On The Train (Taxonomy again?), Apr 1, 2009

There were a row of Africans on the train when I boarded for home. Looking at them I pity and felt sorry for them for the generalization Malaysian made of them. Like we say in Malay, ‘di sebabkan nila setitik habis susu sebelanga.’ It is the culture of Malaysian to easily generalize anything that happens around them. Because of this generalization we put pressure and stress on ours day to day living contributing to the statistics of rising heart disease in Malaysia. Huh! again a problem with taxonomy ). We have to learn to look at things from various perspectives and classify and value certain things differently and properly now.

On The Train (The Economic of Taxonomy?), Mar 25, 2009

Before I left the office I saw the train waiting on the track down below and the train stood there for more than 20 minutes. The service got back to it worst again I said to myself and I was right when reached the platform. The Seremban train was already there on the platform and I knew instinctively I did not have to rush. Once inside, the train had to wait for another 10 minutes or so below it was given permission to depart. No announcement, probably I had missed it, and I just assumed they had a electrical ‘technical problem’. The best and often used taxonomy that KTMB had ever came out with. Soon the term going to be its middle name - Keretapi Tanah ‘Technical Problem’ Melayu Bhd.

Technically, no pun intended, speaking that technical term is misleading term to generalize every problem that they faced. And I would like to suggest for them to break it down further to create better understanding to their stakeholders. Let me suggest this:

Service Interruption (Main Theme)
Breakdown (2nd L evel)
Technical (2rd Level)
Electrical
Engine
SIgnalling
Tracks
Negligence
Vandalism
Service Delay

You see based on my suggestion Technical problem is not even the Main Subject Term. It is only the third level and if we look closely we could even break it down further. Well, based on KTMB’s performance that would not be too difficult to list down. See not only KTMB limitation is their quality of service or competency but their issue is also their classification of issues that must make them difficult to understand the difficulty faced by their stakeholders. How could they understand the problems if they themselves could not classify their problems properly. When they generalize the problem to ‘Technical Problem’ they will think that is normal and because it happens too many times it is no big deal. Analysing the problems also would be difficult that could lead to wrong analysis and eventually decision. This is what I call they have problem with the Economic of Taxonomy. Ha ha ha is there such a term?

On The Train (The Bus Tragedy), Aug 15, 2007

Late in the office today my colleague drop in my office to discuss about work and wile trying to analyze the issues at hand he suggested to use the recent Bus Tragedy as an example to explain about the problem of KM, even taxonomy. He was right of course it was so clear the symptoms of not knowing of what they know, no proper organization of knowledge, no collaboration among agencies and plain simple of not making the right decision at the right time. Firstly all the agencies at fault have or knew about the driver and the bus. The JPJ should have the record of the ill fated bus and they should know also about the driver. The police obviously have the records of the bus and the driver as well. The licensing board as well. But no one was aware of the value chain and the potential effect of them not taking the right decision on time. Had the police taken action the driver won’t be on the road or had the JPJ and the Vehicle Licensing Board grounded the bus the tragedy could be avoided. It could be as well that all the information stored it the respective systems were not organized using a standard taxonomy so visibility was not there for all to see the inter-linkages. So who’s at fault? All the agencies within the value chain and they all should own-up.