Learning unlocks all doors
Newsletter Issue 22 : Feb 1, 2009- Feb 28, 2009
Use your Creativity
There
was once a large soap factories of a very popular brand among the Japanese where
everyday millions of soap cakes came out of the factory
One day the company received an unusual customer complaint. The customer had
bought their soap at the local super market. When he went home he found that the
soap box was empty. The company sent him a soap along with a letter of apology.
Then it went deep into the problem.
‘How come empty boxes go out of the factory?'
The engineers reviewed the manufacturing and packing process. In a huge conveyor
thousands of soap boxes were coming out.
In
another conveyor perfectly synchronized to the first, the soap cakes were coming
out. At the crucial point, a machine lifted the cake, put it into a box and
sealed it. The machinery did an excellent job. But about one in ten thousand
cases it let go a box without the soap cake in it. The engineers found
out that it may take a lot of money to correct this minor lapse. Now their
objective was to identify the black sheep - in this case the box without the
soap - and eliminate it from the production line.
The company was doing very well. And there were many brilliant engineers in it.
So
they brainstormed the problem and came out with a fail-proof solution. They
installed a huge X-ray machine which was connected to two large computer
screens. Two skilled workers were appointed to constantly monitor the movement
of the soap boxes. As soon as they found out the empty box they would throw that
out of the assembly line.
This arrangement cost several lakhs of Rupees but ensured that no empty box
reached the customer. A function was organized to congratulate the engineering
team. The engineers made a presentation to the shop-floor workers about the
working of the monitoring system. After about an hour of technical explanation
the Chief Engineer sat down in his seat exhausted.
A
worker raised his hand and was asked to speak.
"Sir we could have solved the problem in a much simpler, cheap way."
"Really? Can you explain?"
"Sure. We can install a powerful blower, a huge fan, near the conveyor which
carries the packed boxes. The air coming from the fan will simply blow away the
empty boxes leaving the other boxes undisturbed. There would be no need for an
X-ray equipment, two computers and to cap it all, constant monitoring by two
skilled workers."
Now that's creative thinking. We should work hard; but also think smart
Think about it now – maybe you could come out with a cheaper solution if you decided to use your creativity!