team and explain the concept of premortem to every team member. Communicate the objectives and rules for the discussion. (Rules could be about imagining scenarios that are practical etc.). Allocate about 1-2 hrs depending on size and complexity of the project. While it is advisable to include as many team members as possible, limiting the number below 20 is advisable for fruitful analysis.

Start by announcing the failure of the project. Get everyone to imagine that they are in future. This could be achieved by simple gestures like putting a future date on the whiteboard in the room etc.

Ask different teams and each member within the team to make a list of all possible, but practical reasons why they think the project failed. Get teams to make their list exhaustive overall but the individual points should be exclusive of each other.

Conduct a brainstorming discussion on how the most dominant reasons for failures could have been avoided. The discussion will bring everyone on the same page with regards to reasons for failure and thus channelize energy to think solutions that will help to complete project in time. This also helps to identify ‘soft’ issues related to miscommunication, trust deficit or any pre-conceived notions formed due to past experience within the teams/ departments.

Create a cross-functional team to update the initial project plan. Incorporate steps to mitigate the risks with respect to reasons for project failure identified during the discussion.

Premortem incentivizing dissent and immediately exposes the practical risks in project plan. The process of project premortem is also found to improve the commitment of teams responsible for project execution while also improving upon the objectivity in post-project analysis.

Links to a few other articles, on the same topic, that you may find interesting to read:

 

Posted in Project Management | Leave a comment

Separate Green from the Greener…

Posted on July 11, 2011 by

These days it has become quite fashionable to ‘be /go / buy green’.

Most companies have launched programs to build a green element in their products. Mostly, it is about energy use or efficiency.

‘Green’ has also become a buzzword in marketing.

There are two types of companies today – ones that have a genuine intent and passion for building ‘Green’ products and those that use ‘Green’ only as a marketing gimmick. In future, we can expect almost every company claiming their product to be green in some or the other way. With huge ambiguity in the claims to be Green, it is really difficult to assess the products.

 

Also, there is an urgent need to look beyond the obvious. That is considering other factors in addition to energy efficiency while comparing two green products or technologies.

In this newsletter we discuss a simple framework and parameters that could be used while comparing green products with each other.

Hope this will help you to separate the green from greener and the later from the greenest.

Product Operation

  • Energy efficiency is most widely used as parameter as of now. With rising energy prices this is bound to remain as a dominant parameter even in future. Add-ons available to further improve energy efficiency will always be an advantage.
  • Check if the maintenance requires any special treatment involving material hazardous for environment. Avoid products with short life cycles, unless they are made from renewable material.
  • Check for any by-products or pollutants produced during operations that could be harmful to the environment.

Manufacturing Process

  • Consider the difference between manufacturing processes. Check for energy intensiveness of the manufacturing process. Avoid products with high energy consuming manufacturing processes.
  • Look for any waste material or hazardous by-products produced during the manufacturing process.

 

Raw Materials

  • Use of renewable raw material in products is always an advantage. Use of material with rare or scarce availability in nature will earn a low rating on the green scale.
  • The processes used in extraction of raw materials, its handling, storage and transportation and its Impact on the environment should be considered.

Disposal and Recycle

  • Ease, safety and costs of an environmental friendly disposal are key considerations.
  • Scope for recycling the product or material used in the product is also an important factor.

A broader canvas of analysis, with most, if not all, the parameters above is necessary for an exhaustive assessment of green products. While it could be difficult to get information on some of the parameters during the purchase process, thinking beyond just the energy efficiency is a must to ensure green future.

 

 

Posted in GreenCabinet@e-power, Opinion | Leave a comment