"How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time,” a popular saying has it. The old proverb means that large tasks can be accomplished if done one little bit at a time. The only way to approach a big problem is by breaking it down into smaller pieces.
STEP TWO - Breakdown the Problem
Once you’ve seen the problem first hand, you can begin to breakdown the problem into more detailed and specific problems.
Keep in mind that, as you breakdown your problem you still need to see the smaller, individual problems with your own eyes. This is also a good time to study and analyze the different inputs and outputs of the process so that you can effectively prioritize your efforts. It is much more effective to manage and solve a number of micro-problems one at a time, rather than try and tackle a big problem with no direction.
QUICK STORY:
Let's pretend that we are a shoe manufacturing company. For the past several months, the amount of returned shoes has increased significantly. There are two 2,100 SQF large rooms with new but returned shoes that sadly, cannot be resold due to an opened box or small damage by the customer. Shoes were returned due to factory defect, or because they were not of the right color or the right size. They were also returned because people simply change their minds and some other reasons. Some look perfect, some were used for a couple of steps or are missing something. Unfortunately, each pair of shoes that comes back is profit loss but nobody knows how much. The returned shoes are increasing weekly and nobody seems to be doing anything about it. This does not look good! What can we do?
Let's understand STEP ONE and STEP TWO by going practical with this example. Please answer the following questions: 1. What do you think is the problem? 2. If you can identify the problem, Can you break down the problem into manageable pieces?
Please use the comment section below.
I am surprised by the fact that in this story we are told that there are two large spaces, where they have stored a product as a return. This means that for every pair of shoe, there is a dissatisfied customer, Also, there is a financial loss: due to not being able to sell the defective shoe, having a occupied space unnecessarily, but also a loss of customer and credibility.
It is evident that this shoe factory does not work under the same objective or under the same goals: to provide a quality product that meets the needs and exceeds customer expectations.
Another point is that there is a poor quality control system, or worse, there is no quality control…
1. What do you think is the problem?
The company has not given the customer restrictions for returning shoes. Therefore, the returned items have piled up. There might not be filter for returning items
2. If you can identify the problem, Can you break down the probleminto manageable pieces?
a. Bad quality product.
b. People returning the product without hesitation.
c. Lack of return control. The amount of returned items should have alerted if someone was on top of it.
The problem is that there is not any system with policies for returned shoes. As well as the quality control of defected shoes is not working properly.
The problem in pieces:
1. There are no policies that customers need to respect when returning shoes.
2. Quality control of the shoes is poor.
3. There is no control of returned shoes. Nobody is checking that the shoes are not damaged by the customer and decide if the problem of the return is because of the quality of the product.
4. There is no follow up of the consequences on the cost of returned shoes.
The main problem in this story is the loss of profits in the company with products that cannot be sold this can be caused for some factors:
- There is a problem in the work process that causes mistakes in production to be commented on, such as not producing the shoes of the correct color asked by the client.
- The quality control doesn't' identifies the products that are wrong before being sent to the customer.
- There is no product return policy. The client must not return the product if the company sends the correct color and with good quality.
I think that the main problem is not having a quality control filter for the product, one of the reasons why the product is being returned is due to factory defects, this could be solved by having a more specific control in the elaboration of the product.
Breaking down the problem:
1. Missing of appropriate equipment
2. Poor quality of the material used
3. Missing quality control
I believe that with the help of careful analysis and planning, more can be accomplished with the same amount of resources.