John W Lewis

Month: March 2010

  • Less is more manufacturing productivity

    Recollections of an memorable project Thinking about the concept of “less is more”, takes me back to a small and initially unpromising project that a maverick boss of mine persuaded me to get involved in many years ago. It provides an interesting example of counter-intuitive optimisation. The scene… There was a manufacturing plant which produced…

  • Less is more!

    There seems to be an upsurge of interest in the philosophy of “less is more”. A couple of recent articles about product design, in general and in a specific case, address relevant aspects of this phenomenon. What do we know? On one level, we tend to question: how can “less” be “more”? We know it…

  • Social communication is with us

    The technology of communication devices, systems, services  has changed over the years. There have been telegraph, telephone, radio, television, and a variety of others. The characteristics of each technology have dictated the behavioural model of the systems and the services available to users. With the advent of the internet, systems have tended to emulate traditional…

  • Liking LikeMinds 2010

    A global local conference How often does a great conference on an emerging subject attract local, national and global participants to a quiet corner of the UK? Not often, I suspect. Nevertheless last Friday, 2010 February 26, it happened again at LikeMinds 2010! The first time it happened was in 2009 on October 16th. Back…