ACCUMULATION (Huh?) Axioms

Accumulation is a hot topic these days. Storage Wars on television, for example. However, this week, I’d like to talk about a different kind of accumulation.

Chemical Engineering provides (some of) the tools to design and build industrial processes. Cooling and heating considerations are understood with heat transfer methodology. Mass-transfer theory addresses the speed of reactions between components.

All these methods start with a common building block, the Unit Cell. A Unit Cell is simply a small cube shaped volume, with an input into it and an output out of it.

It looks like this:

Input >> Unit Cell >> Output

Many of the fundamental chemical engineering equations are derived on a “first principles” basis starting with the Unit Cell, using a lot of math.

More interestingly for this discussion, the Unit Cell can also be thought of more generally and in other ways. Accumulation can also be thought of as the amount of stuff in a unit cell. If the input is more than the output, accumulation increases. If the output is more than the input, accumulation decreases. If the input and output are the same, there is no accumulation. This is all common sense.

So, if you have a situation where accumulation is good, e.g. money in the bank, input (savings) should be higher than output (expenses). If you have a situation where de-accumulation is good, debt for example, the input (pay-down) should be higher than the output (more loans).

I am fascinated how a core concept of chemical engineering has such wide application. Obviously, most folks understand this concept but do not think explicitly about it.

How has thinking about this concept helped me think better from The Process Perspective? It is a general mental model that can apply to almost any situation, to give me some “knobs” to think about things. That can be super helpful.

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My main learning from this line of thinking is how useful this simple concept is, and how wide its applicability is. This concept is simple but powerful.

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YOUR CHALLENGE THIS WEEK

As you work on building Great Processes, test using the Unit Cell mental-model to:

• Reduce the barriers (corporate baloney, opinions without data, and spectators on projects) by reducing the inputs of these elements into your project.

• Increase the knowledge-building (useful experiments, data shared with stakeholders, foundational knowledge documented, etc.) on your project by increasing the rate your project team can produce these useful outputs.

Can you then build systems to make these outcomes natural and predictable, so the project can gain momentum and move into the next phase of accomplishment?

I’d like to hear your thoughts about the Unit Cell concept, and how you can apply it to improve your efforts building Great Processes. Please give us a call to see how we can help.

If you email me I’ll get back to you promptly, thanks.

All the Best,

Marty

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