Six Degrees and Aisin

In an earlier post, I mentioned I was reading Duncan J. Watts' book Six Degrees.

That was before I reached Chapter Nine. Turned out to be about my favorite topic, "Manufacturing." In particular, lean networks and the Toyota Production System (TPS). There was a story I hadn't heard about, the Aisin fire and the rapid recovery of the entire supply chain. Particularly interesting when I contrast my experiences at Big Blue to various production challenges.

I've only recently, last year or so, been actively studying lean theory. That's probably why I hadn't heard of it. There are case studies as well as technical papers discussing the incident.

Road Warrior

Not really. Though I have been traveling a lot over the past seven weeks. Drove from Texas to Milwaukee and back. And, flew out to Washington DC for a family reunion, wife's side.

Picked up a book at the library for reading on the plane. Duncan J. Watts has written a book on the math behind social network analysis. Six Degrees was published in 2003. It is interesting, though a little more math oriented than something like Gladwell's Tipping Point. Many of the same themes.

I picked it up because of the metrics phone call. We are trying to account for the number of "connections" at a large conference. Rather than just count attendees at a large conference, there should be a multiplier. Something like, the typical attendee has a network quality conversation with at least 10 other people. Something beyond, hello & how are you.

We theorize that a small group meeting would see everyone interact. But in a large group, like a conference, the number of interactions would be more than one but not with everyone.