When Style meets substance.....

YoYo,
..Incredible things happen.None personifies this more than Rahul "The Wall" Dravid. As he led India to a victory outside the subcontinent for the first time since '86, within the hustle and bustle of NBA finals and FIFA 2006, one achievement went quietly unnoticed. Rahul Dravid became the fastest player to reach 9000 test runs. Only the Aussie and Indian duo and Lara lie above him. Amongst active players he is 3rd behind Lara and Sachin.
"The Wall" now sounds like an really ridiculous nickname,almost a cruel joke. Back in the late 90's, his spectacular debut at Lords notwithstanding, he was seen as a player capable of breaking down bowlers with his peerless defense, but not more. His strokeplay was admired but no one gave him a chance of being a dominant batsmen,leave alone find a place in the shorter version of the game. Fast forward to 2006 and a different picture appears.
Dravid is a blend of orthodox style and modern mentality.While he preserves his classical batting style he has seamlessly integrated it with the demands of the present day game. Mentally, he stands second to none. But perhaps his greatest virtue is his constant learning which allows him to see his drawbacks and improve on them at all times. A good example is his ability to play the ball with a feather touch and scamper for a single, whereas previously he would crunch a hard drive straight to the fielder.He has found a ally in Greg Chappel. With a beleif in the philosphy that processes will lead to results, he has gradually started leaving his own imprint on the team.
In many ways, he is my idol and a man I would like to emulate. His onfield achievents, (compare him with some of NBA's and NFL's bloated ego's and you will understand), his articulate and thoughtful manner of speaking, combined with his ability to handle pressure gracefully make him very much an Indian Idol.

Life on the Shop Floor

YoYo,
Its been a month and a little more in my new role as a Manufacturing Engineer at a Medical Device Company. It has been so dynamic and so exciting so far that I have been left breathless by the pace of it all.
Life on the shop floor is so much different than what I had ever imagined. School certainly does not prepare you for it. While most assembly line operations in a big industry (e.g automobile) are automated, in a medical device firm that is often not the case. Which means that the quality of the product (and the bottom line) is literally dependent in the operators hands. This is a scary proposition. Consider if one of them has had a bad day and accidentally bends a wire. That's a scrap right there. Imagine this hapenning with one of them every single day. Profits can take such a big hit.
More than anything else it's about dealing with personalities. My floor has ~ 30 operators per shift, most of them females, age group ranging from 30 -55 ish coming from mostly South and Central American countries. Learning to communicate with them is an experience in itself and soon I think I will be forced to learn Spanish.
Some of them look as if they are born to work on the floor. Skilled hands,sharp eyes and quick grasping. Other's look like this is the last place they want to be with bored expressions written on their faces. Integrating this group into one solid team is a task to get the required numbers and yields, getting them to proactively follow and understand procedures-now that is some task.
Scraps and yields, throughputs and earned hours, efficiencies and tact times,ovens and coaters,spare parts and technicians ,operators and engineers engineering and man management-That is my life !!