PRODUCTIVE CAPABILITY
Keith Sketchley, P.Eng.
(Applications, Implementation, Systems Engineering)
and
Values-Based Enterprise Leadership
Developing products for enduring profit
and
Helping owners to front-line success
by
making systems work for users of air/land/marine vehicles.
Contents
General
Having seen many cases of success and failure first-hand, including his own, Keith looks for fundamental causes in the approach of enterprise owners - to improve long-term profitability.
He has a unique combination of experience and perspective for leadership of product development and for enterprises, especially the development and use of electronic systems for transportation devices. It covers financial matters, hiring, design, testing & use of avionics and ground vehicle electronic systems, for long-term profit.
Keith has managed projects, personnel, and airline technical operations. He has coached management and staff on technical and business matters.
He has analyzed flight performance, made economic evaluations, and presented to an international safety conference - working with systems ranging from very old to emerging technology. He successfully provided avionics systems design and support to operators and manufacturers - including development, cockpit factors, parts sourcing, installation, testing, certification, documentation, and resolution of problems, worked with regulators, analyzed economic factors, and participated in business decision-making. He has worked closely with purchasing, quality, financial, and operating departments. These activities involved a wide range of organizations from new companies to regulatory teams, in locations ranging from corporate boardroom to distant field operations in primitive conditions.
Keith is familiar with considerations affecting software, electrical hardware, structures and users from the systems perspective, in order to integrate design work and progress to a product or application that succeeds because it is usable and profitable. He learns fundamentals of new technology, bridging to existing work by using principles.
Overall the objective is good long-term profit for owners of the enterprise, in trade for income to Keith.
For product development, the objective is a fully functioning and cost-effective product, such as an electronic system integrated into a commercial aircraft or surface vehicle, providing profit for all true contributors to business, product and use. (Keith emphasizes purpose, user factors, and life-cycle economics - the big picture but then made real by much detail work.)
Similarly in other business fields, his emphasis is on users including customers and their workers.
Keith applies a unique combination of experience - technical, operational, safety, financial & management, and values - to your needs. He uses principles to bridge product development into end use that is truly economic in the long term, by starting at the foundations of product, business and life.
His technical emphasis is on architecture, interfaces & connectivity, user factors over the life-cycle of the product or vehicle, safety, and economics.
His leadership emphasis is on the foundations of values of product, enterprise and people - integrated across the enterprise at all levels.
His approach to work and business is straightforward and objective, trading values to support long-term profitability for all contributing parties. That profit is earned by efficiently producing products and services that sell in a free market because they provide sound value to users. Bureaucracy and politics are rejected, coordination and taking responsibility is expected.
Work is divided and advice provided as makes sense for win-win relationships, or eliminated as not needed for cost effective quality. (Objectives may include knowledge transfer and re-usability of work for product iterations.) Work must have an agreed purpose that produces true value, whether an immediate project or a long-term focus such as knowledge acquisition to be prepared for action. Less or more than expected may be required, thus dialogue is important to establish values. Work can be accomplished remotely or onsite depending on its nature and the phase of the project - as an independent pair of eyes or in a rational team.
Keith can advise, coach, consult, check, or do. Your location or his or elsewhere.
He invites you to call him to discuss potential. :-)
Registered Professional Engineer
FAA Designated Engineering Representative (no longer active).
Transport Canada Design Approval Representative (previous).
Chaired ATAC Engineering & Maintenance Committee.
Member IEEE.
Presented paper at Flight Safety Foundation conference, Rio de Janeiro
Keith Sketchley's formal education and training includes:
- Engineering Physics university degree.
- Aeronautical (aerodynamics, structures, flight performance).
- Business management, economics, total quality.
- Certification and safety.
- Electronics including EMI/RFI.
- Mechanical design/analysis.
As well, he has less formal education through work, seminars, conferences and self-study in:
- ideas supporting business
- radio systems & wireless communication including cellular telephony
- avionics
- data busses
- small computers.
And he has exposure to other technologies and to methodologies, from actual projects (such as using product requirements development tools) and from hands-on work (such as writing modest software programs, repairing vehicles & electronic equipment, and rubber molding).
Keith adds to his knowledge and keeps up with business and technology in his fields of emphasis - especially strategy of people values, interfaces of functions & signals, system architecture & requirements, and usability of products. He keeps up to date through seminars, presentations, and self-study of particular subjects and cases of success and failure.
© Keith Sketchley, page version 2018.01.25