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Chapter 7 • Steps in Deliberate Problem Solving

Case study: You have a promising junior production engineer, Bill Brown, transferred into your department. He is intelligent, enthusiastic, and has a high scholastic rating. He has an unusual flair for shaving costs on production problems. However, he also has the ability to exasperate all his associates to such an extent that they actually resist valuable sug­gestions simply because they come from him. You have talked to him twice about the need for tact and diplomacy in working with others, but he doesn't seem to care. In any event, he has failed to reform.

You now have in blueprint form a new item on which the saving of every fraction of a cent will be highly important. You have been count­ing on Brown's help to make the savings. You also have a request in with your company's finance committee for funds to buy new produc­tion equipment. The comptroller has tipped you off that the committee's decision may be influenced to some degree by the size of your profit margin on this new item.

At the same time, the morale of your production unit is at the lowest ebb ever because of Brown's unpleasant personality. In a particular slump is a veteran of twelve years' experience who knows the practical side of manufacturing like the back of his hand. He is in a completely negative frame of mind and refuses to consider any of Brown's sug­gestions whatever. But you need him almost as much as you need Brown.

1.       On the basis of the facts given, how would you orient this problem? Be sure to break out all sub problems.

2.       a. What facts are given in the study that will have to be reconciled with any solution you propose?

b.  What facts do you feel are still needed?

c.  How would you go about getting the additional facts—either directly or indirectly?

d.  How could you prove the validity of any facts you turn up?

3.       Working with what you have developed so far, list at least twenty possible ideas—good, bad, or indifferent—you might try as a means of solving your problem. Try to do this on an "ideas only" basis, without evaluating their merits as you produce them.

4.       Read over your original orientation of the problem. Does this suggest any additional ideas to you? Read over the list of facts you felt were important to the problem. Can you add any additional ideas now? Reread all the ideas you have listed so far. Can you add another five? Ten?

5.       a. Establish at least five criteria points that any solution to this
problem must meet. (Remember to consider the original facts that you
said must be reconciled into a solution.)

b. Evaluate each of your ideas against the criteria you have de­veloped. Which idea seems to offer the best possibilities for immediate solution of the problem?

6.       Assume that none of the ideas you produced and tried had any effect on resolving the conflicts caused by Brown's personality and attitude. List at least ten alternative courses of action you might be able to take. Do any of these satisfy the criteria for solution?

7.       Assume you decide to fire or transfer Brown. Orient the problem you would then have of making up for the loss of his specialized abilities.

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