Simple Is Beautiful ! - A good reminder to all of us.
The Difference between Focusing on Problems and Focusing on Solutions
Case 1
When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that
the 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 range
from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.
And what did the Russians do...?? They used a pencil.
Case 2
One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was the case
of the empty soap box, which happened in one of Japan's biggest cosmetics
companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a
soap box that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem
to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to
the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the
assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem.
Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with
high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soap boxes
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 complications 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 soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of
the line.
=>Moral= Always look for simple solutions. Devise the simplest possible solution
that solves the problems
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