> 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
>
> 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
