WITNESS, Mangoes and Jeepneys!

More happy WITNESS delegates after completing their basic training course! Pictured with me, from left to right, are Tandy, Jeff, Chris, Gil, Vivencio and Harold. They are a team of Process Engineers working for US mobile telecoms company Asurion in The Philippines. My thanks to them and their colleagues for their hospitality during my trip to Manila and for the kind gifts - Mangoes and a model Jeepney!

The Jeepney, for those who haven’t experienced the delights of Manila traffic, is a stretched Jeep that is used as a bus. They are tailored by their owners with a variety of colours and slogans, and, together with the ubiquitous motorcycle sidecar taxis, proceed to fill the roads to bursting point. Amusingly, they also carry ads for ‘How’s my Driving?’ with a number to call. Given the chaotic and sometimes alarming nature of driving in Manila (at least to somebody from the UK) I am sure this line is permanently engaged.

The Asurion team above help run a very impressive lean operation and are challenged with doubling production in the year ahead. Hence the need for WITNESS Predictive Simulation modelling to enable them to see their future and experiment with it. The training course was a mixture of teaching and exercises that led into hands-on development of models of their processes. This type of mentoring is difficult to deliver remotely and the feedback received showed the delegates found this invaluable. I certainly appreciated the tour of the facility that enabled me to guide their model development, and the team is on their way to building successful models on their own.

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