5 Benefits of Rapid Prototyping for the Design and Development of Products

Product designers face a lot of challenges. One of the most common challenges is that they can't show how the final product will feel and look. Although there are many advancements in the world of 3D CAD, there still is a lot of room for improvement.

Nowadays, rapid prototyping or additive manufacturing is getting quite popular among designers, engineers, and manufacturers. The reason is that it allows manufacturers to get a better idea of the product potential. With RP, things get much easier. Given below are some of the most prominent benefits of rapid prototyping. Read on to know more.

1. Checking the Design Concepts

With RP, designers can turn their dream into an actual model of the product. This allows them to see and feel the product. So, designers can turn their ideas into a prototype before developing the actual product. Besides, it provides them with a proof of concept for their clients.

2. Making the Required Changes is Easy

With a physical model of the product in hand, incorporating the changes takes no time at all. Once the feedback is received from the customers, necessary changes can be made.

Before finalizing the product design, many iterations are required. And each process of iteration helps improve the design even more, building the trust with both consumers and the designer.

Aside from this, this technique helps find out the needs of the market, which allows the development of competitive products.

3. Cost and Time Saving

We know time is money. With additive manufacturing, no time or cost is needed to make special tools, patterns, and molds. And the same printing equipment and CAD programs can be used for making different geometries.

Compared to the traditional prototyping techniques like CNC machining, there is not much waste produced in the process. This is because rapid prototyping doesn't use more material than is required to make the product.

4. Customizing Designs

Although RP offers many benefits, one of the most promising ones is that it helps develop customized products based on the requirement of a customer. Also, it doesn't require special processes or tools for implementing design changes.

The whole process remains untouched when a minor change is required. For manufacturers, it's greatly beneficial.

5. Minimizing Design Problems

Also, additive manufacturing allows you to detect flaws in the product design before mass production is commenced. As a matter of fact, the materials needed for developing prototypes create a unit that shares the strength and properties of the actual product. Moreover, it also helps engineers perform required tests without any problem.

Possible faults and Issues are easy to identify so that the final product is free of these problems.

As far as product design and development goes, the use of RP is a lucrative decision. Therefore, the use of this technique should be encouraged in the product centers. In fact, in a world of competitiveness, this technique can help manufacturers make innovative products without allocating a lot of money to meet the costs.

Hiring a rapid prototyping service is a great idea if you want to improve your manufacturing. So, you can check out a China rapid prototyping service.

The Alternative to Having a Meltdown

A few things have aligned - dare I say, conspired - to ratchet up the pressure recently. That's a part of life, especially when you aspire to greater ambitions. It's easy to lose your footing when you reach for the sky.

I'm lucky enough to know enough self-hypnosis to remain relaxed and composed. The old me would have buckled a long time ago.

Still, even mindful breathing and deep trance relaxation have their limits. Sometimes you feel the pressure rising anyway.

And you feel that delightful urge to do something stupid.

To lash out at anyone who helps you and burn your life to the ground.

Or to simply snap, and enjoy losing your conscious mind in a rising tide of unpleasant emotions.

As tempting as that can be...

You always have an alternative.

Now, I have to say: this isn't medical advice. I'm not qualified to give it, and no one is qualified to give in en masse in article format. It's worth talking to a professional about these things.

That said, on with one alternative.

Here's a little manoeuvre you can execute the next time you look down and realise you're standing on the edge...

Put yourself in a trance. That alone will help. Even if it doesn't create distance from the stress and emotions (although it probably will), it'll open you to new ways of processing them.

That's not nothing.

And it's just the start.

Because in this trance, you can ask yourself a simple question:

"What would having a meltdown do for me?"

Will it get you attention?

Force folk to take your concerns seriously?

Take you away from it all for a moment?

When you're honest with yourself - the sort of honesty that comes from a trance - you won't hesitate to learn what you need right now. The last minute, nuclear option. Your mind is willing to tear down your life to get this benefit, so you might as well know what you're buying.

And then... ?

Well, that's usually enough. When you know what you need, you can probably find a smarter way to get it.

It's funny - satisfy that need, even in a small way, and it's like the world turns the pressure down. When nothing works, this works anyway.

Not surprising if you think about it.

But it's always surprising to experience.

There's the old bit of stoic wisdom that says you can't always change your circumstances... but you can change how you react to them. This is that on steroids - choosing a better way than losing your cool.

Again, this isn't medical advice. Even if it was, don't take medical advice from strangers on the internet. But you might find this helps you rethink certain things about your mind.

Of course, you have to learn self-hypnosis first.

If none of the other benefits sold you on it, maybe keeping your mind together will do it.

Here's how to learn it:

https://guided-thought.com/downloads/unlock-vault-self-hypnosis/

Ego of Your Leadership

Your ego is a powerful tool and if used right will help you have the level of confidence you need. Ego is a Latin word that means "I myself. All mindsets feed the ego, recognizes how to play to their strengths and identify the gaps to help you close them for greater effectiveness & confidence. Ego refers to a person's sense of self-esteem or self-importance. For the small business owner, a certain amount of ego is good. It's when the ego gets over inflated that problems occur.

You don't always have to be right on everything you do and or say. In reality you need a certain amount of ego as a leader to achieve, to innovate, and to have the courage to try something new. Ego-driven leaders are toxic to the organization you lead. The ego a leader has can bring down a business just like when there is a lack of customers. The difference is when the reputation of the business an ego-driven leader leads can have many or most people not applying for a job there. Nothing can be more debilitating in an organization than a leader with an ego. They are entitled and important simply because they want to be. Egotists regard themselves as superior, set apart from everyone else.

Don't Let Your Ego Hijack Your Leadership Effectiveness

"Always remember: Too much ego will kill your talent." - Unknown Author

Ego is one of the biggest problems that humanity faces. Being egoless is impossible. 
Overactive ego gives people a distorted image of your importance. When this happens, you see yourself as the center of the world around you. You begin to put your own agenda, status and gratification ahead of anyone else around you.

Characteristics of Ego-Driven Leaders

Ego-driven leaders tend to... 
• Measure success by how much others notice your success. 
• Often feel better about yourself when others around you don't achieve their goals. 
• Undermine others so you can appear smarter, more competent and more knowledgeable than they. 
• Drive others away over time. 
• Destroy trust and attempt to control others through anyway possible. 
• Are always looking for praise to be in the spotlight 
• Does not reflect on personal shortcomings because it would interfere with their need to feel superior. Their blind spots go unaddressed, and eventually people stop bringing them up. 
• Not listen to other points of view. 
• Takes on daunting tasks without preparation or the ability to solve them, because they see them as less threatening than they really are. 
• Be motivated by status, not service (leadership) 
• Have a desire to always be right every single time. 
• Be easily offended and quick to defend yourself sometimes using any excuse you think works for you. 
• Rarely, if at all, admit your fault without rationalizing or blaming others. Using such statements as "It's my way or the highway", "I don't need to adjust to people, they need to adjust to me", or "No one else can fix this but me", and or "I know more than anyone else in how to solve the situation."

You are Losing Business Clients and Customers and Not Knowing Why

"When your ego may be in charge, everything becomes a little bit more about "you" and a little bit less about others." - Christopher Pinckley

Can you admit to making a bad decision? You make decisions every day about everything you do, yet you have to live with them. You can change them. Typically, people do not like people with huge egos. Knowing that ego-driven people won't listen to them and thinking you are always right. Clients and customers believe ego-driven people are not customer-focused especially on their needs but on the needs of the ego-driven person.

Blaming others for your decisions does not bode well with your employees. Admitting to making a bad decision is not in the nature of an ego-driven person. Business owners or leaders usually don't think you need help. The problem is that you may know your business well, yet the way specific things work within your business you may not be totally aware of. This is when asking employees how they see things working help you in generating thoughts and ideas that can re-work the business for up-to-date trends.

You Have a Lot of Employee Turnover

You think you just need to hire the right talent instead of throwing more money at your employees to motivate them or to hire people who question things you do. Employees and prospective employees stay away from your organization because they want to work in an open-culture environment.

You are Never Satisfied with the Work of Others

You have difficulty praising employees or other executives. Putting people down as in blaming them for things you created does not sit well for most people, so they leave. Instead of looking for mistake's employees make you place blame on them as specific ideas were not yours.

Practice Humility

Recalibrate your ego since humility means recognizing that the work is not all about you. Recognizing how well your employees complete a project can be praised. Few ego driven leaders will do this as you expect employees to be doing their work and nothing more.

The leader that is acting out of self-doubt looks for reassurance from others in a more powerful position. They rarely make decisions on their own. They are not helpful to turn to in times of need and will generally avoid conflict of any kind.

The leader that is acting out of false pride is afraid to lose control. They tend to micromanage everything and everyone and their ideas are always the right ones. When they are wrong, they are usually the first to lay the blame on others.

Recognize Your Own Strengths and Limitations

"When you allow your ego to control your thoughts, everything you believe becomes an illusion." - Rusty Eric

Your leadership effectiveness is primarily based on how you see yourself. Having a high self-esteem or self-confidence is great. Going beyond this to think of yourself as always winning and never seeing yourself failing or losing under any circumstance needs you to come back to earth. Being so high and mighty when things around you are in a crisis, your ego will be in control Lashing out at people and blaming them for things they did not cause can suddenly leave in in the lurch to fill their vacant positions.

Dana Ardi, Ph.D., -"If you ask most people to describe how a great leader looks and acts, you'll often get answers that refer to generals and military commanders, or presidents and heads of state. In other words, we tend to think of leaders as those who rise to the top of the hierarchical pyramid - those who display charisma, a "take charge" attitude, and the self-confidence to issue commands from above."

Egotism in Leadership can be Countered

It takes a deliberate effort on the part of leaders to refocus and see things from a wider view. A key practice is to recognize the viewpoints of others. Many time's one's weaknesses are just the flip-side of your strengths.

Find a conscious balance between: 
• Strengths and weaknesses 
• Ambition and caution 
• Confidence and doubt 
• Foresight and hindsight 
• Boldness and accountability 
• Inspiration and being grounded 
• Personal needs and the needs of others

"Don't let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn't go with it." - Colin Powell

If you have an ego-driven way of doing things and you are ready to change for the better- greater productivity, greater performance, keeping talented employees and attracting and retaining business, contact me at nburgis@successful-solutions.comLet's get to work for the betterment of you and your company.

Data Science in Healthcare: Applications That Are Changing the Health of the Masses

Data is everywhere and it would be foolish not to use it for the betterment of various sectors and the general public. This is the reason why the medicine and the healthcare field are using big data as an effective tool to gather data and analyze the same. It can help improve the existing technologies and also will help in developing new ones, prevent any kind of epidemic, lower the costs of diagnosis and treatments, etc.

Big data will help the doctors to make informed decisions at a better pace making less mistakes. Data will also help in getting a bigger picture of the population as a whole by identifying the larger problems which can be a problem after 20 years.

Some of the major uses of data science in the field of healthcare are discussed below:

Staffing

Deciding the proper number of doctors, nurses and other staff in various shifts are big decisions as overstaffing means extra costs and understaffing means fewer staff to treat the patients. With data science and various machine learning techniques, one can find the patterns in hospital admissions in the last few years and can also get predictions regarding future admissions. This will help the management in making correct shift staffing decisions.

Wearables

Another use of data science is wearables which are certain equipment that can be worn by the patients. These instruments will be capable of collecting medical data about the person wearing the same and this will be collected in the database which can be helpful for comparing various socioeconomic factors and health in general. It will also be helpful for the concerned person's doctors to be alerted when the health deteriorates.

Predictive analysis

Doctors need to diagnose health problems, and having pre-existing data can be very helpful. Big data techniques can help doctors predict the disease within a very small period, as this can provide the patients with the timely treatment. Also, the electronic health records help a lot in certain complex cases which requires medical history.

Web medicine

With various digital devices now into play, the telemedicine approach has become much stronger and more improved in the last few years. Now patients can talk to and consult with doctors from home using various means like video conferences, chatbots, etc. Here data science can help in the diagnosis of the diseases easily, even if the patient is not admitted to the hospital. Also, by using the big data tools, technologies are being developed which can perform robotic surgeries which require a lot of data delivery to the software in real-time.

Security

Data science is also helpful in making sure that the patients and the hospitals do not go through any kind of forgery. Using streamlined data, inconsistencies and frauds can be recognized much earlier, thus preventing loss of money and other resources. Big data tools will help in correcting the insurance procedures by preventing faulty and fraudulent insurance claims and also will make sure that patients are compensated while the hospitals are paid in time.

Now that data science is showing such miraculous developments in the last few years, one can say that this is the right time to get data science training pursue a career in big data. However, it is important that one has the best data science training in Gurgaon to become a successful data scientist.

3 Ways to Expand Your Networks

Networking is more than just going to functions. It is about building relationships and developing a viable network. Your network should consist of trusted advisors and colleagues who are instrumental in your networking success. They should be like minded and share similar values and ethics. In order to properly establish this type of network, time, energy and effort are required.

Listed below are effective ways of growing strong, meaningful and productive associations.

Get Involved

A great way to expand your reach is to be a member of formalized groups and organizations. Whether you are a student, working professional, entrepreneur or in transition, connecting with formal group has its benefits. First and foremost, it is a strategic move that can open doors of opportunities. Also, it allows you to get into the routine of attending events and engaging with others. Secondly, it can offer advancement in career, professional and academic endeavors. The investment and commitment to learning can increase your credibility and exposure.

Get Knowledgeable

Be focused on continuing education and learning about your field, expertise, industry etc. Gaining information can make you a very savvy networker which can in turn expand your contact list. Read blogs and other digital and print publications. Join online communities or forums to find out the latest trends and technology. Tap into your existing networks for referrals and leads for resource sharing.

Get Creative

Think outside of the box in regards to developing an efficient system. Create unique ways of connecting with people, diversifying your contacts and staying consistent in your goals. Consider making ways of introducing individuals in your group and vice versa. Take advantage of merging and overlapping business and social ties.

Use these practical tips to enhance your objectives for building success. Be intentional about making quality approaches which benefit your networking agenda.

Chi Chi Okezie is owner/producer of SIMPLEnetworking, LLC in Atlanta, GA. Learn tips, tactics and techniques from the Champion Networker! Visit the SN Official Website: http://www.snseminars.com to read excerpts of her books, sign up for her newsletter, register for events and classes or visit her blog!