Example Creative Problem Solving

Let s say that you are an FLS in charge of step 6 of the widget manufacturing process. Things have not been going too well in the step 6 department lately. A lot of the product that has been produced in the recent past has been out of specification and had to be scrapped and/or recycled. Some of the machinery has shut down completely, so the amount of product being produced has stopped 

There are a variety of things that the FLS can do. Since there is downtime, the FLS should make arrangements to fill this downtime with important fillers. A filler might be a team meeting to discuss important company information. Even better, the filler might be a training session that is overdue or will become due in the near future. 

The list of who to blame goes on and on. The blame game serves very little useful purpose. This blame game should be avoided as much as possible, and the focus should remain on avoidance of future problems. 

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H. S. Fogler and S. LeBlanc, Strategies for Creative Problem Solving. Indianapolis, IN Prentice HaU PTR, 1994. Provides interesting examples and convenient summaries of key approaches to problem solving, including the approach of Kepner-Tregoe. 

The cause-and-effect diagram basically dissects a defect type into the associated causes. The causes can be further subdivided into additional groupings if the team believes such structure is necessary. Japanese-based tools such as the cause-and-effect diagram are useful for creative problem solving, and teams using such tools should be allowed flexibility in customizing tools for their specific needs. Example 4 presents the use of a cause-and-effect diagram. 

I can avoid the next crash. I look beyond the problems to see the challenges or benefits or a door that I can open. I have to be a little bit creative in problem solving. There are alternatives for everything. You don t have to do things in the same way that you ve always done them. For example, people say, I have to use pesticides, I live in Louisiana and we have flying roaches Well, I lived in Louisiana for twelve years before we moved, and I have not used pesticides since 1985, and I don t have pests in my house. 

The reason that EQ is important to a biological engineer is that, by creating the proper anotional environment, desired ends can be achieved. Creative problems, for instance, are solved better and more easily when the person working on them has positive emotions than when neutral or negative emotions prevail. For environments in schools and hospitals, for example, this may be critical. The complete... 

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