Integrating Nonphysical and Physical Assets

1. Integrating Nonphysical and Physical Assets Smart Integration Techniques Can Help Address Complexity Within Your Work Environment www.uttana.com

2. Consider All Assets • Most organizations in the contemporary world utilize both physical and nonphysical assets throughout day-to-day processes. • When like assets interact, such as creating a stack of documents, or placing a file into the appropriate folder on a computer, there is little issue. • However, what happens when nonphysical and physical assets have the need to interact? www.uttana.com

3. Issues with Asset Consolidation, Pt. 1 • Example:a digital file needed to be consolidated with a physical, paper document, for organizational purposes. • These files need to be delivered downstream, but what is the best way to accomplish this task? • You could email the necessary digital files and then deliver the physical assets, but think about the waste that is accumulating in this sequence of steps. www.uttana.com

4. Issues with Asset Consolidation, Pt. 2 • Not only are you delivering a series of documents by hand, but you are also spending time drafting an email, attaching the documents, and finally sending them to the recipient(s). Delivery of the documents has now become two distinct processes. • This issue can be mitigated by applying the idea of simplification to information. Simplifying information is: • the practice of reducing the complexity within a process to achieve greater efficiency by focusing on what information is valuable and which is not. www.uttana.com

5. Simplify, Don’t Complicate • A common misconception is that by adding more and more technology to a process, it will become more efficient. • This has parallels in the manufacturing world, where many manufacturing facilities will invest in overly complex machines for their process. www.uttana.com

6. Asset Consolidation Solutions • In the previous example of non-physical and physical documents, consider how the idea of simplifying information could have been used. • Instead of emailing the digital documents and delivering the physical documents, the digital documents could have been printed out and included in the stack of documents being delivered downstream. • The physical documents could have been emailed by scanning the documents, and sending them as email attachments. www.uttana.com

7. Avoiding Complexity • The solution you choose is dependent on what reduces the overall complexity. • Scanning fifty documents, for example, would result in a greater waste than simply printing one document. • The obvious solution in that circumstance would be to print a single document. www.uttana.com

8. Adding Complexity Where Needed • It is sometimes necessary to introduce a small amount of complexity, as long as it results in an increase in efficiency. • One such example of this is with the comparison of electronic documents, such as electronic bank invoices on a single computer screen. • Comparing or evaluating these documents using only a single monitor on a computer can be a cumbersome process. www.uttana.com

9. Adding Complexity, Cont. • Most people do not have the resources to have two monitors side-by-sid. • One potential solution would be to print out a number of documents necessary for comparison, while simultaneously keeping another document available on your primary monitor. www.uttana.com

10. Simple Solution, Simple Problem • While this is a simple solution to a simple problem, it is this sort of integrated thinking that can help address problems or issues with more complexity. • Instead of buying a second monitor, which costs capital resources, all that was needed to address this issue was a piece of printer paper. www.uttana.com

11. Representing Nonphysical Data • The integration of nonphysical and physical assets isn't just about simplification, however. It's also about using methods to help represent the nonphysical data in a physical way. • This may mean using production-scheduling boards to help with visualizing organization, or using physical cues to trigger nonphysical interactions, such as using color-coded items to alert people when you are available to receive digital information. • One such example of this would be green, yellow, and red cups to denote availability based on color. www.uttana.com

12. Find The Easiest Solution • When integrating the physical with the nonphysical, don't create solutions that are overly complex. Always search for the solution that will produce the least waste and is easiest to implement. • These solutions will be the most efficient for your organization. www.uttana.com