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 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 packaged boxes of

soap 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 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 soapbox 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

Always Focus on solutions & not on problems