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Evaluation of Systematic Problem Solving Real World Systematic Innovation (S.I.) Example |
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In this 50% cost reduction example, the power of NEGATE AND RECONSTRUCT led to an astonishing result. The image shows a simplified self drilling bolt with special characteristics. Client's policy does not allow to be more specific. The shaft and head must be made of one piece. The drilling area is treated with some especially hard material. The drilling area creates the hole and holds the bolt. The shaft connects head and drill. The head has two functions: It matches a tool (details are classified information) to hold the bolt, and it must withstand a very heavy blow during the mounting process where the bolt is applied. This heavy blow cannot be avoided or damped. Due to this situation, the shaft and the head must be made out of one piece of steel. It is so tough, that a forging process is needed. One forging step was not enough, three forging steps were necessary to forge the final head from the extended shaft material. This required a total of three forging presses working in sequence. This process had been used during three years and multiple innovation sessions produced next to nothing about the total cost of the bolt. Many of these sessions were attended by engineers from the manufacturer of the forging press machines. When the Systematic Innovation process was adopted (guided by a specialist in S.I.) the "forging press" manufacturer had delegated three engineers to participate in the cost reduction research meeting. |
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Discussing and researching the situation for three days again without results, the team (not educated in S.I.) finally agreed to follow the newly employed S.I. specialist's process. He decided to use the method NEGATION & RECONSTRUCTION as follows: |
| The S.I. consulting specialist (now methodical team leader) separated the group into three subteams. One cost saver team was to work on the bolt head, one on the shaft, one on the drill tip area. | |
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NEGATION & RECONSTRUCTION Every team received the same instructions. The team working on the shaft listed the characteristics. (Strong guidance was needed, because people resisted this "silly" characteristics listing. Nevertheless, after a while the parameters were listed, among them one stating the shaft shape was cylindrical. This point was negated. The next simple form (besides circular) was: Square. A team member mentioned: "If this shaft was square in shape we could stamp it out from sheet metal, provided the head does not have to be cylindrical." The bolt head was changed to look like a TEE, the three stage forging process was eliminated and the forging press engineers went home with their bad news. The manufacturing cost of this high quantity commodity product dropped by 50%. | |
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Educator's note: The solution which saved 50% did not come from the people preoccupied with cost reduction of forging, working on the cost causing bolt head. The result was found indirectly via the change of the shaft's shape (a non-functional parameter). It had to be verified as a whole since the tool to hold the bolt was to be changed to accommodate the new shape of the bolt head. It is not unusual that a solution shows it head at a place nobody is looking for. S.I. reveals this, as has been shown. The "butterfly effect" indicates a small change in one place can result in a dramatic change at a different area. The holistic Creative Morphological Approach can find these solutions. Reseach methods used in the Energo-Cybernetic-Strategy (a powerful systematic holistic approach) would not find this solution, because in ECS you are researching for the most crucial point (narrowest pass) to change a system with the highest amplification factor in cost / benefit. Though in some instances a very valuable goal, it misses to find the better solution rationally in the case at hand. Divergence and convergence and the lot of charlatanic "tools" will only hav a slight chance, by accident, to find the solution. | |
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