Case # 1
When NASA started launching astronauts to outer space, they found out that writing pens wouldn't work at zero gravity (ink won't flow own to the writing surface)...
To solve the problem, it took them a decade and $12 million. They developed a pen that works at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in temperature ranging from below freezing point to over 300 degrees C. However the Russians find a simple solution...? They used pencils.
Case # 2
Another case is on Japanese management, the lesson about an empty soapbox, which really did happen in one of Japan's biggest cosmetics companies.
The company received a complaint from a consumer who bought a soapbox that was empty. Immediately the authorities identified that the problem was with the assembly line, where soft boxes are packed and transported to The delivery department. For some reason, one soapbox 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 soapboxes passing through the assembly line to make sure they were not empty. They did it but spent a whooping amount to make it. Similar case was compared... and this was taken from the accounts of a small company. When a supervisor of the small company was confronted 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 directly to the assembly line. When the fan was switched on, it simply blew the passing empty boxes out from the packing area of the assembly line.
Lesson from the story. Always look for simple solutions.
Devise the simplest possible solution that could easily (and economically) solve the problem.
We are always confronted by problems in our everyday life... at home, at work and social life. What really matters is HOW ONE LOOK AT THE
PROBLEM...
Focus more on Solutions and not on problems!!!
