Showing posts with label Measurement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Measurement. Show all posts

May 16, 2023

Measuring The Old Way

You think Home Depot can come up with something a little more sophisticated than this?

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)


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September 26, 2019

Beautiful Measurements

This is a beautiful set of nested brass weights from France. 

It dates back to 1852!

The weights range from 1 gram to 500 grams. 

These are weights, but also a form of art. 

It is located at the NIST Museum.


There is something comforting about weights, measures, and standards.

It puts an organized construct unto our universe and creates some objective scientific reality to our world. 

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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May 25, 2019

Sizing Fashion And More

So it was interesting article in the Wall Street Journal today...

There is an obesity problem in the U.S. 

But the statistics in terms of the typical sizes of fashion (for women) has been "largely" overlooked.

The biggest size most fashion brands even bother to sell is: 12

"Only 7% of womenswear stocked at multi-brand retailers is a size 14 or above."

But the average American dress size is between between 16 and 18!

The typical runway model is size 2.  

BTW, I think men have the same problem with sizing.

There was another thing about measurement in the WSJ today having to do with measuring time. 

Day is measured by the earth rotation (on its axis). 

Year by the rotation around the sun.

Month by rotation of the moon. 

Earth, Sun, and Moon...give us time. 

Now we need to take all the wonderful time we have measured and not spend it all eating.  ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal @Ripley's Believe It or Not)
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April 30, 2018

DMAIC Reengineering

A colleague gave a wonderful talk the other day on process engineering.

The key steps to reduce waste (Lean) or variation/defects (Six Sigma) are as follows:

Define - Scope the project.

Measure - Benchmark current processes.

Analyze - Develop to-be processes (with a prioritized list of improvements) and plan for implementation.

Improve - Executive process improvements.

Control - Monitor/refine new processes.

It was amazing to me how similar to enterprise architecture this is in terms of: defining your "current" and "future" states and creating a transition plan and executing it.

Also, really liked the Project Scoping questions:

- What problem do you want to solve/what process do you want to improve?
- Why do you need this?
- What is the benefit?  And to whom?
- What are your objectives for this effort?
- Who are the key stakeholders?
- When is this needed and why?

I think process improvement/engineering methodologies like this can be a huge benefit to our organizations, especially where the tagline is "Why should we change--we've always done it this way!" ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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March 21, 2018

Measurement And Standards Are Our Friends

So I learned that Metrology is the science of measurement. 

And measurement is the foundation of scientific research and creating standards. 

Scientific research and measurement are about exploration, discovery, and innovation.

Further, it is about finding the facts; it is objective; it is truth; it is essential to maintaining integrity. 

Standards also help to ensure dependability, because there is a common reference and you know what you are getting. 

A great true story that demonstrates the importance of measurements and standards is the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904.

This was the third worst urban inferno in American history. 

It destroyed over 1,500 building across 140 acres. 

Fire engines responded from as far as New York and Virginia. 

But the problem was that they invariably could not help. 

Why?  

Because their fire hose couplings could not fit on the Baltimore fire hydrants--they were not standardized.

Without standards, we don't have interoperability. 

We don't have a reference that everyone can go by. 

It's as if we're all working on our own desert islands. 

This defeats the power in numbers that make us together greater than the sum of our individual parts. 

Science and technology help us advance beyond just ourselves and today. 

Measurement and standardization help us to build a better and stronger society. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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