This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
This Website Uses Cookies
By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn More
This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
Assembly Magazine logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Assembly Magazine logo
  • Home
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Digital Edition
    • Archives
    • Specs Book
    • How-To-Guide
    • Buyers Guide
  • Exclusives
    • Plant of the Year
      • About Plant of the Year
      • Nomination Form
    • Capital Spending
    • State of the Profession
  • Industries
    • Aerospace
    • Appliance
    • Automotive
    • Medical Devices
    • DFMA Assembly
    • Green Manufacturing
    • Lean Manufacturing
    • Electronics Assembly
    • Machinery Assembly
  • Technologies
    • Adhesives
    • Assembly Presses
    • Automated Assembly
    • Dispensing
    • Motion Control
    • Screwdriving and Riveting
    • Plastics Assembly
    • Robotics
    • Test and Inspection
    • Welding
    • Wire Processing
    • Workstations
  • Columns
    • Assembly in Action
    • Automation Profiles
    • Medical Device Assembly
    • On Campus
    • Shipulski on Design
    • The Editorial
    • XYZ
    • Moser on Manufacturing
    • 21st Century Assembly
    • Mind Your Ps and Qs
  • New Products
  • More
    • Web Exclusives
    • Classifieds
    • eNewsletter
    • Blog
    • Market Research
    • Store
    • Product Spotlight
    • White Papers
    • Integrated Showcase
    • Custom Content & Marketing Solutions
    • Monthly Quiz
    • Sponsored Insight
  • Multimedia
    • Assembly Radio
    • Assembly TV
    • Image Galleries
    • Webinars
    • Interactive Spotlights
    • eBooks
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • The Assembly Show
  • Contact
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
  • InfoCenters
    • Collaborative Robot Revolution
    • Factory of the Future
Home » What’s Your Perspective?
DFMA AssemblyLean Manufacturing Assembly

What’s Your Perspective?

Risk looks differently depending on perspective.

Shipulski on Design
June 3, 2013
Dr. Mike Shipulski
KEYWORDS design management / manufacturing innovation / manufacturing leadership / manufacturing management / product design
Reprints

To move your company to a better place, it matters more where you are than where you want to go. And before you can see clearly where you are, you must clarify your perspective.

For example, depending on your perspective, a cylinder looks differently. From the side its projection looks like a rectangle, from the top a circle, and from an off-angle a cylinder. Three different perspectives create three fundamentally different shapes. The shapes don’t just look differently, they are different. Which one’s right? Strangely, all three are. Perspective is that powerful.

With different perspectives there can be no consensus on the starting point never mind the destination. Imagine the chaotic meeting to define the destination where there’s fundamental disagreement on the starting point. The from-the-side contingent is adamant the starting point is a rectangle; the from-the-top disciples swear it’s a circle; and the off-axis zealot says it’s a cylinder. Three groups in viscous disagreement, all camps right. It’s difficult to get to the right destination with disagreement on the starting point.

Enough about geometry. Here are some real life examples:

Success looks differently depending on perspective. Perspective 1: Everything is good. We’re making lots of money, and we’re growing. Our products are good and our jobs are secure. Let’s do what we did last time because it worked. Let’s protect what we have. Perspective 2: Things are good, for now. Our products are good, but competitors are developing better ones. Let’s do the tough work to obsolete our best stuff. Someone’s going to do it, and it should be us.

Both perspectives are valid. If you want to grind it out, the first one is the way to go, and if you want to innovate, the second is better. But problems arise when a grind-it-out company tries to innovate and an innovation-driven company wants to grind it out. (Think transition from start-up to grown-up.)

Risk looks differently depending on perspective. Manufacturing’s perspective is this: We make the same thing every day. We’ve got known inputs, known processes, and known outputs. We’re concerned about disruptions in our daily routine. We’re concerned about things that get in the way of doing what we do. Product development’s perspective is this: We must change our product to improve performance and reduce cost, but the solution is unknown. Anything we change creates technical risk and schedule risk, so we’ve got to meet the new specifications and take the least risk doing it. The innovator’s perspective is this: We must invent things that don’t exist, solve problems no one recognizes, and commercialize them. To truly innovate, we must force ourselves out of our comfort zone. We must forcibly inject more risk than we can tolerate.

All three perspectives are valid, and thankfully we have all three. Within each group, there are likely shared perspectives, but not across the groups. To move the whole organization, before talk of a new destination, the right first step is a campaign to shift and align perspectives.

To start, senior leaders take the show on the road to educate on the new realities. Whether it’s increased competition, importance of emerging markets, or disruptive new technologies, the goal is to paint a new picture so everyone understands why it’s time for a new perspective. The biggest failure mode is to jump right into the grand new perspective without explaining why existing perspectives must change. The second biggest failure mode is to assume that a single presentation from the CEO will immediately shift perspectives.

 Perspective is more important and more powerful than our behavior suggests. We should change our behavior. 

subscribe to assembly

Recent Articles by Mike Shipulski

Tie workforce development to business objectives

Go looking for problems

The benefits of additive manufacturing trump cost

It matters where products are made

Metrics don’t tell the whole story

Shipulski200
Mike Shipulski is a leading authority on lean manufacturing, product development, and design for manufacturing and assembly. His column will appear every other month, alternating with Austin Weber’s “On Campus.” E-mail Mike with comments via mike@shipulski.com or follow his blog at www.shipulski.com.

Related Articles

Shipulski on Design: How to Make Your Green Programs Actionable

Simplicity isn't simple

The yin and yang of standard work

Subscribe For Free!
  • Print & Digital Edition Subscriptions
  • Assembly eNewsletters
  • Online Registration
  • Subscription Customer Service
  • Mobile App

More Videos

Popular Stories

lordstown motors

Electric Truck Manufacturer Buys GM’s Lordstown Assembly Plant

Bobcat manufacturing

Bobcat Announces Manufacturing and Assembly Facility Upgrades

Wearable Device 11-27

Wearable Lets Users Control IoT-Enabled Devices With Brain Waves

Rayovac 11-20

Energizer Moving VT Battery Manufacturing Facility to Former Rayovac Plant

Breaking and Industry News

Airstream Manufacturing Expands With $50 Million Factory

Upcoming Assembly Events and Webinars

Events

January 1, 2030

Webinar Sponsorship Information

For webinar sponsorship information, visit www.bnpevents.com/webinars or email webinars@bnpmedia.com.

View All Submit An Event

Poll

Cloud Computing

Are you using cloud computing at your assembly plant?
View Results Poll Archive

Products

Welding: Principles & Practices

Welding: Principles & Practices

This text introduces students to a solid background in the basic principles and practices of welding.

See More Products
assembly buyers guide

Assembly Magazine

assembly dec 2019

2019 December

The 2019 December Assembly features our Capital Spending Report, plus much more. Check it out today!
View More Create Account
  • More
    • Assembly Plant of the Year
    • Manufacturing Group
    • List Rental
    • Organizations
    • Connect
    • Want More?
    • Polls
    • Privacy Policy
    • Subscribe
    • Survey And Sample

Copyright ©2019. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing