Dear All,
Difference between Forcing the Problem and Solving the Problem
Case: 1
One of the memorable case studies on Japanese management was the case of the empty soapbox, which happened in one of Japan’s biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soapbox that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packed boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soapbox went through the assembly worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soapboxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent a Whoopee amount to do so.
But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, he did not get into compilations of X-rays, etc., but instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soapbox passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.
Case: 2
When NASA began the launch of astronauts into the space, they found out that pens wouldn’t work at zero gravity (ink won’t flow down to the writing surface). To solve this problem, it took them one decade and $12 million. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature ranges from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.
And what did Russians do…?? They used a pencil.
Moral: Always Look For Simple Solutions.
Regards,
CAclubindia
