Before I moved to the UK, I never gave much notice to the coming of spring. After all, in Southern California where I lived most of my life, there was hardly ever any change between the four seasons. But now, I start counting the days until spring starting on January 1 and relish every minute of sunlight that shines through the clouds past 6 PM.
For the past week or so we’ve had glorious weather in London. Bright blue skies, warm (well warmish) sun and temperatures hovering around 11 degrees C (very low 50’s F). After a very cold winter, this “heatwave” (and I use the term very loosely) has resulted in people shedding layers and layers of sweaters/coats/scarves to run around in T-shirts and shorts. And if you’re like me this time of year starts you off on a massive spring-cleaning effort. Windows get opened so you can get fresh air through the house and you clean the muck that has built-up during the winter from windows and doors.
And at work, I do the same thing like clockwork every spring.
- Give your analysis process a good cleaning. Image courtesy of Microsoft clipart.
I set some time every spring to clean my desk, look through documents piled up in neat stacks and throw out what is no longer needed. At the same time, I examine my sacred cows – stuff I always do because I’ve always done them. To figuratively blow away the dust and cobwebs I ask myself: do we still need to do them? If the answer is no, then I stop doing it. If the answer is yes then I ask the second question: can it be improved at all? And invariably it always can.
So I’d like to encourage you to do the same. Can the process of design and analysis within your organization be improved? Can you streamline your analysis process to take advantage of new concepts such as Concurrent CFD? Do you need to test so many physical prototypes or can some of them be replaced with virtual ones? Can you…?
Yes … you can.
Now some of you may be thinking: I’d love to do something about it but it falls outside my realm of influence. That’s ok. You can gather facts by going to websites such as ours to find out how other companies have done the same thing and sharing the information with your manager. For example, we have a series of success stories that showcase how other companies have blown away the cobwebs in their analysis process. Or you can watch a series of freely available on-demand presentations on various topics to educate yourself on the subject-matter. It doesn’t require a lot of time or effort but I can assure you that at the end of the process you’ll find a renewed sense of energy.
Until next time,
Nazita