Creativity In Problem Solving

Know The Problem

Knowing the problem in your production lines is one thing, but figuring out how to fix it is another thing altogether. The best way to start is by knowing all your numbers. Being an expert at your job means knowing what’s happening at all times and understanding the many different dynamics of the business. Of course, this comes with experience and depending on how long you have been with a particular company may determine how well you can effectively diagnose those problems. So what’s the secret in this case?

Keep Track Of Your Numbers

If you don’t know the answer know where to find it. Knowing your numbers will help you find solutions a lot faster. An example that is similar in this case was a quality assurance manager at a large chemical manufacturer. The problem was slow and inefficient labor on line A compared to line B costing the company thousands in waste. The QA manager for this particular manufacturer does daily reports and had all the numbers to investigate what might be causing inefficient labor practices. What was finally discovered from looking at employee data was the workers on line A had heard that workers on line B were making $2 more an hour than they were. To address this issue, the wages of the workers on line B were increased by $2 an hour and immediately led to better results. Breaking this case down to a simple formula, we see that solutions can be found as fast as problems are. The key to this is knowing the information, where to find it and what to do with it. Data kept from the past is insurance for the future.
A big part of finding a solution quickly and effectively is being creative. In the world of business, whether its technology-driven or hands-on, creativity is a characteristic that is essential for success. To be creative you must know the situation and how to use what you have at a given moment to accomplish a goal in the most resourceful way possible. If you don’t have the data to understand your business or the problem you will try to solve something blind. Having all the information accessible makes connecting the dots a whole lot easier.

The First Idea May Not Be Correct

Another example that highlights this idea is from the experience of a consultant who was hired by a food production company to address an issue with customer quantity complaints. The consultant had helped this company before with a waste issue. Employees were packing too much meat into containers, leading the company to have inconsistent packing outputs and lost profit. The solution was to add scales that required employees to get an exact weight every time a container was packed. Problem solved right? Wrong, as in many other cases, the employees found a way around the weight requirement and began to lean on the scales until they hit the required number. This time the issue was underpacking and customers began to complain about the low quantity of meat within a container, leading to losses in revenue. The solution this time was a timer that delayed the weigh time by 8 seconds so to get the right weight standard employees were forced to correctly pack the containers with product. In this case, sometimes solutions lead to more problems but monitoring your data will tell you what needs to happen next. Customer complaint data was the red flag in this case and working backward to creatively find a new solution is what saved this company lots of money.

Every problem is unique and will be complex in its own way but the foundation of being able to quickly and effectively solve problems is to know the information or have a way to quickly find it. Creativity in any industry can be the competitive edge that allows companies to be agile in their journey to be number one.