Industry is in a constant state of flux as technologies are being developed, evaluated and deployed in order to create competitive advantage, increase productivity and efficiency, and to work towards a sustainable future. Ever-cheaper embedded…
Everybody is talking about analytics. Together with Artificial Intelligence or AI all of our business problems will be solved apparently. Analytics sounds like analysis, so it is natural to make the comparison to try and…
In a previous life I was a production manager. One of the frustrations of such a role is the feeling that more control and coordination could be exerted “if only I had the data for…”….
As software systems become more complex, and we use rapidly developing technologies to connect systems together to achieve new objectives, the scope for the introduction of errors increases. Such errors may cost an organisation money…
If we take the `buzz’ around Industry 4.0, and the resurgence of interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI), add a sprinkling of imagination, and we end up with some fantastic possibilities for manufacturing systems of the…
The construction of software for an application is a complicated process. We employ Software Engineers to develop software in a way that helps us arrive at robust solutions, and it is the training and experience…
One factor that motivates industrial organisations to adopt Internet of Things (IoT) technologies is the potential to be able to monitor, control and coordinate processes remotely. This opens up new possibilities for collaboration across manufacturing…
As technology develops and becomes more accessible, people find new ways of exploiting the technology to achieve new objectives. The manufacturing industry is a pertinent example of how technology can transform productivity and increase quality…
The question of branding is an interesting topic for higher education. What actually does it mean to ‘brand’ a department? In the commercial sector, we would expect a branding exercise to enable a product, product…
“If you knew you couldn’t possibly fail, what would you try?” This is a favourite staple of executive coaches, and for good reason. It strips away everything that inhibits your achievement, and gets you to…
Abstract This article explores the challenges of managing research and teaching in UK Higher Education, by examining the variability of boundaries that are drawn around such spaces. Changing policy in the UK is provoking Higher…
Coaching is a popular topic, particularly in the world of business. Executive leaders employ personal coaches to have developmental conversations, to explore hypothetical scenarios, and to encourage self-awareness. It follows that the practice has expanded,…
It was a snap decision. My weeks were packed with activity. The teaching and management challenges appeared to be increasing and I just seemed to have no time to engage in one of my core,…
I’m chatting with an academic colleague about student engagement. He is struggling with one particular class. The students turn up frequently enough to avoid triggering attendance monitoring processes, and it’s creating havoc in the group…
I think that it’s fair to say that if you hear `performance management’ in an academic context, then it is referring to a negative situation. People tend to be ‘performance managed’ when their behaviour or…
For a long time the practice of ‘coaching’ has been associated with sport, and more specifically it refers to a role whereby a ‘coach’ assists a ‘coachee’ to improve their competitive performance. The coach offers…
This is by far the most common reaction when discussing the scholarly outputs of an academic, or an academic department. Writing is seen as a potential luxury that has become an inconvenience. Of course, “it’s…
I enjoy visiting academic departments in other universities. There is something comforting about recognising an issue that is shared across many different departments. It might be common curricula, shared student challenges, staff issues or even…