Blog posts on problem solvingPosts selected fromManagement Blog - Engineering Blog - Investing Blog and other blogs - Quality and Innovation
I really don’t understand how people can talk about innovation as if it were some new discovery. Yes I understand we can bring a different focus to innovation. We can reconfigure management structures to encourage and support innovation. That is good. And new ideas are being developed, but the innovation fad is silly. And accepting the notion that this innovation stuff is some new idea will make managers less effective than if they understand the past.
New Economics by W. Edwards Deming, published in 1992, page 7:
Does the customer invent new product of service? The customer generates nothing. No customer asked for electric lights… No customer asked for photography… No customer asked for an automobile… No customer asked for an integrated circuit.
Innovation has long been important to those interested in management improvement. continue reading: Quality and Innovation - Expand the View of the System to Find Ways to Improve Results
 By expanding the system view and looking at the results of the entire system it is often possible to find improvements that are not possible by only looking at “your” system. These changes can sometimes be more challenging to accomplish as they may require convincing others to make changes. continue reading: Expand the View of the System to Find Ways to Improve Results - Ackoff, Idealized Design and Bell Labs
“Doesn’t it strike you as odd,” he said, “that the three most important contributions this laboratory has ever made to telephonic communications were made before any of you were born? What have you been doing?” he asked. “I’ll tell you,” he said. “You have been improving the parts of the system taken separately, but you have not significantly improved the system as a whole. The deficiency,” he said, “is not yours but mine. We’ve had the wrong research-and-development strategy. We’ve been focusing on improving parts of the system rather than focusing on the system as a whole. As a result, we have been improving the parts, but not the whole.
We have got to restart by focusing on designing the whole and then designing parts that fit it rather than vice versa.
continue reading: Ackoff, Idealized Design and Bell Labs - Improving on Previous Attempts to Adopt Management Improvement Methods
There is a big difference between needing to improve on previous attempts to adopt management improvement methods and needing to find new methods. Most of what is needed it to actually apply the good ideas that have been around for decades. And yes, sure try and find some new great ideas but where the focus should really be is on the hard work of execution not looking for some magic pill to solve the difficult task of managing well. continue reading: Improving on Previous Attempts to Adopt Management Improvement Methods - Doing the Wrong Things Righter
Most of our current problems are, he [Russell Ackoff] says, the result of policymakers and managers busting a gut to do the wrong thing right.
I agree with the very big problem of ignoring the overall system and seeking to improve what really should be completely rethought and changed. However, I am a bit skeptical of the idea of it being better to do the right thing poorly than it is to do the wrong thing well.
I realize "It is far better to do the right thing wrong than to do the wrong thing right." as Russell Ackoff has said, is a catchy quote. But certainly the truth is that it depends on the system and how wrong or right a thing is and the action is. Sometimes it is far better to do the wrong thing fairly well (to increase the overall benefit to the system) than to do the right thing poorly (and create huge problems in the rest of the system). So sure pay attention to the concept of thinking about whether the best course of action is to completely change what you are doing instead of improving how you are doing it. But don't pretend it is really is better to do the right things wrong - it depends. Sometimes sure that is true, other times it isn't. continue reading: Doing the Wrong Things Righter - Turning The PDSA Cycle Rapidly (Iteration)
One point he made was that he often finds that organizations fail to properly “turn” the PDSA cycle (by running through it 5-15 times quickly and instead to one huge run through the PDSA cycle). One slow turn is much less effective then using it as intended to quickly test and adapt and test and adapt…
In my experience people have difficulty articulating a theory to test (which limits the learning that can be gained). He offered a strategy to help with this: write down the key outcome that is desired. Then list the main drivers that impact that outcome. Then list design changes for each outcome to be tested with the PDSA cycle. continue reading: Turning The PDSA Cycle Rapidly (Iteration) - European Blackout: Human Error-Not
The focus seems to be that we didn’t do anything wrong, just some “human” made an error, which seems to be implied is out of their control. Why would the organization not be responsible for the people and the system working together? Management needs to create systems that works. That system includes people and equipment and process management and suppliers
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If management tries to claim a failure was due to "human error" they have to provide me a great deal more evidence on why the system was designed to allow that error (given that they say the error is "human" implies that they believe the system should have been able to cope with the situation). Requesting that evidence is the first thing reporters should ask any time they are given such excuses. At which time I imagine the response options are:
- no comment
- we had considered this situation and looked at the likelihood of such an event, the cost of protecting against it (mistake proofing) and the cost of failure meant and decided that it wasn't worth the cost of preventing such failures
- we didn't think about it
- we think it is best not to design systems to be robust and mistake proof but rather rely on people to never make any mistakes
What they will likely say is we have these 3 procedures in place to prevent that error.
Are they every followed? You have something written on paper, big deal? What actually happens?
Yes they are always followed by everybody, this one time was the only time ever that it was not followed. Why?
This person made a mistake.
Why did the system allow that mistake to be made?
What? You can't expect us to design systems that prevent mistakes from being made.
Yes I can. That is much more sensible than expecting people never to make a mistake. continue reading: European Blackout: Human Error-Not - Epidemic of Diagnoses
It sure seems to me this tendency to “over-diagnois” leads to Tampering. Lets assign a special cause to some instance and then implement a counter-measure (it seems to be “take this drug” is a common one). And just as tampering in the management world the “solutions” then create all sorts of problems.
For me, when I read:
But the real problem with the epidemic of diagnoses is that it leads to an epidemic of treatments. Not all treatments have important benefits, but almost all can have harms
I just think: tampering! continue reading: Epidemic of Diagnoses - Making Better Decisions
When times are good, many are content to let things go: not make any tough decisions or any that might upset someone… When in a bind it is accepted that something has to be done, so you can often get past the “we are doing ok, why make us change…” objections.
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Have the discipline to focus on the problems even when times are good. That is the key. That allows for a much broader range of options (when times are bad certain options are no longer available – for example, when Toyota had to lay off workers…). In general people are less effective under stress... continue reading: Making Better Decisions - Reacting to Product Problems
Toyota is doing well but as they say themselves, over and over: Toyota still has plenty of room to improve. The key is to not only say so, but act on it (which I believe they are doing, the recalls give one indication of the continued need to improve). continue reading: Reacting to Product Problems - Systems Improvement Example
 Systems thinking allowed the engineers to design a solution that wasn’t about enforcing the existing rules more but changing the system so that the causes of the most serious problems are eliminated. continue reading: Systems Improvement Example - Systemic Failures Lead to Many Fatal SWAT Raids in the USA
 ...people being killed in raids by police on the wrong house: police in full swat gear storming the wrong house by accident and then killing occupants. The media in general sees these as “special causes” – isolated incidents. So while tragic the strategy is then to examine what mistake in this unique situation lead to tragedy. I believe this is a systemic problem and therefore see the proper examination to undertake is to look at the whole system. That is, to use the common cause improvement strategy – when the tragedy is seen not as an isolated incident but the result of a system. continue reading: Systemic Failures Lead to Many Fatal SWAT Raids in the USA - Toyota’s Newest Humanoid Partner Robot
 T-HR3 reflects Toyota’s broad-based exploration of how advanced technologies can help to meet people’s unique mobility needs. T-HR3 represents an evolution from previous generation instrument-playing humanoid robots, which were created to test the precise positioning of joints and pre-programmed movements, to a platform with capabilities that can safely assist humans in a variety of settings, such as the home, medical facilities, construction sites, disaster-stricken areas and even outer space. continue reading: Toyota’s Newest Humanoid Partner Robot - The Best Form of Fire Fighting is None at All
 The best form of problem solving is to avoid problems altogether.
At the point you have a “fire” in your organizaiton you have to fight it. But it is better to create systems that avoid fires taking hold in the first place.*
This is a simple idea. Still many organizations would perform better if they took this simple idea to heart. Many organizations suffer from problems, not that they should solve better, but problems they should have avoided altogether. continue reading: The Best Form of Fire Fighting is None at All - Large Scale Redox Flow Battery (700 megawatt hours)
 Scientists and engineers in Germany have created the largest battery in the world with redox flow technology.
Redox flow batteries are liquid batteries. The Friedrich Schiller University of Jena has developed a new and forward-looking salt-free (brine) based metal-free redox flow battery. This new development will use salt caverns as energy storage.
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Both charged electrolytes can be stored for several months. The maximum storage capacity of this redox-flow battery is limited only by the size of the storage containers for the electrolyte liquids.
The project is being ramped up now, going through a test phase before bringing the full system online; they are aiming to achieve this in 6 years. The electrical capacity of 700 megawatt hours will be enough to supply over 75,000 households with electricity for one day. continue reading: Large Scale Redox Flow Battery (700 megawatt hours)
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