Analysis and Presentation

I was fortunate enough to attend a one-day seminar in Philadelphia earlier this year put on by Edward Tufte, Professor Emeritus at Yale University. The $380 fee included four of Dr. Tufte’s books. I would estimate that about 1,000 people (!) attended the seminar the same day I did. I would recommend the seminar and the books to anyone who wants to communicate better or understand the dynamics of good communication.

Most of us attend meetings and presentations as part of our jobs. Many of us are asked at one time or another to present something – or to be consumers of other people’s presentations. What are the elements of an effective presentation? What follows are my interpretations of Dr. Tufte’s thoughts from the seminar and from his book Beautiful Evidence.

Your Job as Presenter

When you present, you have a story to tell. Don’t lose sight of your story. When you are finished, your audience should have no doubt about what your story was. Next comes the question, “Have I presented convincing evidence that my story should be believed?” As a presenter, you are responsible for the intellectual and moral integrity of your presentation. To be believed, you must “do your homework” and honestly communicate the findings. And as a listener, you are responsible for understanding what the story is and to evaluate its believability.

What is the best way to communicate information? Naturally, there is no easy answer. Dr. Tufte suggested: "Whatever it takes" – meaning, “Do whatever it takes to convey the story and don’t restrict yourself to one type of data or one style of presentation.” A simple approach is to simply do a ‘high-resolution data dump’ followed by a discussion of it. Said another way, “Put the information out, then ‘hold a press conference.’"  As an example, if the meeting is about improving sales, the meeting might begin with the distribution of some meaningful reports (homework!) and after a few minutes to time allotted to digest the information, a discussion is held on what the data means and what can be done. One more thing: People will be amazed if you finish early.

Notice how different this approach is from presenting a series of PowerPoint slides. The typical “PowerPoint style” of presentation has many faults, most notably that the presenter has dictatorial control over how the topic is covered, not only the content, but also the pace. As Dr. Tufte says, “(PowerPoint) presentations too often resemble a school play: very loud, very slow, and very simple.” Aggressive managers interrupt presentations like this, stop them, and almost always the meeting is better for it.

Onto some sound principles for telling your story:

Principles of Analysis and Presentation of Data

1.      Show comparisons, contrasts, differences – When we are analyzing any question, we always want to know, “Compared to what?” If we are going to use a visual tool to make our point, we should show it next to something we want to compare it to.

2.      Show causality, mechanism, explanation, systematic structure – As we are making our point, we also want to be teaching or explaining about “Why it is so.” For example, if we wanted to show sagging truss sales, we could also show them in light of housing starts, or mortgage rates, or whatever we think provides a possible connection.

3.      Show multivariate data; that is, show more than 1 or 2 variables – This is a real challenge because we have so few role models to emulate. A few examples – the baseball statistics in the Sports Section of your newspaper. There a dozens of statistics tracked for both teams and individuals and we each consume those numbers in our own way. Also, each reader will also draw their own conclusions from the same set of numbers. (That’s OK!) Another example is a road map, which shows routes, terrain, population, distance and may other forms of data. Maps, perfected over hundreds of years, show a wonderful variety of data and have almost no “fluff.” (You can tell fluff by asking, “If I left this out, would any meaning or understandability be lost?”)

4.      Completely integrate words, numbers, images, diagrams – This means that we place different types of information together, rather than segregating them. On a truss layout, we know the value of labeling everything right on the layout. Tables on the side of the layout are “second best” and should be avoided except to show summaries.

5.      Thoroughly describe the evidence. Provide a detailed title, indicate the authors and sponsors, document the data sources, show complete measurement scales, point out the relevant issues. This documents the evidence, and provides the basis for the intellectual and moral integrity of the presentation.

6.       Analytical presentations ultimately stand or fall depending on the quality, relevance, and integrity of their content. This suggests that the best way to improve a presentation is to improve the content – make it more substantial. Has the content of the presentation contributed to the questions it seeks to address?

Some examples of presenting multivariate data - completely unrelated to components: World History, How to Look at Modern Art, Napoleon’s Winter Campaign, More…

Seven Forms of Waste

In Component Talk #24 when discussing lean manufacturing, I said, “No one can afford to ignorant of its strategies and goals.” One of those strategies is the elimination of waste and the first step in that process is to identify what waste is. In putting this article together, I am quoting heavily from Lean for Dummies by Natalie Sayer and Bruce Williams, and excellent introduction to Lean.

Waste in lean manufacturing means wasted effort, wasted resources, and activities that add no value to the end user. Waste is both inevitable – it cannot be completely eliminated, and reducible – we can always improve. And so, on to the list:

Transport

The idea here is that any transportation of materials between “transformational operations” is a waste. Every time you move something it presents an opportunity for damage or injury, to say nothing of the time the transportation took. Poor layouts and disorganization are a frequent cause of transport waste. Conveyance mechanisms take up floor space, and can lead to inventory accumulation. If you’ve ever seen television program on how computer chips are made, you know that the reason that today’s chips are so much more efficient than yesterday’s is the fact that the new chips have reduced the space that the information must move through to almost nothing. When you make billions of production cycles per second, that adds up quickly. It’s no different on a component production floor.

Waiting

Any time a production person is waiting, it is a waste of that resource. Waiting most frequently comes from shortages, unbalanced work loads, need for instruction, or by design (such as watching a machine complete its cycle.) If you see a production person waiting around, ask yourself, “Which one of the reasons listed above is causing them to wait?” and address it. In some cases workers wait because they expect (or know) that whatever they are waiting for will come to them – even though they could simply go get it much faster. They ‘wait for it’ out of habit, and with full knowledge that eventually it will come to them.

Overproduction

Producing more than the customer needs is a waste and causes other wastes – inventory costs, manpower and conveyance cost to deal with the excess product, and consumption of raw materials.

Defect

In keeping with the all-too-obvious idea that we want to ‘do it right the first time,’ any process, product or service that fails to meet specifications is waste. I’ve seen the time taken to fix one missing plate on a truss shut down not just one line, but two (if they share a conveyor) equal to the time that it normally take to build three trusses. That’s a lot of waste, and missing plates are only one kind of defect. How many different types of defects do your products have? Which costs the company the most wasted time and resources? What are your mitigation strategies?

Inventory

Inventory anywhere is non-value-added to the consumer. It not only ties up capital, but it runs the risk of damage, obsolescence, spoilage, and reduced quality. Inventory takes up floor space and other resources to manage and track it. Keeping large inventories may be covering up other issues, such as equipment reliability or poor work practices.

Motion

Any movement of a person’s body that does not add value to the process is a waste. Examples are walking, bending, lifting twisting and reaching. Tacking a plate in place on a truss adds value, but turning around and having to reach to get the plate does not. Motion of the product can also be waste, such as building the truss flat, lifting it into the vertical position to stack or band, and lowering it back to flat for shipping.

Extra Processing

Any process that does not add value to the product is waste. In component manufacturing, this is frequently caused by inadequate technology, such as when we have to re-do an operation (like a finish press.) And given that we do so many things to add value to the products we sell, why not take the time to verify that those activities are indeed valuable? By talking to customers we can make sure that what we are doing is really adding value and/or making sure that the customer understands how to get the maximum value from the things we are doing.

Trends in the Component Industry

The Outside World

Smaller homes – the average square footage going down

It isn’t clear that this will be a lasting trend, but in order to produce housing that is affordable to a larger number of consumers, house designs are getting smaller. This may primarily affect truss spans, as opposed to trusses per setup or complexity of individual truss designs.

Architects transitioning to working in 3d

All of the architectural CAD software is offered in 3D versions. The ability to show potential customers a 3D image of their new home, and make “What if?” modifications on the spot, is becoming a significant sales tool. Architects have been slow to migrate to 3D because they have a huge legacy of existing designs in 2D, and have been reluctant to face the learning curve.

A further incentive will be the introduction of engineering tools built in to the CAD packages; architects are anxious to migrate from guessing or “rule of thumb” methods for spec’ing things like beams. CAD packages will eventually offer optional engineering elements.

Big Builders

Although many big builders are currently in hibernation, when the economy comes back they will again play a major part in home construction. Big builders are increasingly becoming “high tech,” and using sophisticated budgeting and scheduling tools to run their businesses. Component manufacturers that understand and work in harmony with these methods will have a an advantage over those who resist them.

The “Sustainable Building” Concept

“Green” represents a major trend. In the recent past, disjointed and somewhat illogical standards have hurt the movement’s reputation in the construction industry. The illogical aspects will fall away and be replaced by more pragmatic standards. This trend is a “big plus” for component manufacturers, as the inherent efficiency of prefabricated components makes them more attractive than other solutions.

Code Enforcement

As every part of the industry becomes more sophisticated, we will see more regulation and increased insistence on compliance. Stick framing will be challenged and require more engineering justification Lateral design considerations will also be at the forefront of this trend, with more emphasis on wind and seismic designs, creating opportunities for wall panel manufacturers and driving the use of things like shear walls.

Sprinklers requirements are another example of increase regulation. Now required by IBC/IRC, code agencies and builder constituencies are fighting it out, weighing safety vs. affordability. Sprinklers add $1.50 - $3.50/ft depending on which side makes the argument. Very “political.”

Communication with the Supply Chain

Electronic commerce

The will be a continued acceleration towards the use of electronic documents. Quotes, order confirmation, invoices, sealed designs, and so on. Having a good “filing system” for this mass of electronic documents will be essential to being organized and professional.

Building Information Modeling (BIM)

The concept of the BIM will become more popular as builders realize the potential of using a digital model. Advantages include more accurate labor and material estimates, reduced construction errors, facilitation of the selling process, improved communications, etc.

Collaboration

Electronic communication will lead to closer communication and knowledge sharing between the architect, engineer, builder, framer, and component manufacturer. As standards of 3D modeling are established, sharing information about the model in 3D will become the standard in the way PDF now sets the standard for 2D communication. It will be more than pictures – as the model can provide us with more information, we will develop ways to share that information in a way that is beneficial to everyone involved. The challenge will be figure out how best to do this.

Within the Component Manufacturing Industry

Designer Productivity

The spotlight will increasingly be on getting the most throughput from design time. Things that can help include being able to edit directly in 3D, create more ‘framer-friendly’ design (like lining up chases,) being able to load directly from the model, and tools to create more ‘shop-friendly’ designs (like matching webs.)

Production Equipment

New equipment will mostly be “high tech” things that minimum dependence on the dwindling labor supply.

Lean manufacturing

Debate continues about the applicability of “lean” to component manufacturing, but it is a trend. No one can afford to ignorant of its strategies and goals – if for no other reason than to be certain why you would not want to use it.

Offering More Products

Most obvious is supplying the product in place, offering the ability to install the product in the field. Also component manufacturers look as possible supplying stairs, doors, windows, decking, trim and taking the headache away from the contractor.

Business Reporting

Understanding the business in detail using the business management reporting tools is a growing trend. Which table is most productive? Why? Which customer have I had the lowest “hit rate” with? Is my product mix getting more complicated or less? These are all things that can be known, but the information needs to be mined and studied in order to used.

Summing Up – The Overall Trends

·         Sophistication of the entire supply chain

·         The advent of 3D modeling

·         Electronic communications