The BANWAD Way: Beyond Agile, New Work and Digitalization E-Book

Arno Ritter

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 202

Beschreibung

Agile Management and New Work concepts can be seen as promising trends. Or are they just passing fads whose end is already in sight? What about Digitalization? It is the basis of our lives today - both professionally and privately. But what's next? A trend toward virtual work or a revival of face-to-face collaboration? Let's take a look beyond and make a fair assessment.

Leseprobe

Foreword

Digitalization is the “new” buzzword. Everyone uses it, but what does it really mean? The same is true for “smart” tools and “smart” data. If so, must there also be “dumb” data? Certainly, “Digitalization” and “New Work” concepts are great enablers and have helped to mitigate the problems associated with the COVID-19 crisis – to some degree. In addition, new (really?) ways of working such as “agile” approaches promise great benefits. We live in the age of digitalization, agile management and New Work. Therefore, it is now crucial to talk about the future – the age beyond digitalization, agility and New Work. I’m not just saying this as a provocation. It really is worth doing a flash analysis but also talking about the benefits, the respective limitations and downsides. In reality, the world is neither purely digital nor analog. It is both at the same time. Nature is digital, for example, at quantum level. But time and space are continuous. Digital data must be visualized and is presented in an analog way – like music. The agile methodology offers promising benefits, but other methodologies have promised the paradise as well. Of course, every methodology and paradigm have its specifics; new insights must be taken into account. However, the world keeps turning. The methodologies of the past have mostly failed not because they are completely wrong or inappropriate. The circumstances have changed or they failed mainly because of incorrect implementation – the dark side. They were not properly understood, applied in the wrong context, and applied like dogmatic religions without us asking the right questions or making necessary adjustments. Do the right things right. So, let's review agile approaches and learn for the future in the process. This also applies to digitalization. New Work is actually more than fancy tools or office design. And we've had that in the past. But it hasn't been the game changer. We need to understand the real needs of our customers, employees and all other stakeholders. It's time to think beyond that! My intention with this book is to discuss the good concepts and core ideas of the past with you in order to talk about our future. Finally, let's take a look beyond. The age beyond, and I am absolutely convinced of this, will build on the current accomplishments, but we will return to people with more physical interaction, not just working in a completely digital world or virtual enterprises. It has been and will be a people business. Nevertheless, it will be an interesting journey for all of us. And don’t forget the fun factor.

Arno Ritter ([email protected] / www.arnoritter.de)

For my family and friends

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

PREFACE & INTRODUCTION

DIGITALIZATION

1.1 DIGITALIZATION AS ENABLER

1.2 FORGET DIGITALIZATION?

AGILE MANAGEMENT

2.1 CREATING REAL VALUE

2.2 AGILE MANAGEMENT AS ENABLER

2.3 FORGET AGILE?

NEW WORK

3.1 OUR CHALLENGES

3.2 NEW WORK AS A NEW APPROACH

3.3 FORGET NEW WORK?

BEYOND

4.1 BACK TO THE ROOTS

4.2 THE TUDAPOL PRINCIPLE

4.3 THE REMAINING CHALLENGES

4.4 THE B-A-N-W-A-D-WAY

4.5 THE WORLD BEYOND

LAST WORDS

REFERENCES

REGISTER

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AGV

Automated Guided Vehicle

AI

Artificial Intelligence

AR

Augmented Reality

AUT

Automation

BANWAD

Beyond Agile, New Work And Digitalization

BYOD

Bring Your Own Device

CAD

Computer Aided Design

CAE

Computer Aided Engineering

CAM

Computer Aided Manufacturing

CAP

Computer Aided Planning

CAQ

Computer Aided Quality Assurance

CAS

Computer Aided Styling

CASE

Computer Aided Software Engineering

CAX

Computer Aided X (e.g., CAD)

CIM

Computer Integrated Manufacturing

CMMI

Capability Maturity Model Integration

CNC

Computerized Numerical Control

COTS

Commercial off-the-shelf

COVID-19

Corona virus disease 2019

CPS

Cyber Physical System(s)

CRM

Customer Relationship Management

CSI

Continual / Continuous Service Improvement

CYOD

Choose Your Own Device

DevOps

Integrated process improvement approach for software development, operations and quality

DF

Digital Factory

DMU

Digital Mock Up

E-CAD

Electrical CAD

EDM

Electronic Data Management

E-PDM

Electrical PDM

ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning

EVA

Economic Value AddedTM

FDI

Foreign Direct Investment

HR(M)

Human Resources (Management)

HW

Hardware

IaaS

IT as a Service

ICT

Information Communication Technology

IoT

Internet of Things

IPC

Industrial Personal Computer

IT

Information Technology

ITIL®

IT Infrastructure Library

JIT

Just-in-Time

KBE

Knowledge-Based Engineering

KPI

Key Performance Indicator

MAS

Multi-Agent-System

MBA

Master of Business Administration

M-CAD

Mechanical CAD

MES

Manufacturing Execution System

M-PDM

Mechanical PDM

MVP

Minimum Viable Product

NAFTA

North American Free Trade Agreement

NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NC

Numeric Control

NPV

Net Present Value

OEM

Original Equipment Manufacturer

PDM

Product Data Management

PLC

Programmable Logic Controller

PLM

Product Lifecycle Management

R&D

Research and Development

RCEP

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership

RFID

Radio Frequency Identification Device

ROI

Return on Investment

SAP

Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung

SCADA

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition

SCM

Supply Chain Management

SEA

South East Asia

SMART

Specific – Measurable – Accepted – Realistic – Timely

SME

Small and medium enterprises

SoP

Start of Production

SVA

Shareholder Value Analysis

SW

Software

TDM

Team Data Management

TUDAPOL

Think Unlimited, Develop Agile, Produce and Operate Lean

VR

Virtual Reality

WLAN

Wireless Local Area Network

2D / 2-D

Two-dimensional / bi-dimensional (space)

3D / 3-D

Three-dimensional / tri-dimensional (space)

6 Rs

6 R’s of logistics: RIGHT quantity, object, place, time, quality & cost

PREFACE & INTRODUCTION

When I first started looking into Industry 4.0, I often asked myself: what's revolutionary about it? Apparently, some people are successfully selling concepts by putting an "Industry 4.0" sticker on old products. Chinese groups are now coming to Germany to understand and then copy Industry 4.0. I was also allowed to train some managers. Nevertheless, some critical people emphasize that "Industry 4.0" is (only) a self-declared revolution, as opposed to the first, second or third industrial revolution. To be honest, they have a point. The fourth revolution could be understood as an extension of the previous one.

Figure: Industry 4.0 – Major Industrial Revolutions: 1) A replica of Central Pacific’s Jupiter, Promontary, Utah. 2) The Völklingen Ironworks, World Heritage Site, Germany. 3+4) Mobile robots interacting with industrial robots

Figure: Industry 4.0, lecture “International Strategic Management” (Ritter 2018)

To be fair: Digitalization started back in World War II when the first computers were developed. In the last decades, there have been several breakthroughs and milestone developments, starting with personal computers, NC machines, PLC, the Internet, mobile devices, etc. In addition, digitalization has been an enabler for new ways of working in the industry or in the home. Do you remember Computer Integrated Systems (CIM), the spread of automation or the introduction of robots? Yes, that was a revolution in the 1970s or 1980s. Many thanks to Joseph Engelberger and the other guys! I can still remember what my dad told me about CIM. Then in the 1990s, I myself got involved with agentbased concepts like Agile, Bionic, Holonic, Genetic or Random Manufacturing Systems; not to forget Fractal Factory or Mass Customization. But at the same time, you could read articles like "CIM is alive" but also "CIM is dead". This is no joke. And there are reasons for that.

Figure: Agent-based organization concepts according to Ritter (2000 & 2003)

RFID was already in use in the 1990s (a technology also developed at the end of World War II), but it still lacked mobile devices such as smartphones or cheap webcams or other low-cost sensors. Now we have solutions called Cyber Physical Systems (i.e., physical agents). Autonomous Guided Vehicles and robotic systems are state of the art today. In that sense, of course, digitalization is advancing.

I can still remember how tedious it was to work with computers from home. Now it's easy due to powerful WLAN, laptops, tablets and smartphones (we call it "ubiquitous" or "mobile" computing). So, we've really made progress. Great achievements! But to be perfectly honest: when I talk about a postdigitalization age in this book, I don't mean that digitalization is at an end (nor that we're turning back the wheel of history). No! I still expect to see interesting solutions with AR technology, interactive applications (e.g., movies), smart user interfaces (e.g., brain interfaces, translators) that are hopefully more accommodating to people with disabilities than before, and some other improvements in business applications. By the way, I'm not sure if my generation consists of digital natives or, say, digital pioneers. I'm not a digital hater either, even though I learned a bit about analog computing. I studied electrical engineering & automation and have worked in the field of robotics and Digital Factory. Therefore, please understand my criticism of digitalization correctly.

Figure: Robot systems, see also Schraft and Schmierer (1998)

Rest assured: we will see further surprises and achievements within and through digitalization. Some will be truly revolutionary; some will merely be the result of continuous development. Digitalization certainly helped us during the COVID-19 crisis, at least for the people who were able to work in home offices. However, a notable finding during the COVID-19 crisis was that digital collaboration worked well not only because of robust digital solutions such as internet connectivity, collaboration tools and secure infrastructure. It also worked well in the first place because teams were already well attuned to each other and simply continued to work as they always had. But the flip side of this is that new projects could not be started in some places, and the integration of newcomers sometimes failed or became very challenging. The quality of collaboration will not be sustainable or lasting ...

Physical meetings or face-to-face communication cannot be completely replaced by digital approaches. People need physical interaction (maybe not what you think now), at least the majority of us. Hence, let's take a look at New Work concepts. They will fail if they rely only on technical digitalization. In this context, I remember my first job in a research and development organization. We had wonderful video conferencing rooms, but no one except us could connect because our customers or partners didn't have such fancy high-end solutions at that time. Also, there were organizations that had adopted and applied all the open-office concepts that are just now being adopted in some companies. We had had fancy spaces as well. But honestly, the majority of people don't care if the spaces are fancy or very expensive. They mostly want to work in a nice environment with good colleagues who respect and like them; they need adequate equipment, sure, but it doesn't have to be the most expensive or modern items. And not everyone likes the idea of shared desks, open space, etc. I once worked for an international consulting firm. Therefore, I understand the financial aspect of shared desks, since the consultant is, after all, supposed to work mainly on site and for a client, and the spare office space then goes unused. Hence, I have nothing against the concept of shared desks. It saves money and it is fancy to be able to book a desk in 100 countries around the world and choose a printer in India or the US. And some people - by the way - print on printers located in other continents. But if a shared desk is just a controller's idea to save money, and doesn't support a collaborative, positive work culture then it's nonsense. The same goes for open spaces. I worked as a student for a leading high-tech company in a building where three departments worked in one single room on one floor: no separate rooms or meeting areas, just the elevators, kitchen and restrooms in the middle. One of the bosses sat next to an open meeting room. No chance of having quiet or confidential conversations. Sales engineers - constantly on the phone - sat next to programmers or developers. It was a nightmare for them (for all parties). By the way, I had my test and development area in one of the four corners of that floor. People called me lucky.

Same thing with shared desks. One story about this: management heard about this concept in one company and tried to introduce it; but even the change agents secured their private desks right at the start - and permanently - in the best spots, such as by the windows. But let's say that management never got honest feedback and inevitably concluded that shared desk was the best approach ever.

To me, on the other hand, there's no question at all that sometimes it's more practical to have the right people work closely together for a while. It's a matter of efficiency and effectiveness. And the so-called "plateau mode" is really a powerful enabler. So, don't destroy well-functioning teams. Plateau mode is actually predestined for agile management. Nevertheless, agile approaches are sometimes introduced into organizations that are not yet ready for agility. It's not enough to send people to some trainings. Agile approaches fail when people - managers and employees - still keep their old mindset. Agile values such as courage, commitment, focus, openness or respect are often not understood or shared. Agile approaches will then certainly fail: agile development is required, but there are still too many dependencies and interfaces that do not allow for autonomy; the old way of contracting or paying is maintained, etc. There is a whole range of sources of failure.

And I asked myself the question: is it really true that productivity or quality has improved through agile approaches? What about people's satisfaction? And I have to say and admit: I was proud of my project results, which I managed myself in an "old-fashioned" way during my previous stages of work life. Maybe it wasn't old-fashioned, but just successful? Since then, my friends and I have had different experiences with different clients or organizations; and not all of us felt that agile increased efficiency, productivity, quality, etc. To be honest: not all companies (or only a minority of them) did a bad job before adopting agile management. Nevertheless, some studies emphasize that agile organizations deliver or promise five times higher profits, two times faster time-to-market, and two times higher employee satisfaction (Heidelbach et al. 2020). Is this true? I am sure the positive examples are not fake news. Still, I would never have successfully executed some projects during my R&D phase with agile approaches as they are handled in some areas today. I mean, sometimes you have to work in a kind of firefighting mode, taskforce mode or a "tiger team". Of course, these approaches are in line with some core agile ideas (or is it the other way around?). Yet, to be honest: we didn't call it agile back then, but we probably already applied agile and lean concepts: less waste and overhead, focus on (and reprioritize) the urgent things, develop Minimum Viable Products, get things done, involve the customer, give autonomy, and empower people. So, agile is actually not so bad. But agile concepts can also have their limitations, for example when you think about disruptive innovation or radical change. Therefore, in this book, we additionally want to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of agility. Furthermore, the conclusion could be: it is never just a question of approach, tool or methodology. All roads lead to Rome. As a rule, it is always a question of implementation. I'll venture to make a prediction or prophecy: agile concepts will be replaced in five or ten years. New/old concepts will emerge, whatever they will be called then: people-centric, adaptive, new, smart ... (you can think of other buzzwords). But agile concepts, and I am absolutely convinced of this, will not be replaced or disappear altogether because they are "bad". They will be replaced because organizations never really became agile and never fully understood the philosophy behind it. And they will start to search for a new Holy Grail.

And please learn from the past. Do you remember the history of software development? Spaghetti code, object orientation, Unified Modeling Language, CMMI, etc.? From an unstructured way of working to perfection? Too much documentation, too much formalism? That's why agile software development was introduced in the 1990s. For at least five years, some critics and even some original proponents of the Agile Manifesto have been saying "enough with agile", "agile is dead". But why do they say that? And are they right? It is the same as with CMMI: too much is bad; a case of incorrect implementation. Hence, let's discuss agile concepts in this book - in a fair way.

This book is divided into four parts. In the first three parts, we discuss digitalization, agile management, and the concept of New Work. In each part, I will draw a conclusion: forget digitalization, forget agile management or New Work. I do this as a provocation, of course. In the fourth part, I will merge the insights we have gained and discuss the implications and solutions related to our future, that is, for the world beyond.

This book is based on my personal view of the business world. My intention is to acquaint you with the most significant principles and concepts and to make you aware of some areas you may not have thought of. Think of it like a buffet and pick out the best pieces. Also, my intent is to initiate discussion. The game never ends.

The topics I will be talking about have kept me busy for years. I will refer to the work of people I respect and think are worth pointing out. And I am convinced that it is often better to refer to the "original" than to relabel, more recent articles or findings. A few days ago, I just googled articles – on a subject I was very familiar with twenty years ago. I was really disappointed. The young authors really ignored the seminal originals and sources from their predecessors. Is it arrogance or ignorance? At least not really scientific. But as I said before, I have been dealing with the issues discussed in this book for quite some time. So, I'll come back to some of my core ideas that I've been developing in the past as well. In my first book, I talked about strategies and tools ("Strategic Control Loop" and success factors). In the second, I talked about failures to prevent ("50 Ways in Management to Prevent Success"). Then I looked at agile management, lean management and innovation management, see the "TUDAPOL principle". This book is based on the insights gained from these, but also ventures a look into the future (consideration of the overall context, thinking outside the box, discussion of the limits of digitalization, agile approaches and New Work).

As an author, one undoubtedly bears the main burden of a book. Nevertheless, I would like to express my special thanks to a number of people who have contributed to the success of this work, such as my parents, my friends, project partners, or former colleagues for the stimulating discussions around the topics of individual chapters of this book: my selfproclaimed "big" brother for our discussions around the big picture, starting with Greek philosophy; my friends from the "Ouzo" or "La Sepia Club" for the interesting exchange about "New Work"; likewise to my "agile" friends for our regular weekly exchanges in SCRUM mode about digitalization, agile management and New Work or my business & project friends, old friends and family; not to forget my wife Claudia and my children Aurelia and Roderick for their differentiated, critical view. My son Roderick did the editing, and my daughter Aurelia also helped with the graphic design.

The list of those to whom I owe thanks is far from complete. It includes all the project partners, clients, competitors, collaborators, professors and students with whom I have had the privilege of working successfully over the past decades. In conclusion, I hope the reader finds some interesting ideas and sustainable personal success with this management compass.

Arno Ritter

Hamburg, Germany

Spring 2021

1 DIGITALIZATION

“The computer helps us solve problems we wouldn't even have without it” (unknown author).

People have long been fascinated by artificial intelligence (AI) and expect true miracles from it, e.g., through neural networks. But always be careful with solutions that use words like "intelligent", "smart" or "new". Today's "new" things are tomorrow's old things. "Smart" things are not always really smart. Certainly, it is amazing what Alphabet, Alibaba, Amazon, Netflix, etc. are gaining knowledge from customer data. If you bought porn, you can be sure you'll get a few extra offers (I've heard). However, I am surprised that the ads I receive through my email program regularly offer me ads for stairlifts. I've never googled for such solutions; I don't own a house with stairs either, so I'm wondering about the smart data (but my name isn't unique, so maybe the algorithms are confused). I also get ads for singles or partnerships. Since I've never looked for them (my sweetheart wouldn't allow it), I ignore the offers (Claudia, I swear). But the AI solutions - I suspect - are not satisfied with my response behavior. So, I then receive additional or modified ads for other genders or age groups. So maybe smart data is just a myth. And a word about neural networks: during my studies, we developed iterative learning algorithms that converged within one to two cycles (Schmidt 1996). For comparison: neural networks have to be trained and they need hundreds, thousands or even millions of cycles before they deliver sufficient results. Producing a million defective goods (e.g., cars, airplanes, bottles of beer) before producing the perfect ones would not be a good idea from a business perspective. Of course, there are use cases for which neural networks are the only or best-in-class solution. It just depends.

1.1 DIGITALIZATION AS ENABLER

Figure: Digitalization as enabler– integrated solution

Almost everyone knows digital solutions for private purposes like smartphones, internet surfing, yahoo-ing, music streaming, emailing, social networking, etc. Therefore, I will focus more on the industrial or business context. Digitalization can be an important enabler for innovative business models and business processes. Furthermore, digitalization enables automated production. Not to forget ERP systems. But digitalization is also the basis for digital product development (see PLM) and factory planning (Digital Factory); moreover, it can be the foundation for the entire efficient supply chain (see SCM). Great advantages result from integrated solutions, see also the associated vision of Industry 4.0. Common approaches include an integrated ERP/automation solution, PLM/automation (such as CAD/CAM) or digital factory/automation (e.g., virtual production setup or kinematics simulation). Let's take a quick look at some typical solutions and use cases.

The office

My first deeper experiences with digitalization are related to the use of my father's PC during my school years to learn programming with computer languages like BASIC or PASCAL (and of course to play games) and with a Cosmos computer and simpler transistor circuits to automate my model railroad. In university, we used PCs to develop simulations and software on our own, and we used office applications for text editing like Word or presentation tools like PowerPoint. We started to get familiar with the