New Zealand Engineering 1999 September

Practice - Engineering Management

When Animals Attack

Questions
Simplify

"There are no problems; only opportunities to improve." However, they are not the same, for opportunities are shy and go away, whereas problems stay in your face longer than the person-in-law. Businesses are fraught with difficult, expensive opportunities; engineering their solutions is the bread and butter of business improvement. The Japanese use the word "kaizen" for this process, because they are foreign. Let me illustrate all with a Kiwi tale instead.

Our student flat had a persistent problem with rubbish bags being disembowelled all over the driveway by two large dogs. The first attempted re-education programme, using a spark plug lead wired to the bag, failed, when the neighbour’s ex-cordon-bleu bag proved more tempting than ours did. However, stalking the criminals back to the owner’s address did at least reveal his cunning ploy of putting his own bags out only after calling the dogs back inside.

Causing a problem doesn’t make it your problem, unless the consequences affect you; the mess was everyone else’s problem. "Silly sods, should put their bags out when the truck comes, like I do…" So next week, we rounded up all the bags in the street and piled them outside his house. The hounds of hell emerged as usual, joyously spied the gift wrapped, hand delivered, garbage du jour, and bored into the helpless mob like sharks in a swimming pool. The merciless carnage climaxed as the gate finally opened, and the owner stepped out into the aftermath of Armageddon. Thereafter, the rubbish day romps were cancelled.

Problem solving starts with deductive reasoning, to discover the mechanisms of cause and effect. The rule is simply: "Ask why, progressively, until the answers no longer lie on this planet." Problems have causes, that in turn have causes with causes, and tracking these back will not lead you to a solution…. It will lead you to a whole flock of alternative solutions. Patiently using the question trail will build up a reliable working model in your mind, of what is going on and why. It is like peeling an onion; every layer tells a tearful story, but if you impatiently slice straight to the core, you may find that there isn’t one.

Questions
Solutions follow the same steps as the questions. A level #1 solution was to put the bags out later, to avoid "animals". A level #2 solution was to deal to the specific dogs; the spark trick failed, but cast iron rubbish bins might succeed. Level #3 identified the owner, and hence the orgy option.

Solutions are infinite in scope - as the meat industry attests there are many ways to skin a cat. You cannot deduce solutions; instead, you need creative reasoning to manufacture them. Having modelled the process, you now test possible solutions by inserting them into it.

For creative ideas, look for analogies; nature has recurring themes and so do problems. Do you want to size grade sheeps’ hearts? What else have you seen doing similar work? Can you adapt a potato size grader or copy its principles into a new, purpose made machine? Skim through catalogues, magazine articles and advertisements; tour other factories; talk to sales reps and to the people working the process. Create a well of ideas that you can draw on later.

Two heads are better than one, although finding shirts to fit can be tricky. Brainstorming can quickly assemble ideas; write them all down without debate, even daft ones. Use the accumulating ideas as a launch pad for more sophisticated ideas and come up with a short list to investigate further.

Casting a broad net is fine, but solutions being infinite, it is a trap to try to identify all. Investigate every woman on the planet before you marry and you will remain celibate, or, if you ever find her, she won’t marry a drip like you anyway. One successful marriage brings happiness and likewise one successful solution to a problem. Be decisive, and move on.

Never neglect the "not–my-problem" solution. Sometimes someone else can solve your problem; usually the someone who causes it in the first place. If you return the problem’s consequences to its creator, it is no longer your problem. As in the dogs’ tale, be prepared to cross boundaries onto other people’s territory; like international criminals, problems respect no borders.

Simplify
Problems sometimes have several root causes and conversely one root cause can create several intertwined, compounding problems. When commissioning a new factory process line there will typically be several faults at work, all tripping each other up and leaving you perplexed. When analysis defies Einstein, you need to un-complicate the situation. First fix anything obviously wrong, to eliminate distractions. Then remove everything that you can from the picture and try to understand what is left, isolating problems into bite sized chunks. If, with the steam turned on, you cannot see why product hangs up in the cooker, then turn it off and run product through raw.

It is important to trace causes back as far as possible, to avoid solving symptoms instead of problems; solving four problems with four solutions, when one root source solution would lay them all to rest.

Complex analysis methods are difficult to abridge, but I hope this brief outline at least whets your appetite for improvement; for no matter how well a process runs, it can always run better. As for kaizen? It lacks one vital piece of Kiwi advice:

"When all else fails; read the instructions."

Ian Marsden is a food industry project engineer, Christchurch