“I am confident that the perspectives presented below provide not just a whiff of air of thoughts and ideas, but a fresh cocktail of perspectives brewed from the cradle years, through many hours of watching videos, playing video games, play-stations, solitaire, Minecraft, countless hours of watching the theatrics of Optimus Prime-King of the Transformers of planet Cybertron and his arch enemy, Megatron, and the scintillating Fortnite and similar games. During all of these e-formative years, these young researchers were oblivious to the stealth and captivating influence of artificial intelligence in its formative years. They grew up with it, they are twins, so to speak.

Their digital-world experiences are incomparable and a far cry to and from my world experiences growing up … physically and otherwise.

Psychology and Ethics:

Chelsea, a graduate of psychology and ethics

The unregulated use of AI in psychological research and practice can have both operational and ethical implications. On an operational level, unregulated AI may lead to inaccurate or biased results, as well as the potential for misuse or abuse. Ethically, unregulated AI may threaten privacy, autonomy, and dignity, particularly in vulnerable populations. 

AI is already changing the landscape of social media and online communication. It can be used for a variety of tasks, from content creation to targeted advertising to content moderation. AI can also analyse user data and provide insights into human behaviour and preferences. Social media such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok monitor civilians and have algorithms that are completely unique to each individual using these apps. So, say for instance if an individual is down and depressed, they search for quotes or videos related to that. However, the AI behind the application pushes those videos and images to that individual’s feed. Making it impossible to escape from what they see. 

The Thabo Bester-Dr Nandipa Magudumana prison escape saga and all-encompassing soapie may provide insights into human behaviour and the psychological factors that contribute to criminal activity. However, it is important to consider the ethical implications of using such data, particularly in terms of privacy and confidentiality. One thing to note is that the SAPS, as well as the intelligence community, were able to track Thabo Bester and Dr. Nandipa through the use of social media. Additionally, finding missing or implicated individuals is becoming a lot easier with the use of AI, drones, and CCTV footage. 

In the field of intelligence gathering, the use of AI can provide valuable insights into potential threats and risks. However, it is important to balance the benefits of AI with the potential risks to privacy and civil liberties. This is evident in drones being used to spy on civilian targets and other foreign nations, for that particular state’s benefit. Furthermore, that is how the Americans were able to track down and eliminate Bin Ladin. Additionally, the use of AI in intelligence gathering should be subject to ethical standards and regulations to ensure that it is used responsibly and in the public interest. That is why it’s important to create legislation that will help improve the AI element in intelligence gathering, without infringing on human rights. 

Economics:

Sihlangu, a UCT student in economics confirms the AI fears and dangers of the Chatbot algorithm expressed in the previous discussion through Sibiya’s “little angels”:

For years analysts and intellectuals have prophesized the day that humans create and integrate AI into society. That time is upon us, as a 2^nd-year student studying a B Soc Sci in politics and economics at UCT, I have already witnessed the consequences of AI manifest themselves in academia. Some students have begun using AI as a tool to aid them in academic assignments but is this ethical?

A chatbot is an artificial intelligence language model capable of answering questions with human quality. This AI model has proved to be disruptive to academia as it is capable of formulating essays, summaries, and even code in a matter of mere seconds. Universities and institutions alike have had to rethink the way they approach academic ordinances such as plagiarism and fair competition. The corrupt usage of AI in educational environments can negate the authenticity of the learning process and allow for fraudulently obtained remuneration. However, nothing is ever black and white, the perception of AI in a manicheastic sense of good and evil fails to acknowledge the nuance of the matter. AI is not the inevitable doom we make it out to be. If measured steps are taken to pre-emptively regulate the space, then we can better configure the development of AI to work in synergy with broader human objectives.

Information systems:

Kei, is a practitioner of IT and a seasoned Graphic designer based in South Hills, Alberton.

Unregulated AI presents several challenges in our times, particularly in information systems.

These challenges include, but are not limited to:

Bias and discrimination: AI systems can inherit and perpetuate biases present in the training data. This can lead to discrimination and unfair treatment of certain groups or individuals, especially when used in sensitive areas like hiring, lending, and law enforcement.

Privacy invasion: AI-driven systems can infringe on personal privacy by collecting, analysing, and potentially misusing personal data without adequate consent or regulation.

Misinformation and manipulation: AI-generated content, such as deepfakes, can spread misinformation and manipulate public opinion, posing a threat to democracy and social stability.

Security risks: Unregulated AI can be exploited by malicious actors to launch cyberattacks, automate hacking, and circumvent security measures, leading to increased vulnerabilities in information systems.

Lack of accountability: Without clear regulations, determining liability for AI-caused harms can be challenging. This can result in a lack of redress for victims and insufficient incentives for developers to prioritize safety and fairness.

Job displacement: Automation driven by AI advancements could lead to significant job displacement across various industries. Without proper regulation and support, this may exacerbate income inequality and social unrest.

Ethical concerns: Unregulated AI can raise ethical issues, such as the potential for AI-driven surveillance, autonomous weapons, and the manipulation of human emotions for profit.

The concentration of power: The rapid development of AI can lead to a concentration of power in the hands of a few tech giants, limiting competition, and innovation, and potentially undermining democratic values.

Digital divide: The lack of regulation may exacerbate the digital divide by creating disparities in access to AI technologies and their benefits, further marginalizing disadvantaged communities.

Runaway AI: Unregulated AI development can result in a competitive race without adequate safety precautions, leading to the possibility of building super-intelligent systems that are misaligned with human values and may cause unintended consequences.

Legal:

Debbie, a final year LLB student at Unisa, based in President Ridge in Randburg

Like all other legal frameworks of the world, our law always lags behind the human train of development, particularly in science, technology, and innovation. Law is, after all, a mechanism to bring order in a rather chaotic environment, and by this logic, things have to be chaotic and disorderly first, before the legislative chains of order are called upon to arrest chaos.

It is interesting to underscore that the blood life of artificial intelligence is massive information data that humans have to feed into its program to kick in its algorithms into an organic mechanism. The time is not yet with us, nor will ever come, I pray, when AI algorithmic-driven machines will mutate and truly become homo sapiens with capacities to give birth to their own offspring outside the genius of human intelligence. Artificial Intelligence like its predecessors in the tribe of information systems has brought similar challenges into our legal system in terms of control and monitoring. According to Celeste Snyders, there is currently no legislation dealing with AI and its possible issues [1].

Fortunately for us in South Africa, the Protection of Personal Information Act of 2013 which governs the law of data protection and privacy; the right to privacy as protected in terms of both our common law and in sec 14 of the Constitution of the Republic, 1996; the Electronic Communications and Transaction Act (of 2002 and the UNCITRAL[2] Model Law on Electronic give us a working platform to arrest the unbridled machinations of artificial intelligence and its sister algorithms, such as is prevalent in combatting Spam and cybercrimes.

The Good News: Reasonableness, fairness, and justice:

However, we need to remind ourselves that since the genesis of man, and the Ancient of Day’s noble command to humanity to conquer the world, we have been doing exactly that.

The good news is that, where the limits of reasonableness, fairness, and justice seemed to have been breached, humanity’s good-natured spirit has sprung up in defense of the breach, and quickly corrected the imbalance to bring the human system back to its intended equilibrium. This has been done in two ways, namely

(i) By creating counter-measures to neutralise the imbalance,

(ii) to create alternative supporting, encompassing, and containing systems to bring back the equilibrium to its state of reasonableness, fairness, and justice.

What happened to humanity when the following innovations overwhelm our existing and prevailing paradigms then?

Thamsanqa Sibiya[3] of Siza Health puts the concepts of reasonableness, fairness, and justice into context when he says

“Knowing what I know, despite the downside of AI, the goodwill surpasses the bad and we will be better off with AI advancement. Human beings will in the future create checks and balances to make sure that the risks are minimised as we have seen with pollution such as sound, noise, heat, etc. where parameters have been put in place to minimise the impact. If we use AI for the good, many things will be achieved, we could eliminate global poverty, eliminate diseases, advance education, and deal with human rights issues which we are not able to tackle right now as well as with human existentialism in general. If we do not re-invent social safety net structures that currently exist, and put new policies and guidelines in place on how to use AI for the good of humankind then we cannot blame AI when people use it in pursuit of power.”

Malunga echoes Sibiya’s call for strict control developed through policy formulation for the public good when the community of AI developers acts contra bonos mores.

To address these challenges, it is essential to create a balanced regulatory framework that promotes AI innovation while addressing the potential risks and ensuring that the benefits are fairly distributed. This requires international cooperation, public-private partnerships, and the involvement of diverse stakeholders, including academia, industry, and civil society.

Joe Cucuzza, Director and principal at industryC2I, in his The Pace of Innovation: 1800-2020[4], identifies six (6)m cycles or waves of innovation in human history known to date.

1st wave: Iron, Water power, Mechanisation, and Textiles

2nd wave: Steel, Steam power, Railroad, and Cotton

3rd wave: Electricity, Chemicals, and Internal combustion engine

4th wave: Petrochemicals, Electronics, Aviation, Space/GPS

5th wave: Digital networks, Biotechnology, Software, IT

6th wave: Sustainability, Radical resource productivity, Whole system design, green chemistry, Industrial ecology, Renewable energy, Nanotechnology, and AI

The answer is simple. More people died of the Covid-19 pandemic, the 1918 influenza, and other natural disasters, only to be eclipsed by our own-manmade disasters when we breached the limits of systems reliability in Chernobyl, Bhopal, Fukushima-Daichi, including our own Jagersfontein mine dams (tailings storage facilities) collapse[5] compared to those who might have died because of new waves of innovation that were unleashed onto the unsuspecting humanity.

Why, is the question? The imbalance-corrective genius of humanity itself kicks in, to bring back the run-away innovative systems to the state of equilibrium, to achieve reasonableness, fairness, and justice pillars of human existence, without which, I believe, humanity will perish.

Obviously, the purpose of this article is not to extol the benefits of AI, which are widely known, but to send a clarion call of creating a balance between the benefits and disadvantages of innovation we seek to master and introduce to our communities in pursuit of better, faster, cheaper and robust quality products and processes for their benefit of humankind.

Every story, as they say, has three sides: my story, your story, and the real story as espoused through application and implementation on the ground. Therefore, it would have been disingenuous of me to applaud the clarion call of fear and caution on AI, without highlighting the noble perceived benefits of AI and other milestones of human progress, of which Geoffrey Hinton, Sir Ernest Rutherford, Robert Oppenheimer, and other numerous members of the community of pioneers in science, technology, and business have achieved within the fleeting realm of reasonableness, fairness, and justice.

Conclusion:

We need not worry beyond putting our thinking caps again, resting on the knowledge of how our forebears have managed to rise above the problems when faced with similarly complex and scary situations, reminiscent of World (I & II) challenges in a nuclear arms race, pandemics, stock market crashes, natural and human-made disasters and others not mentioned here in this article.

Let us remain assured that the proud ‘waves of AI engineered by human intelligence’ shall also be stayed.”

Author: Dr Ntokozo Mthembu

Dr Ntokozo Mthembu is a director and principal professional engineering consultant for Siana Consulting, a director of Elami Ronto Investments, Aonyx Holdings, Cape Catalytix (Pty) Ltd., an international reviewer of research manuscripts for EMJ, and a member of the Elsevier Advisory Panel.

RESOURCES:

1. Celeste Snyders. ‘Unpacking the Legal Side of Artificial Intelligence | Tech Law, Jun1, 2022. <https//www.schoemanlw.co.za> Accessed 9 May 2023.
2. United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, 1996
3. Personal correspondence on the submission of new manuscripts to PICMET’s “Technology Mining – Text Analytics for Evidence-Based Foresight”. 10 May 2023.
4. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pace-innovation-1800-2020-joe-cucuzza-gaicd-fausimm-/ November 23, 2020. (Accessed 9 May 2023)
5. Sheree Bega. ‘Jagersfontein: How mine dams collapse’ ENVIRONMENT/ 12 SEP 2022. (Accessed 9 May 2023)

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Because they’re the ones actually doing the day-to-day work, employees are in the best position to come up with ideas for operations improvement. They know first-hand what’s working and what’s not, and they see all kinds of ways to improve performance, from simple, common-sense ideas for saving time and money, improve quality and safety, to entirely new ways of doing operations. A good start is to coach first-line managers for creating an environment within which their teams are encouraged and motivated to provide innovations and improvement ideas.

At Grain Field Chickens (GFC), who was recently awarded the PDI (Japan) and ODI (South Africa) 20 Keys International Excellence Award, the focus was on strengthening the workplace to have thinking people, with the mindset that innovations and ideas for improvement can, and should, exist at all levels of the organisation.

GFC implemented a structured approach for capturing and supporting the implementation of ideas. Wally Kok, the Key 3 Leader’s role is to support line functions and administer the suggestions tracking system. The line managers are the owners of the system and need to engage team members and stimulate them to think about their workplace, processes and activities in terms of

• safety,
• quality,
• cost,
• productivity and
• delivery.

GFC received 3,065 ideas for improvement over the last year!

Implementing Key 3 is not a once-off project but a never-ending journey of strengthening the maturity where everyone in the organisation, literally every day, is thinking about operations improvement.

Below is a very good example of an idea for improvement, submitted by an employee in the IQF department of the plant – a clear understanding and engagement of staff that is evident in an organisation that enjoys a mature level of the 20 Keys system.

Author: Johan Benadie: Director at ODI, and a 20 Keys practitioner for 24 years.

To read more about Theo van Strijp’s (Managing Director at GFC) topic of discussion at last year’s one-day conference where we celebrated 30 years of operations excellence – “Grain Field Chickens: Road to Excellence Award”, click here.

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The first speaker for the day was Len Hansen – Consultant at Astral Operations. Len’s topic of discussion was: “My Journey with Organisational Development International (ODI) since 1991.” Click here to read more about his presentation.

The second speaker was Esbe du Toit: Organisational Improvement Manager at Wispeco Aluminium. Esbe’s topic of discussion was: “Celebrating Innovation … A Snapshot of our Journey towards World-class.”

Wispeco in a nutshell

• Largest manufacturer of aluminium extrusions in Africa, with its own melting and casting facility, nine extrusion presses, international quality certified surface finishing plants (powder coating and anodising).
• Market leader in architectural systems development and innovation.
• Wholly owned subsidiary of Remgro Ltd with ±1000 employees.
• Registered training provider offering fabrication training to customers, the previously disadvantaged youth, and deaf learners.
• Thirty official distributors in Southern Africa.
• Ecospecifier Green Rating on Wispeco aluminium profiles due to the extensive recycling of post-consumer and industrial aluminium waste.
• BBBEE level 4 offering 100% for procurement spent.

The term “World-class” is not taken lightly at Wispeco, Esbe spoke about how they have entered an era where they are competing on a global level. Wispeco is therefore constantly challenged to remain cost efficient, as they compete against low cost imports.

Recently Wispeco commissioned the first vertical powder coating plant in the Southern Hemisphere. A giant leap for Wispeco!

To run a world class plant like this, a dream team was needed.

The five most important lessons learnt to make such a project succeed were:

1. Maintaining equipment in a world-class way [KEY 9].
2. Connecting the heart-rate monitor early on: What you measure, is what you get.
3. Maintaining quick changeovers [KEY 5].
4. Establishing trust relationships with suppliers [KEY 12].
5. An informed and equipped team [KEY 2 & 3]: All hands on deck.

Most important lesson learnt:

Investing in world-class technology at the right time, and in the right areas of the business, can lead to quantum leaps in efficiencies and improvement.

Author: Huibie Jones: MD at ODI

To view the full album of the recent 2019 ODI Conference – Celebrating 30 years of operations excellence, click here.

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To better understand organisational culture, there are essentially three issues to consider:

1. What is organisational culture?
2. Culture’s role in organisations.
3. Types of organisational cultures.

In this 3-part blog we’ll be discussing each of the above-mentioned issues respectively.

So what is organisational culture?

Organisational culture is something that is unique to each organisation, with its different personalities of people and the organisations in which they work. However, when one considers that entire organisations are often so consistently different from one another, it is clear that there is more involved than simply personalities of employees. In many organisations employees are constantly changing; old ones are frequently leaving and new ones join. Despite these shifts, the organisations themselves change slowly, if at all. It is often the new employees that change rather than the organisation itself. In a sense, organisations have a stable existence of their own, apart from the unique combination of people of which they are made up of, at any given time.

We ask ourselves – where does this stability come from?

The answer to this involves the impact of organisational culture. This culture is a cognitive framework consisting of attitudes, values, behavioural norms as well as expectations shared by organisation members. Once these beliefs are established, expectancies and values tend to be relatively stable. At the root of any organisation’s culture is a set of core characteristics that are collectively valued by members of an organisation. Recent research by Chatman and Jehn has shown that seven elements of organisational culture may be used to describe organisations. These elements are as follows:

1. Innovation – the extent to which people are expected to be creative and generate new ideas.
2. Stability – valuing a stable, predictable, rule-orientated environment.
3. Orientation towards people – being fair, supportive and showing respect for individual’s rights.
4. Results-orientated – the strength of its concern for achieving desired results.
5. Easygoingness – the extent to which the work atmosphere is relaxed and laid back.
6. Attention to detail – concern for being analytical and precise.
7. Collaborative orientation – emphasis on working in teams as opposed to individually.

These different core values will be reflected in the cultures of different organisations. Chatman and Jehn compared 15 companies in four different industries with respect to the seven aspects of culture.  Their results suggest that there were similarities between the cultures of companies within the same industries. Researchers also found connections between cultures and various industry characteristics. In general, company cultures were in keeping with the kind of work they did.

These results suggest that organisational culture is not only a key factor in distinguishing between individual companies, but between entire industries.

Keep an eye out for our next blog about Culture’s role in organisations.

Author: Huibie Jones: MD at ODI

To read more about ODI’s Focused Improvement Projects, click here.

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The 6th and last myth in our series of Myths vs Reality is: “An informal approach for getting ideas for improvement works best, with managers promoting big ideas, because small ones aren’t worth the time.”

The reality is without a formal process for handling ideas, managers and employees face the challenge of figuring out how to deal with each idea that comes up. A simple and easy to use system for getting, recording, evaluating, supporting, tracking and giving recognition is most effective, and consistently leads to more ideas. Small ideas enable companies to pay exceptional attention to detail, which is the requisite for true excellence. They also have a big, cumulative impact, and are often the best source for big ideas.

Getting ideas for improvement is often the challenging part. Thinking about the immediate workplace, and day-to-day tasks and problems being experienced, should be actively encouraged. Whilst there are many ways in which ideas for improvement can be promoted, we list some simple tips for getting started below.

• Just ask. Ask employees to come to meetings with one small idea that will make their work easier, or help the company in some way. Ask people to present their ideas, then invite the group to discuss and build upon them. If an idea is worthwhile, come to an agreement on who will be responsible for making it happen.
• Pick up on problems. Ideas arise when people encounter problems. Ask employees to single out what makes their work difficult; from procedures that waste time or money, to policies that disappoint customers. Then work toward solutions.
• Turn complaints into opportunities. When an employee complains about something, look for the underlying issue or problem. Turn gripes into opportunities by asking for ideas that will tackle the gripes.
• Seek ideas at times of change. When a change is announced or anticipated, encourage employees to look for emerging problems and opportunities, and to offer ideas that will address them.
• Follow through. Follow through in some way on every single idea, without exception. Keep track of ideas as they come in with a simple, visual system. Remember that the best reward for people is to see their ideas in action.
• Create heroes. Recognize people for their ideas. Ensure that employees get full credit for their contributions.  Praise them in ways that are personally meaningful; from congratulatory e-mails, to casual celebrations.
• Recruit managers. Promoting ideas is a lot easier with managers’ support. Bring good ideas and good results to their attention.
• Look for big opportunities in small ideas. Be open to broader implications. If a small idea is pointing towards a larger issue, work with employees to explore and address it.

To read more about ODI’s Continuous Operations Improvement System, click here.

Author: Johan Benadie: Director at ODI and a 20 Keys practitioner for 22 years.

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The fourth myth in our series of Myths vs Reality is: “Creativity training results in more and better ideas from workers.”

Reality is, most ideas are simple, common-sense solutions and responses to problems and opportunities that exist in the immediate workplace. Until a company can capture workers’ everyday ideas, creativity training to trigger more ideas can be a pointless and costly exercise.

However, here is a warning – do not fall into the trap of assuming that as ideas and solutions are often “common-sense”, they will just happen, as COMMON-SENSE IS NOT ALWAYS COMMON PRACTICE. Also, if you start a system of ideas for improvement, and expect that people will simply participate, you may wait a long time, become disillusioned, and stop the system. An environment needs to be created within which people are stimulated, and provided with support for the generation and implementation of ideas and innovations.

The response to a lack of ideas for improvement is often due to teams needing training, or needing more training in being creative. As reality indicates, that is often not the best way in which to approach the issue. A challenge with this type of training is that it is often at a conceptual level (playing games, building things with paper, using Lego blocks, etc.), and first-line workers may have difficulty in transferring such learning to their own workplaces. In the workplace, a more practical approach is often more effective.

A starting point is to create an understanding about the distinction between value adding and wasteful activities, i.e.:

1. Direct value adding activities
2. Indirect value adding (supporting) activities
3. Non-value adding activities

and how to look for them in the workplace, with the aim of maximising no, 1, optimising no. 2, and eliminating no. 3. The more practically this can be implemented, the more effective it will be in triggering ideas for improvement.

Creating an understanding of ‘The 7 Wastes’ is also effective, but then it needs to be translated into what it practically means for the particular workplace; it should not be just a general description or a definition.  A fun way in which to introduce ‘The 7 Wastes’ is to look at it as – “this guy TIM WOOD”. (Tim Wood is someone we would not like to see in our workplaces. He is not a good guy, and he negatively affects our product quality, cost effectiveness, and delivery performance.).  In this analogy, each letter of TIM WOOD indicates a type of waste (The 7 Wastes).

Conducting “waste walks” is a practical way in which to demonstrate the different types of waste, “teaching people to see it”, and then coaching them on the causes of waste, and what can be done to reduce or eliminate it.

To read more about ODI’s Continuous Operations Improvement System, click here.

Author: Johan Benadie: Director at ODI and a 20 Keys practitioner for 22 years

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• saving time and money,
• improving quality and safety

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