Table of Contents: Template for Minutes of Meeting | Commmon steps to outsource | Templates for Productivity Enhancements | Business Jokes and One-liners | Job Requirements and Job Descriptions | Fallacies of Human Thinking | Delegation of work | Meeting Agenda Template | Checklist for renting a house | Template for Thermal Simulation Reports | Knowledge Management and Folder Structure Template | Feedback Management: New Tool Adoption
Sarcasm involves saying one thing and meaning the opposite. Adapted from Reader's digest: Very few companies require any physical-fitness program. Everybody gets enough exercise 'jumping' to the conclusion, 'running' late to the meetings, 'dodging' the responsibilities, 'flexing' their muscle to prove their superiority, 'beating' around the bush, 'walking' around the policies, 'fudging' the data, 'painting' the grim picture of the situation and 'fighting' like fools!
Who will Bell the Cat? This is a story about four people named 'Everybody', 'Somebody', 'Anybody' and 'Nobody'. There was an important job to be done and 'Everybody' was asked to do it. 'Everybody' was sure 'Somebody' would do it. 'Anybody' could have done it, but 'Nobody' did it. 'Somebody' got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. 'Everybody' thought 'Anybody' could do it but 'Nobody' realized that 'Everybody' wouldn't do it. It ended up that 'Everybody' blamed 'Somebody' when 'Nobody' did what 'Anybody' could have done.
HERD MENTALITY: There are many versions of the tale. One version describes it Birbal's way to set the expectations right when Akbar was boasting about his supreme authority and absolute compliance he enjoyed from the public (subject, प्रजा) he ruled. Another version is based on the thought process of humans. Now Akabar-Birbal story: Once Akbar heard that every man thinks differently. He asked Birbal whether it is true or not? Birbal said, "No, Your Majesty! In fact, wise men think alike." Akbar was interested to know more about and said, "Birbal, You will have to prove your saying." The next day, Birbal asked all the attendants of the palace to empty the royal pond. Then he announced to the people in the city to pour a glass of milk in the pond during the night. He also informed Akbar on his act (and what Birbal expected in the pond the next day). The next day morning, Akbar and Birbal went to the pond to see the pond was filled with water. Akbar was surprised and asked Birbal, "Why this pond is filled with water instead of milk?" Birbal politely said, "Your Majesty! Everybody has deliberately poured a glass of water in the pond yesterday night. Because they think all others will pour milk and no one could find that they pour water in the pond." That is why it is said that "Wise men think alike".
ज्ञान Knowledge | दक्शता या निपुणता Skill and/or Competence | पारंगत और बुद्धिमत्ता Expertize and/or Intelligence |
हथौरे से कील को लकड़ी मैं ठोका जा सकता है The fact that a hammer is used to force a nail in wood | हथौरे से कील को लकड़ी मैं सीधे तरीके से और बिना किसी नुकसान के एक ही प्रयास मैं ठोकना - the ability to use hammers and pierce nails in woods repeatedly without any damage | पहले एक पतली कील से मोटी कील की नोक के लिये रास्ता बनाना - use innovative methods to reduce the time and damage to apply nails of different diameters without need of special tools |
स्वादिस्ट सब्जी के लिये विभिन्न प्रकार के मशाले, ताजी एवम अच्छी गुण्वत्ता की सामाग्री - information that good quality raw materials and spices are needed to make a vegetable | अच्छी तरह से पकाय हुआ सब्जी कम तेल के प्रयोग से - a well-cooked food | स्वादिस्ट सब्जी जिसको खा के लोग अंगुलि चाटने लगे - a food well cooked and delicious which makes people ask for more |
When someone comments about you that you get angry easily or there is behavioural instability: the hardcore criminals, rapist, dacoits... are mentally strong and extremely stable otherwise they cannot do what they do! Are they good human beings? Why do you think you tend to distribute roses or sweets all the time? Statements starting with following words are sheer example of deceits and lack of confidence: Honestly speaking, In my frank opinion, Correct me if I am wrong, I may we wrong...
'Experience' is an attribute which is very often confused with knowledge and skill. While ‘knowledge’ defines the relevant information a person might possess, the actual application of the knowledge on real-life examples is the experience. Hence, in a job the experience plays important role because it prepares one to take future challenges. As we gain experience, it build confidence to apply the knowledge he/she has gained though academic and self-learning route to new application and foresee the challenges that might crop up. The analogy is between fresh wine as knowledge and old wine as experience even though the chemical composition of wine remains almost same.
With experience, our knowledge may or may not increase in proportion but our value and capability to serve a particular role increase. While the definition of "most relevant experience" for a job is debatable and varies from person to person, experience and capabilities are two complementary traits to assess a person for "fitness to a role". To a certain extent, a person who has been successful in one domain and gained experience in a particular area of work, it is highly likely that he will succeed another area of work not vastly different from the previous one. For example, a person teaching only algebra for last five years and rated as good tutor is very likely to succeed and be equally effective teacher in calculus or trigonometry if certain minimum qualification criteria are met. Hence, a 'relevant' experience indicates a person's ability to be productive right away similar to "ready-to-serve" food, a person's knowledge and capability defines the slope of time curve which will take him to be ready to deliver expected output.
Reference CAE Inc: These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements about our vision, strategies, plans, market trends and outlook, future revenues, capital spending, expansions and new initiatives, financial obligations, and expected sales. Forward-looking statements normally contain words like believe, expect, plan, intend, continue, estimate, may, will, should, strategy, future and other similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as aim, anticipate, believe, could, expect, intend, may, plan, seek, should, strive and will.
A statement is forward-looking when it uses what we know and expect today to make a statement about the future. By their nature, forward-looking statements require us to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties associated with our business which may cause actual results in future periods to differ materially from results indicated in forwardlooking statements. Products and services applicable for Simulation and CAE category are similar in many aspects and help companies of all sizes solve their business problems such as reducing product development time. However, pricing setup, and installation differ for businesses of different sizes.
A business case can be justification for any investment or it can an estimate of profit and loss of any new area of oppportunity. The main intent is to seek approval from the project sponsors and other interested parties.
Background Information: | CFD (Flow and Thermal) simulations are computationally intensive and required not only high computational power, it requires high RAM machine for local processing of data |
Typically, a 32 GB RAM machine can handle models with (tetrahedral) cell counts 20-30 millions with reasonable response time | |
Machines with 32 GB RAM take longer time to generate mesh, becomes unresponsive, does not allow to open MS-office programs, cannot be used for intensive post-processing such as generation of animations or velocity vectors on larger models (cells counts > 30 millions) | |
Description of Requirement: | X new machine with RAM size Y GB which act as shared resource to handle key projects requiring large CPU memory |
Business Objective: | Reduce manual approach to mesh generation and use automated mesh generation features to reduce lead time |
Reduce usage of server resources and costly solver licenses - local operation require different and cheaper license | |
Avoid frequent (soft- and hard-) reboot of machines leading to overload on IT personnel | |
Option Identification and Selection: | Use available cluster or servers to post-process. This leads to blocking of server cores and solver license. Local post-processing will require only cores and no solver license. |
Use existing high-end machine available with team. This is already in practice though only 2 engineers can use in a day and requires high data transfer time | |
Queue such projects with longer lead time category and inform customer accordingly | |
Cost: | New machine with 32 GB RAM: INR 0.69 lakh (Dell T40) |
New machine with 128 GB RAM: INR 1.39 lakh (HP Z4) | |
Benefit and Limitations: | This is an incremental cost and is a pre-requisite to meet growing demand from customers. Expected return on investment is in terms of ability to maintain the UT while team is growing. |
Step-1: What is the primary purpose? For example, [1]Make information available in a searchable webpage [2]Let others learn from your mistakes [3]Make is a passive source of income [4]Earning for a living i.e. primary source of incom ...
Step-2: Why do you want to do it? For example, [1]To get recognition among general public [2]To contribute to environment and social causes [3]To counter the myths and false narrative ...
As you can see, the statements listed in Step-1 and Step-2 overlap and can be interchanged. Hence, to define the objective, you need to ask yourself, "Why do I want to spend time on such things?".
The next step is to check the market size (number of users, renewal cycle, number of existing players...). For example, if you want to create a YouTube channels on "Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning", the repository of YouTube already have whatever topic one may think of and beyond that. Then, one need to think why a user should come to your channel - that is what "New or Unique offerings" you are going to provide?
Similarly, if you want to start a mechanical engineering blog, you need to understand the size (number) of unique visitors. As per news published in India, approximately 15 lakh engineers graduated in 2021. Out of that, around a lakh would be mechanical engineers. Hence, the maximum potential users for your blog would be four lakhs = 4 [duration of course] x 1 lakh [number of students enrolled for mechanical engineering]. This is too small a number to get any meaningful hits to your website and blogs - excluding similar portals already in active existence. However, the number may easily rise to 50 times if you are dealing with topics on Machine Learning. Not only students from many disciplines but also working professionals make up the potential visitors.
There is limit to multi-tasking and some routine tasks needs to be delegated to subordinates. A clear-cut desription of tasks and instructions are pre-requisite to make the delegation effective. Some examples of delegation are:
Task Description | Expected Action |
Status update | Weekly reporting on ongoing tasks and pipeline. Highlight expected delay, help needed and inputs awaited. |
Resource planning | Create forecast of man-power, hardware (computational resources) and software. Look for internal sources before outsoucing. |
Assess training needs | Collect information (based on project types) for competency enhancement (tool as well as product) needs |
Sometimes delgation of responsibilities are needed to someone outside of the team due to small size of individual teams. The person A managing day-to-day activities with customer may have many colleagues with hyphenated reporting. In such cases, there are very likelyhood of issues with owernship of deliverables from each team member. Let's assume a case where person A is assigned functioanlly a member B who are administratively reporting to different manager C. In this case following can be a division of responsibilities between A and C.
A's Responsibilities | C's responsibilities |
|
|
While C is responsible for organizational management such as leave approval, performance appraisal, behavioural training... for B, A is responsible for day-to-day activities for B such as process compliance, status updates, minutes of meetings, weekly or monthly reports...
A sample team structure can be as described below.
Lead | Industry, Applications | Tools | Team | ||||
Responsibilities (Duties) | Previleges (Rights) | Names | Member | Duties | Rights | ||
Assess team capabilities Allocate work, create pipeline Review deliverables Monitor targets Forecast and bill revenue | Allocate tasks Allocate shifts Depute and delegate Set targets Upgrade skills | A | Automotive | FLUENT, CFX, ICEM CFD | X11 Gupta, X12 Murthy, X13 Kumar | Ensure Quality, Cost and Schedule Get trained and skilled Adhere company norms Avoid being followed-up | Raise concerns in-time Seek help, avoid delay Get feedbacks Attend trainings |
B | FMCG, Process Industry | FLUENT, CFD-Post, FM | Y11 Sinha, Y12 Kumar, Y13 Pandey | ||||
C | Machinery, Buildings | ANSA, STAR-CCM+ | Z11 Yadav, Z12 Kumar, Z13 Prabhu | ||||
D | Electronic Cooling | ICEPAK, FloTHERM | U11 Verma, U12 Singh, U13 Sarkar | ||||
E | Aerospace, Medical | FLUENT, OpenFOAM, SU2 | V11 Pawar, V12 Gowda, V13 Rao | ||||
Prepare training modules Assess competency gaps | Demand status of project issues Enforce project reviews | G | Specialist and Subject Matter Expert | ||||
FLUENT, ICEM CFD, FLUENT Mesher | Engines, Multi-phase Flows, Combustion, Cavitation, Turbo-machines | ||||||
H | Specialist and Subject Matter Expert | ||||||
ANSA, STAR-CCM+ | Acoustics, Fluid-Structure Interaction, Erosion, Multi-physics |
Day-to-Day Activities:
Commmon steps to outsource engineering activities: RFQ: Request for Quotation, SOW: Statement of Work
Steps | Description of Activity | Responsibility | Lead Time [days] |
Step-1: | Prepare RFQ or SOW document | A | 2 |
Step-2: | Get quotations from at least two vendors | B | 3 |
Step-3: | Prepare business case and get approval from Department Head
| B | 3 |
Step-4: | Create purchase request or get it created | A | 1 |
Step-5: | Get the PO released | Finance | 5 |
Step-6: | Upload the documents and inputs for execution of task by vendor | A | 1 |
Reference: Computer-aided engineering (CAE) on AWS empowers engineers to innovate: Today, computer-aided engineering (CAE) is standard in any industry that uses design software to develop new products or to create new features for existing products. CAE allows engineers to perform simulations of a product’s physical properties quickly by eliminating the need to build a physical prototype. Virtually all industries are using CAE in product development processes, including: automotive, aerospace, plant engineering, electronics, energy, and consumer goods.
Realistically simulating a product’s complex geometries and testing those in all conditions requires an immense amount of computing power. CAE simulations require storing and processing large amounts of data. Modern simulation tools, software as a service (SaaS) solvers, and cloud computing, have removed barriers to streamlining the difficult endeavor of CAE. Engineers can now leverage the power and speed of high performance computing (HPC) in the cloud to speed up the standard CAE workflow and significantly reduce the cost and time required for each design iteration cycle.
Reference: ANSYS White Paper: In areas of product engineering, digital transformation is already highly embedded – for example, CAE, CAD and CAM are now "must haves" for every manufacturing enterprise.
My experience while dealing with car sales personnel: Following observations are from buyer's perspective and it may be entirely different from salesman's perspective or understanding of the selling process. Other observations include the impact of second language: use of second language English demonstratively created confusion at many instances and it is better to have someone from buyer side who can converse in the same native language as that of seller. /p>
S. No. | Buyer's Perspective | Sales Person's Perspective as viewed by Buyer | Deal closure |
1 | The payment of booking amount is not a 100% confirmed decision to go with initial offering | Push customer to adhere to the initial deal specially revenue or price part | Used threat to cancel the deal to modify the offering |
2 | Invoice is not likely or even possible until car is delivered and the payment terms and deal is negotiable till final (full) payment is made | Standard response: "This is not possible as the amount is already invoiced" | Used threat to cancel the deal to modify the offering |
3 | The offer of exchange of a car "is not linked" with deal to buy the new car | The offer of exchange of a car "is linked" with deal to buy the new car | Settlement of car exchanged was done separately and no adjusted in payment made for new car |
4 | The price of accessories received during initial offering is negotiable | Standard response: "The price is already invoiced and cannot be negotiated" | No partial purchase of accessories made due to rigid stance by salesman |
5 | It was assumed (not explicit confirmed) that the car can be delivered 1 day after the full payment was made | It takes minimum 3 days after the payment was made "before noon" | Car was delivered the second day after full payment as saleman has to meet his personal committment |
6 | Buyer does not have to fully understand the deal or confirm the offerings at the time of booking - friends can be consulted to check utility of optional offerings | The assumption was that the buyer has fully understood the deal and confirmed everything mentioned in offering document | Buyer had to unwillingly accept the extended warranty. Cost of accessories was eliminated as described above. |
Template for Target Setting and Performance Appraisal --- Excel-based Goal Setting Template
Printable Calendar: This is not a template but is useful to have a printable calendar. Source is unknown. Printable calendar for any year upto 2078
Business Case:
This template or similar can be evolved to standardize the communication at various level in an organization to get approval for expenses and procurements. Template for Business Case
₹ Planning for source of incomes: Whether you have sources of income or not, some expenses are fixed and necessary. This excel can be used to plan various sources of income one may need based on current and future expenses. One need to account for lump-sum expenses such as purchase of a car in monthly savings. Template to match source of incomes and expenses.
☕ Template to plan items for a big feast (Bhandara or Bhoj): Template to prepare a list of items categorised as per their types, names of spices and vegetables written in English and Hindi. Items categorized for each of procurement and storage.
⌛Template for Minutes of Meeting: A simple but highly effective template to capture action items, responsible persons' names and due dates.
Template to present in meetings on-the-fly: Many a times you may not be fully prepared or even half-prepared to share your team's update. Following list serves as a quick reference to retrieve information from your memory.
Template for Employee or Team Database: A categories multisheet Excel file to manage team database for day to day use - not for confidential data. Many names defined to enable drop-down options.
Template for Business Growth Map: Businesses have complex dynamics and identification of key attributes are essential to look for growth lever. Human minds cannot process large number of data types and hence a lesser but sufficient number of attributes need to be captured.
Template for Input Tracker Sheet: For complex tasks, not all inputs are available at the start nor they are needed. A pre-defined list of inputs help track the availability of the inputs for smooth progress of the project. It is recommended to circulate the tracker sheet content in the body of an e-mail rather than sending as attachment.
Knowledge Management (KNM) Database and Folder Structure Template
Main Folders | |||
Business-Seg-1 | Business-Seg-2 | ... | Business-Seg-N |
Sub-Seg-11 | Sub-Seg-21 | ... | Sub-Seg-N1 |
Sub-Seg-12 | Sub-Seg-22 | ... | Sub-Seg-N2 |
... | ... | ... | ... |
For example, if you are making platic components, Business Segments can be Toys, Home-Products, Farm-Equipments... and sub-segements can be Raw-Material, Moulds, Fixtures....
File Naming Convention | |
B-Seg-1_Sub-Seg-11_Domain_Application_rev_01.pptx | B-Seg-2_Sub-Seg-11_Domain_Application_rev_01.pptx |
B-Seg-2_Sub-Seg-21_Domain_Application_rev_01.pptx | B-Seg-2_Sub-Seg-22_Domain_Application_rev_01.pptx |
... | ... |
For the business mentioned above, the file names can be Toys_Raw-Materials_ABS_Glass-Filled_Rev_01.pptx, Farm-Equipments_Fixtures_PA66_Hoses_Rev_01.pptx and so on.
Business Accelerators (BAC) Database and Folder Structure Template
Create folders named: Automation, pyScripts, Spreadsheets, vbScripts, Checklists, Templates....Customer Presentation Records: It is important to record presentations made to customers and track them
Name presentation files and proposals so that they can be re-used: customerName_YYYY-MMM-DD_Business-Segment_Domain_Reve_01.pptxVendor Records and Database Template: Vendor-Buyer or Supplier-Customer relations are integral part of any business model. A good records of the facilities and capabilities of your collaborators are important to take buy-or-make decisions.
Meeting Agenda Template: Despite intense criticism of time wasted in meetings, such interactions are necessity of human approach at workplaces. A well-design agenda is the starting point to improve outcomes from meetings (to avoid wasting 'hours' to record 'minutes').
It is recommended to circulate the tracker sheet content in the body of an e-mails than sending as attachment. Typical agenda should have following headings:
Agenda of Visit: by XYZ Pvt | |||||||
Date: DD-MM-YYYY | Customer Name: XYZ Pvt Ltd, India, Delhi | ||||||
Team: Design, Simulation, Procurement | Customer Representatives: AB, BC, CD | ||||||
S. No. | Description of Topics | Presenter | Start Time | Duration | Internal Participants | Mode of Presentation | Location of Presentation |
01 | Company Overview | Kumar | 10:30 | 30 minutes | PQ, RS, UV | PowerPoint | Conference Room X |
02 | Design and Simulation | Kumar | 11:30 | 30 minutes | GH, JK, PH | Lab Visit | Test Room Z |
03 | - | - | - | - | --- | - | - |
04 | Lunch | - | 12:45 | 45 minutes | PQ, YZ, UV | Buffet | Cafeteria Q |
05 | - | - | - | - | --- | - | - |
06 | Open RFQ and Proposals | Singh | 14:30 | 60 minutes | PQ, RS, UV | Spreadsheet Q&A | Conference Room X |
Interview Summary Records Template:
S. No. | Candiate Name | Source of Profile | Outcome of Screening | Reason for Rejection in Screening | Interviewer(s) | Outcome of Personal or Telephonic Interview | Reason for Rejection |
001 |
Some of the reasons for not selecting a candidate would be: No relevant experience, Experience far too higher than requirement, Lacked basics of simulation tasks, Tool knowledge not inline with overall industrial experience, Overall relevant skill not inline with total experience, No prior experience to manage a team, Not able to communicate or explain to technical questions, Lack of understanding about proposal preparation
Template for Pipeline and Project Forecasting:
S. No. | Account Name | Project Description | Status | Expected Start Date | Required Tool | Estimated Schedule | Remark |
001 |
Project pipelining can be a push system where members of a team are assigned the task by reporting manager. Or it can be a mix of push-pull system where a member can pull a task from a queue based on completion date of his/her current assignment. Many a time there are multiple databases (records) maintained by different business section such as Sales and Delivery team. To protect data sensitivity, company's Sales team may maintain a separate system to record prospects on large value deals but it is imperative to have a pipeline flowing from sales.
Template to find out Root Cause of Business Stagnation:
S. No. | Account | Revenue Growth in Last 3 years | Revenue forecast for next 3 years | Events that led to Growth | Why growth has stalled? | Why value addition saturated? | How many interactions with customer in last 3 quarters? | Action points |
001 |
Some of the discussion points could be: Pricing pressure from competitors, Not able to move up in the value chain of service offerings, Lag in resource replacement and augumentation, Customer's business not growing at healthy pace.
Template to find out Root Cause of any Problem Statement:
S. No. | Problem Statement | Observation Frequency | Category | Sub-Category | Why did it occur? | Why it could not be prevented? | Why it could not be anticipated? | Final Cause | Preventive Action |
001 |
There are too many examples out there such as Pareto Analysis, 5-Why Analysis, Fish-Bone Diagram... This template is a condensed version of a 5-Why analysis.
Feedback Lifecycle Management Template:
S. No. | Initiator | Submission Date | Category | Sub-Category | Description | Outcome of Evalution | Initiator Informed? | Mode of Intimation | Reason for not Intimating the initiator | Ticket closed by |
001 |
Do not get trapped by someone asking for a feedback when they do not have a robust tracking mechanism. Whether the feedbacks are superficial in nature or worth pursuing should be recorded and informed to the initiator about final outcome.
Feedback Management: New Tool Adoption
The first step is to define the evaluation criteria against expected benefits. For example, if an orgainzation wants to adopt a new tool to streamline hiring process, following can be the expected outcome and evaluation criteria.S. No. | Criteria | Applicable Team | Category | Description | Outcome of Evalution | Evaluating Team or Person | Mode of Record Keeping |
001 | No duplicate profile | Human Resource | Sourcing | Hiring team | |||
002 | Records of evaluation | Interview Panel | Evaluation | ||||
003 | Dashboards for department heads | Spreadsheets |
It is observed that not all stakeholders are involved in many aspects such as expected benefit and information to be made available in dashboards..
Template to Demonstate Mutiple Project Implementations and Tracking
Define and categorize Master projects and subprojects. Monitor how individual projects affect a related group of projects. Share key resources such as experts across multiple projects. Forecast and pipelining: push - pull mechanism to distribute tasks to team members. This is not same as concurrent project management which is more of effective multi-functional integration within a project.S. No. | Description of Project | Project ID | Project Manager | Key Consultant or Expert | Start Date | Planned Finish Date | Team Members |
001 | Develop validation methodology using virtual simulations | SIM-MEC-H-01-02 | M | E | 13-Jan | 31-Mar | 3 |
002 | - | - |
The effective management of multiple projects requires use of templates and tracking systems with responsibilities assgigned to unique individuals.
Templates for MSA (Master Service Agreement), SLA (Service Level Agreement), SOW (Statement of Work), NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement): In NDA between two parties, there are usually clauses that prohibit "sub-contracting without consent" which is restriction on a contractor to further subcontract. For example, party-B may not be entitled without a written approval from party-A to assing or subcontract any portion of the contract to any other person or entity.
Workshop Agenda Template:
Workshop Title | Implementation of new employee database management system | Venue | Building X, Conf. Room Y |
Workshop Date | 12-Dec ~ 13-Dec-22 | Duration | 10:00 ~ 16:00 |
Mode of Discussion | In-Person + Remote | Number of Participants | 12 in-person, 15-remote though Google Meet |
Key Presenters | AB from XYZ, CD from PQR | Key Organizing Members | RS, UV, JK |
Topics and Schedule of the Workshop | |||||
Topic | Description | Presenter / Participants | Mode of Presentation | Start Time | Location / Venue |
Topic-1 | Growth in CAE domain | AB | PPT | 11:00 | CR-X |
Topic-2 | Lead time optimization for onboarding | FG | Spreadsheet | 11:30 | CR-2 |
Topic-3 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
Topic-3 | Tea Break | ... | ... | ... | ... |
Topic-3 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
Topic-3 | Lunch Break | ... | ... | ... | ... |
Expected Takeaways from the Workshop | |||||
Action points for each topic with responsible person's name and planned completion dates | |||||
Summary of discussion points: ideas investigated and reason(s) for rejection/adoption | |||||
Feedback on effectiveness of the workshop and ideas for future improvements |
It is recommended to circulate the tracker sheet content in the body of an e-mails than sending as attachment.
Template to recommend team members for reskilling, upskilling, and cross-skilling: What are the criteria for selection? Who can nominate? Is there any central repository? It is important to have a record of extant skills in the organization logically arranged in terms of business type, domain knowledge, tools, processes, project management, office documentations such as spreadsheets and presentations. These skills should not be just based on manager's observation but based on certain number of internal / external trainings and pragmatic assessments. The term 'pragmatic' refers to assessments where focus is on knowledge such as features and functionalities in Excel rather than too much emphasis on shortcut keys.
S. No. | Team Member's Name | Unique ID | Nominated for | Reason for Nomination | Training Mode |
01 | A | 9900123 | Re-skilling to a new tool | To optimize usage | Classroom |
02 | B | 9900456 | Upskilling | For automation | External vendor |
03 | C | 9900589 | Cross-skilling | To handle load fluctuations | On-the-job on billable tasks |
Template to Maintain Recors about Facilities in a Building
S. No. | Information | Value | Remark |
01 | Total Seating Capacity | x | |
02 | Area of the Cafetaria | y | |
03 | Number of Conference Rooms | z | Each with video calling features |
04 | Number of Snacks Counters | 3 | Including Tea/Coffee |
05 | Number of Lunch Counters | 5 | 12:00 ~ 14:00 |
Template to Present Team's Data
S. No. | Information | Value | Remark |
01 | Average Age | m | |
02 | Average Total Experience | n | |
03 | Number of Domain SME | i | |
04 | Number of Tool SME | j | |
05 | Automation and Scripting | k | |
06 | Number of Practitioners in Open-source Tools | p |
Template for Thank You or Final Slide
Thank you for your attention and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have! Too long for a slide. Add pictures of question mark, raised hands, queries and "getting enlightened" symbol such as light bulb.Template for Synergy and Partnership Slide
Template for PowerPoint Smart Arts: "create.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-templates" contains wide variety of templates.
Template to Record Nominations for Team Members
S. No. | Team Member's Name | Recommendation Category* | Reco. Date | Applicable Duration | Citation | Status of Approval |
01 | ABC | Project Champion | 11-Jan-2021 | Dec-2020 | Citation | Approved / Awarded |
02 | XYZ | Volunteer of Month | 13-Feb-2021 | Jan-2021 | Citation | Not accepted |
03 | LMN | Mentor of the Quarter | 15-Apr-2021 | Jan-Mar-21 | Citation | Awarded |
04 | PQR | Star performer of the year | 05-Apr-2022 | FY-21 | Citation | Awarded |
It gives me immense pleasure to appreciate your efforts towards providing exceptional customer experience while managing a difficult customer and turning them into a regular client. Your positivity and micro-innovations in day to day activities have helped reduce the burnout of the entire team while exceeding the targets on most parameters. Your fresh perspectives, objectivity in approach, and sense of innovation make you a valuable member to our ever growing team. His / her / your ability to perform every task with utmost sincerity has been a great motivator for all of us.
My heartfelt thanks for your dedication towards delivering high-quality output while filling the skill gap in the team. Thank you for your unwavering dedication and commitment for every opportunity you seized and every contribution you made ultimately helped us achieve new heights of success / substantially exceed the targets. Thank you for being the brand ambassador of positivity and confidence at the workplace! Wishing you all the best for continued success in the coming days and years! We are amazed by your skills, high performance and it is our pleasure that you choose to work with our organization!
Template to Design Performance Appraisal Systems
Limit number of targets to ≤ 8, number of categories to ≤ 5. The weightage of each target and category should be defined at organization level for different grades. Behavioural and personal attributes should not be evaluated on more than 5 parameters, preferred to be 3. Keep in mind that more the number of variables, difficult it would be to conclude objectively. Be aware of the variation of definitions at different grades of employees. For example, 'Innovation' can mean widely different attributes for a person with experience ≤ 2 years and someone as Department Head. Similar argument applies to "Team Work" or "Strategic Thinking". Contribution to make process leaner, deterministic and numerically sound invicing systems, more effective timesheet recording... are some examples of targets which should not apply to less experienced employees.Template to Create Dashboards
Excerpt from support.microsoft.com: "A dashboard is a visual representation of key metrics that allow you to quickly view and analyze your data in one place. Dashboards not only provide consolidated data views, but a self-service business intelligence opportunity, where users are able to filter the data to display just what’s important to them."One of the key features of a dashboard should be to segregate semi-static data (like attrition, level or grade of employees, number of team members...) and dynamic data (like open positions for hiring, team members going on vacation in next two weeks...). The dynamic data or open items should be shown as list which is compact yet contains detail information. Data to be presented monthly, weekly or quarterly should be properly selected. The dashboard should avoid redundant data. For example, multiple definitions of Utilization (UT) are created such as UT with Fresher, UT without Trainees, UT without Contract Worker, UT with Onsite. At the end only one value should be used to report this parameter as too many similar parameters do not convey much different story.
PivotTables, PivotCharts, Slicer and Timeline are some of the features available in MS-Office to create a dashboard. Slicers and Timelines allow you to quickly filter your PivotTables and PivotCharts, so you can see just the information that's meaningful to you.
Some contents that can be part of dashboard are: Team summary, Revenue till date, Utilization till date, Innovation Quotient, Hiring pipeline, Attrition rate...
Template to Create Software License Dashboards
S. No. | Software Name | Number of Users | Type (Lease, Perpetual) | Node Locked or Floating | Vendor | % Usage T3M | Current Active Users |
001 |
T3M stands for Trailing Three Months. This dashboard needs to be customized for various roles. For example, end user of a software shall need to know whether a license is available or not but a manager would need to know monthly utilization of the software.
Template to Consolidate Databases
How to make the digital applications in an organization lean? Collect data under heading: App Name, Database Used, Number of Tables in the Database, Number of Fields in all Tables, Unique Key(s), Password Required?, Admin Name, In-house or Third Party?Template to Conduct Review Meetings
Define review topic, circulate review material 3 days in advance, initial 50% time should be spent on questions submitted in advance, next 25% time for questions raised during the review and last 25% on consolidation of responses and conclusion.Template to Create Timesheet Management System
Timesheet work flow: individual -> reporting manager -> project manager.Template to Add Assumptions Slides in a Thermal (CFD) Simulation Proposals
S. No. | Description of Assumption | Justification and impact on accuracy of result |
01 | Material properties shall be assumed constant | Not fuction of temperature except when air is modeled as Ideal Gas |
02 | All walls shall be assumed hydraulically smooth | Most of the time boundary layer thickness exceeds the roughness height |
03 | ... | ... |
04 | Thermally perfect contact between two solid surfaces | Contact resistance can be modeled if known |
05 | Polyhedral mesh, k-ε turbulence model with target wall 30 ≤ y+ ≤ 100 | k-ω turbulence model with target wall y+ ≤ 1 shall require separate budget |
06 | ... | ... |
07 | Geometry to be defeatured by removing fillets and chamfers ≤1 mm | A compromise between accuracy of geometry and accuracy of mesh |
08 | If geometry contains fins, geometry with only plane walls considered | Thin sections with wavy surfaces or holes or dimples require very fine mesh, separate timeline and budget shall be shared |
09 | No swirl applied for fan boundary condition: flow 100% axial | Tool has capability fo model swirl, recommended 10% |
10 | ... | ... |
11 | Turbulence at inlet modeled as Turbulent Intesity, TI = 5 and Turbulent Viscosity Ratio, TVR = 10 | Should be reduced to TI = 1 and TVR = 2 if flow is coming out of a straightener |
12 | Uniform flow assumed at inlet (no parabolic or 7th power profile) | Extend domain [50 x Hydraulic Diameter] if fully developed flow is expected |
13 | Only surface mesh and case file shall be stored for 2 years | Surface mesh contains all settings to generate volume mesh |
14 | Volume mesh and result files shall not be stored | Case file contains volume mesh data |
15 | Steady state set-up cannot be used for further transient simulations | Solid properties such as specific heat and density are not important for steady state simulations |
Template to Exclusions in a Thermal (CFD) Simulation Proposals
S. No. | Description of Exclusion | Justification and impact on accuracy of result |
01 | No mesh convergence study shall be performed | Compliance with solver recommended boundary layer resolutions ensures reasonable accuracy |
02 | Wall with thickness ≤ 2 mm shall not be modeled as real physical volume | Shell conduction shall be applied |
03 | ... | ... |
04 | Impact of different turbulence model shall not be studied | Typical accuracy is ±10% around expected performance |
05 | No calibration or fine-turning with test data | A separate proposal shall be shared based on available test set-up and test data |
06 | ... | ... |
07 | In case of design iterations or parametric studies, the consolidation of files is not included in scope. | Files shall be renamed as per agreed naming pattern or convention |
Template for RFQ (Request for Quotation) or RFP (Request for Proposal): A good template should have a feature to convert an RFQ document into a proposal document thereby making it efficient both for buyer and service providers or sellers.
Template for SOW (Statement of Work): A statement of work is typically a bit more detailed than an RFQ documents.
Template for E-mail to Send RFQ documents: the e-mail body should contain timeline, nature of bid, who to contact and templates to be followed
Template to Organize Outdoor Events such as Intra-Organizational Sports: Timing, contact person, nearest landmark, facilities available nearby (such as snacks, cold water)
Template for Team Events such as Lunch Outing, Camping
Template for Selection of Lunch/Dinner Venue in a Restaurant
Feature | Option-1 | Option-2 | Option-3 | Option-4 | Option-5 |
Non-vegetarion food available? | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Alchohol served? | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Buffet served? | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
Quiet place to eat and chat? | Quiet | Noisy | Very noisy | Loud background music | Loud live performance |
Parking type | Valet parking | Own parking | No parking | Parking in nearby mall | Underground parking |
Advance booking required? | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
Rooftop option? | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Template for Succession Planning
Role | Designation | Current Owner | Succession Criteria | Successor-1 | Successor-2 |
- |
Template for Performance Appraisal Discussion Summary
Name | % Targets met | Special Contributions | Concerns | Future Plans | |
- |
Template of checklist before you rent a house
Template for Thermal Simulation Reports
Slide Number | Header and Content |
01 | Executive Summary: What were planned and what were achieved |
02 | Objectives and Scope |
03 | Inputs Received and Used |
04 | Method and Approach Adopted including Assumptions |
05 | Boundary Conditions, Material Properties |
06 | Mesh Statistics (count and quality metric) and Solver Settings including Versions of the Tools used |
07 | Result Summary: Highlight in bulleted points and tables marking specifications met or not met |
08 | Result Plots and Charts, Add Quantitative data such as area-weighted average values, volume or mass flow rates |
09 | Observations and Recommendations |
10 | Annexure: Views of solver settings and material properties |
Boss in a meeting: "WE WANT CHANGE". The participants starts putting coins on the table... ha ha ha :)
Boss: How can we keep the office clean? Me: By staying at home.
HR: What’s your biggest weakness?, Me: Interviews, HR: And besides that?, Me: Follow up questions.
Boss: Just go to hell! Me: So, should I stay or leave? I’m confused.
If you ever feel useless, just remember that US took 4 Presidents, thousands of lives, trillions of dollars and 20 years to replace Taliban with Taliban..
--A person shouted in the bank: “Has anyone lost a bundle of currency notes tied with a red rubber band?” Many hands were raised. Person: Here is that rubber band! --A man meets his friend who has started wearing ear rings. He asks: "Since when did u start wearing earrings ?" Friend: "Ever since my wife found them in my car! --Some women are so concerned about their husband's happiness! They hire detectives to find out who is responsible for it! --The only 2 persons whom women listen carefully, follows sincerely and does EXACTLY as thye say are.... TAILOR and PHOTOGRAPHER. --Police asked the Thief: Why did u go to Steal 3 times in d Same Store? The thief replied: I Stole 1 Dress for my wife and went to change it twice! --A husband writing in his diary: I prayed the god to have a wife who is good at cooking. But forgot to mention the word 'foods' at the end of the sentence.Funny people are seen as more intelligent and skilled. During his presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy faced accusations that his wealthy father was attempting to buy the election. At the 1958 Gridiron dinner, Kennedy addressed those accusations by saying, "I just received the following wire from my generous daddy: Dear Jack, don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide."
Correct Interpretation of Employee Traits
औसत - Average | बहुत तीव्रबुद्धि नहीं - Not too bright |
तर्क के साथ समस्याओं का समाधान - Approaches problems with logic | काम करने के लिए किसी और को ढूंढता है - Finds someone else to do the job |
असाधारण योग्यता - Exceptionally qualified | कोई बड़ी गलती नहीं की है - Has committed no major blunders |
बहुत रचनात्मक - Very creative | वास्तविक काम के अलावा कुछ भी कर सकता है - Can do anything but actual work |
संसाधनों का अच्छी तरह से उपयोग करता है - Uses resources well | सब कुछ किसी और को सौंपता है - Delegates everything |
असीमित क्षमता - Unlimited potential | सेवानिवृत्ति तक हमारे साथ रहेंगे - Will stick with us until retirement |
सामाजिक रूप से सक्रिय - Active socially | खूब मद्यपान कर सकता है - Drinks heavily |
निन्दा से ऊपर चरित्र - Character above reproach | अभी भी कानून से एक कदम आगे - Still one step ahead of the law |
तीव्र गति से सोचने वाला - Quick thinking | त्रुटियों के लिए स्वीकार्य बहाने प्रस्तुत करता है - Offers plausible excuses for errors |
निर्देश के प्रति उदासीन - Indifferent to instruction | वरिष्ठों से अधिक जानता है - Knows more than superiors |
वरिष्ठों के साथ व्यवहार करने में चतुर - Tactful in dealing with superiors | जानता है कि कब मुंह बंद रखना है - Knows when to keep mouth shut |
एक उत्सुक विश्लेषक - A keen analyst | पूरी तरह से भ्रमित - Thoroughly confused |
खुद को बखूबी अभिव्यक्त करता है - Expresses self well | दो वाक्यों को एक साथ जोड़ सकता है- Can string two sentences together |
काम पर अतिरिक्त घंटे बिताता है -Spends extra hours on the job | दयनीय निजी जीवन - Miserable personal life |
नेतृत्व के गुणों को प्रदर्शित करता है - Demonstrates qualities of leadership | तेज आवाज है - Has a loud voice |
निर्णय आमतौर पर सही होता है -Judgment is usually sound | भाग्यशाली अब तक! - Lucky so far! |
सिद्धांतों का दृढ़ता से पालन - Strong adherence to principles | जिद्दी या अभिमानी - Stubborn or arrogant |
संगठन के लिए बहुत ही महत्वपूर्ण - Of great value to the organization | समय पर काम में आ जाता है - Turns in work on time |
असामान्य रूप से वफादार है - Is unusually loyal | किसी और को नहीं चाहिए - Wanted by no one else |
मेहनती आदमी - Hard worker | आमतौर पर कठिन तरीके से काम पुरा करता है - Usually does it the hard way |
नौकरी में मजे लेता है - Enjoys job | करने के लिए और अधिक काम की जरूरत है - Needs more to do |
प्रसन्न - Happy | बहुत अधिक भुगतान किया जाने वाला आदमी -Paid too much |
अच्छी तरह से व्यवस्थित -Well organized | बहुत ज्यादा व्यस्त दिखने वाला काम करता है - Does too much busywork |
सक्षम - Competent | पर्यवेक्षक मदद करे तो काम हो जाता है - Gets work done if supervisor helps |
पर्यवेक्षक के साथ अक्सर परामर्श करता है - Consults with supervisor often | कष्टप्रद - Annoying |
काफी उपर तक जायेगा - Will go far | हमेशा 'हां' आदमी - The 'Yes' man |
प्रभावी ढंग से समय का उपयोग करता है - Uses time effectively | घड़ी देखने वाला - Clock watcher |
Interviewer: I appreciate your interest to work with us. We will come back to you with our final assessment? |
Candidate: Is there any time-frame you can share with me? |
Interviewer: Not at the moment! We are in the process of evaluating few more candidates? Do you have any feedback on our selection process? |
Candidate: What kind of feedback handling mechanism is in place here? |
Interviewer: Thank you! We will call you if you get selected. |
This can serve a starting point for a short and simple template to record progress of a self-paced training program.
S. No. | Training Topic | Tool Name | Module Name | Start Date | End Date | Evaluation Status |
01 | Geometry Defeaturing | SpaceClaim | Modules 01 ~ 10 | 01-Apr-20 | 15-Apr-20 | CO |
02 | Mesh Generation | ANSA | Shell Meshing | 16-Apr-20 | 30-Apr-20 | CO |
03 | Mesh Generation | FLUENT Meshing | Modules 01 ~ 05 | 01-May-20 | 15-May-20 | CO |
04 | Simulations | ANSYS FLUENT | Flow only simulations | 16-May-20 | 31-May-20 | CO |
05 | Simulations | ANSYS FLUENT | Conjugate Heat Transfer | 01-Jun-20 | 15-Jun-20 | IP |
06 | Simulations | ANSYS FLUENT | Rotating Frames, Porous Media | 16-Jun-20 | 30-Jun-20 | NS |
Some terms which are common to highlight one's strength are: Reliable Partner, Flexible Workforce, Global Presence, Collaborative Growth, Synergy of Resources, Balance of Generalists and Specialists... Look for special skills such as Multi-Objective Optimizations, Blade Profile Generations, Aero-elasticity and Flutter Analysis, Co-simulations with 3D-1D coupling such as CFX and GT-Suite, Batter Thermal Runaway simulations...
S. No. | Skill Category | Requirement | Remark |
01 | Experience | ≤ 5 years | Must |
02 | Tool Knowledge - Primary | STAR-CCM+ | Must |
03 | Tool Knowledge - Primary | ANSA | Must |
04 | Tool Knowledge - Secondary | FLUENT, SpaceClaim | Optional |
05 | Team Management | ≥ 10 engineers | Must |
06 | HVAC | Automotive Systems | Must |
07 | Electronic Cooling | Telecom Devices | Must |
08 | Tool Knowledge - OpenSource | OpenFOAM, ParaView, HiFUN | Desirable |
09 | Heat Transfer | ≥ 10 projects on CHT (Conjugate Heat Transfer) | Desirable |
10 | Aero-acoustics | Basic understanding | Desirable |
Job Requirement(example statements): Drive and engage in investigations and studies related to validation of New Product Developments in (a)Chemical Industry such as Mixing Tanks (b)Thermal management system, its vision and its evolution... Collaborate with multi-functional team in the early-stage studies, pre-studies and advanced engineering initiatives to secure system and concept maturity. Develop and maintain good harmony and quality culture within and interface functions. A typical job requirement in mechanical engineering and a Team Lead can be as described below. This can be also interpreted as Roles and Responsibilities of the applicable person.
A 'negative' list (things to avoid or not do) is equally important to improve clarity about roles and responsibilities
Networking and Team Management applicable for Department Heads:
S. No. | Short Description of the Idea | Improvement Area, needs that get fulfilled | Skills required to implement |
001 | Common database for IT (machine details, headphone, software, server ...) and facility (id, seat, shift, phone ...) | Create dashboard for heads and leads | Familiarity with non-technical matters and day-to-day activies in the organization |
002 | Re-classification of options in IT / HR / Admin helpdesk | Few options are obsolete, few missing and ambiguous | Excel and Word-processing: Classify old records of IT issues |
Category | Activities | Need |
Employee | Hiring | Workforce Management: Attrition, Growth, Replacement |
Employee | Performance Management | Promotions, Increments, Transfers, Target Setting, Appraisals, Feedbacks |
Employee | Behavioural Trainings | Make fit to company culture and help employees realize their potential |
Employee | Technical Trainings | Competency Management System, Project Management, New skill, Cross-skill, New Role |
Customer | Projects | Data Security, Proposal, Plan, Regular Update, Invoicing |
Customer | Engagement | Capability Presentations, Data Transfer, Contract Management, Service Level Agreements |
Finance | Billing | Generate Invoices, Record purchase orders, Maintain Timesheets |
Finance | Procurements | Receipt and Expense Management, Hardware, Software, Vendor Management, Stationary |
Finance | Salaries | Salary Management Systems, Reimbursements |
Process | Customer centric | Quality Assurance, Corrective and Prediction Actions |
Process | Administrative | Seat Management, Real Estate, Ensure Law of the Land |
Process | Short-term data | Business Forecasts, Employee Statistics, Workforce Productivity, Travel, International Mobility |
Process | Medium-term data | Employment History, Salary Slips, Training Records |
Process | Strategic (long-term) data | Knowledge Management, Information Security Systems |
Bahavioural Aspects in Performance Appraisal
Fallacy = mistaken belief - an unsound questionable logic without factual evidence to support it. These are (a)defects that weaken the argument, (b)tend to be quite persausive, (c)Difficult to classify an argument as fallacies. Claims with sweeping words like All (सभी), None (कोइ नहीं), Every (प्रत्येक), Always (सदैव, सर्वदा, हमेशा), Never (कभी नहीं), Everyone (हर कोई, सब लोग) tend to contain some elements of fallacies. These are not inherently and/or necessarily bad arguments - they are deceptively false beliefs and half-truths!
Also known as cognitive distortions, there are inherent weaknesses in human thought-process as well as decision making. Not all decisions we make in our daily life are based on logical evaluation of pros and cons or use of checklists. While crossing the road, we do not try to guess the vehicle speed and time taken to cross the road. Most of the decision makings are based on intuition and heuristics. For example, we tend to 'believe' a good looking person or lady! As a climate is combination of weathers, biases are like 'climate', influenced by personal experiences, conditioning, training, upbringings, social circumstances, education...
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/clinical-psychology/competency-maps | |
All or nothing (binary) thinking | Also referred as Polarized Thinking, Black and White Thinking or "my way or high way thinking", this refers to viewing a situation in only two categories rather than on a broader perspective (e.g. classifying events or beliefs as either good (right) or bad (wrong). |
Catastrophising | Predicting the future negatively without considering alternative outcomes disqualifying or discounting the positive – telling yourself that positive experiences/ qualities do not count. Usually the person exaggerates (or inappropriately shrink) the importance of insignificant events. |
Emotional Reasoning | "If I feel that way, it must be true". Reasoning from how you feel rather than from any evidence. |
Labelling | Putting a fixed, global label on self or others without considering evidence that would lead to a less disastrous conclusion magnification / minimisation - exaggerating the negative and minimising the positive (blowing things out of proportion or shrinking their importance). It usually involves use of words and language that is highly colored and emotionally loaded. |
Selective Abstraction | Paying undue attention to negative detail rather than seeing the whole picture. |
Mind-reading | Making (negative) assumptions about the way in which others think about you when there is no evidence for this. |
Over-generalisation | Drawing a sweeping conclusions from a single of few incidents and applying it to related and to unrelated situations. |
Personalisation | Relating external events to yourself when there is no basis for making such a connection. It is literally taking everything personally, even when something is not meant in that way. |
Imperatives statements | Excessive use of 'should' and 'must' as a way of having an overprecise idea of how they and others should behave. Over-estimating the consequences of how bad it would be not to meet these expectations. It often leads to feeling of anger, frustration and resentment. |
Universal List of Career Options - Work in Progress
Government: Defence, Bureaucracy | Administrative, Engineering, Finance, Procurement, Education, Information Technology
Private:Engineering, Administrative, Finance, Procurement, Education, Information TechnologyThe content on CFDyna.com is being constantly refined and improvised with on-the-job experience, testing, and training. Examples might be simplified to improve insight into the physics and basic understanding. Linked pages, articles, references, and examples are constantly reviewed to reduce errors, but we cannot warrant full correctness of all content.
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