OLANRELE OLADEJI. O
ND (ELECT/ELECT) THE POLYTECHNIC IBADAN (2005).
Bsc (INDUSTRIAL AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING) UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, IBADAN. (2010).
olanreleoladeji@yahoo.com.
AN ARTICLE WRITTEN TO BE PUBLISHED IN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING STUDENT ASSOCIATION(IESA) MAGZINE.
LEAN MANUFACTURING.
One of the key requirements for any organization to show its customer that it cares is the establishment of a customer service department. After all, organization exists solely for the purpose of providing customer values, and in turn retains their customers or secure new one. No wonder companies nowadays are driven by various techniques for identifying the customers, products/services, quality characteristics, and performance measures which are most important to the company. An Industrial engineer must be conversant with some of the various techniques available in other to be relevant in the industry, as customer focus/orientation is taking the fore front in management planning; one of such techniques is “Lean or Lean Manufacturing”.
Historically, Lean manufacturing evolved from techniques developed by Taiichi Ohno and others at Toyota in the 1950s and 1960s, Lean manufacturing is a generic process management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System (TPS); hence the term Toyotism is also prevalent. It is renowned for its focus on reduction of the original Toyota seven wastes to improve overall customer value. After formulating the guiding principles of its Lean manufacturing approach in the Toyota Production System (TPS), Toyota formalized in 2001 the basis of its Lean management: the key managerial values and attitudes needed to sustain continuous improvement in the long run.
Lean Manufacturing History.
Lean manufacturing technique constitute a new approach to production management and result of the widespread use of the principles outside of Japan, initially through Japanese-owned plants using local labour, and then by the establishment of locally owned and staffed firms using the techniques in the United State, Britain, Europe and elsewhere.
Lean Manufacturing is a term used to describe a manufacturing, industrial or service operation which operates with little or no waste with the core idea of maximizing customer value. “Value” is defined as any action or process that a customer would be willing to pay for. Simply, Lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources. A Lean organization understands customer value and focuses its key processes to continuously increase it. The ultimate goal is to provide perfect value to the customer through a perfect value creation process that has zero waste.
Components of Lean Production System.
There is a popular misconception which beliefs that Lean is suited only for manufacturing which is not true. Lean applies in every business and every process. It is not a tactic or a cost reduction program, but a way of thinking and acting for an entire organization. Businesses in all industries and services, including healthcare and governments, are using Lean principles as the way they think and do. Many organizations choose not to use the word Lean, but to label what they do as their own system, such as the Toyota Production System or the Danaher Business System, to drive home the point that Lean is not a program or short term cost reduction program, but the way the company operates. The word transformation or Lean transformation is often used to characterize a company moving from an old way of thinking to Lean thinking. It requires a complete transformation on how a company conducts business this takes a long-term perspective and perseverance.
In today's world more and more organizations are realizing how important quality and customer satisfaction is in order to sustain a competitive business. There is also a pressure to reduce costs and increase efficiencies not only in manufacturing but in different types of industries, such as banking, business and community services. The challenge today is adapting these concepts and technologies to this wide range of industries successfully. The key to success in implementing Lean manufacturing principles in any organization is to foster a culture of continuous improvement, Lean thinking, and customer satisfaction as the organization's ultimate goal. This shift in culture, if not already present, must come from top management and be embraced by all layers of the organization.
Lean Enterprise.
There are four goals that a Lean manufacturing systems sets out to achieve, they are:
• Improve quality: To stay competitive in today’s marketplace, a company must understand its customers' wants and needs and design processes to meet their expectations and requirements.
• Eliminate waste: Waste is any activity that consumes time, resources, or space but does not add any value to the product or service. There are seven types of waste:
(1) Transport (unnecessary movement of materials)
(2) Inventory (excess inventory not directly required for current orders)
(3) Motion (extra steps taken by employees because of inefficient layout)
(4) Waiting (periods of inactivity)
(5) Overproduction (occurs when production should have stopped)
(6) Over Processing (rework and reprocessing)
(7) Defects (do not conform to specifications or expectations)
Taking the first letter of each waste, the acronym “TIM WOOD” is formed. This is a common way to remember the wastes.
• Reduce time: Reducing the time it takes to finish an activity from start to finish is one of the most effective ways to eliminate waste and lower costs.
• Reduce total costs: To minimize cost, a company must produce only to customer demand. Overproduction increases a company’s inventory costs because of storage needs.
The essence of Lean manufacturing is the total elimination of waste. The two main notions for waste elimination are as follows.
• Just-In-Time (JIT) production: Just-In-Time basically means to produce the necessary units in the necessary quantities at the necessary time.
• Autonomous Defect Control: This is the idea that the workforce is responsible for, and empowered to prevent, any defect part travelling to the next process. To support these two goals, a whole range of management and process engineering methods, some of which were already familiar in the West, must be brought to bear on the production problem simultaneously.
Managers and Executives embarking on Lean transformations must take into consideration three fundamental business issues that should guide the transformation of the entire organization:
- Purpose: What customer problems will the enterprise solve to achieve its own purpose of prospering?
- Process: How will the organization assess each major value stream to make sure each step is valuable, capable, available, adequate, flexible, and that all the steps are linked by flow, pull, and levelling?
- People: How can the organization insure that every important process has someone responsible for continually evaluating that value stream in terms of business purpose and Lean process? How can everyone touching the value stream be actively engaged in operating it correctly and continually improving it?
An example of a Lean implementation program could be
A flow based approach (as used in the Toyota Production system with supplier):
• Sort out as many of the visible quality problems as you can, as well as downtime and other instability problems, and get the internal scrap acknowledged and its management started.
• Make the flow of parts through the system or process as continuous as possible using work cells and market locations where necessary and avoiding variations in the operators work cycle.
• Introduce standard work and stabilise the work pace through the system.
• Start pulling work through the system, look at the production scheduling and move toward daily orders with kanban cards (a representation of message that signals depletion of product, parts or inventory).
• Even out the production flow by reducing batch sizes, increase delivery frequency internally and if possible externally, level internal demand.
• Improve exposed quality issues using the tools.
• Remove some people (or increase quotas) and go through this work again.
With a tools-based approach:
• Senior management to agree and discuss their lean vision.
• Management brainstorm to identify project leader and set objectives.
• Communicate plan and vision to the workforce.
• Ask for volunteers to form the Lean Implementation team (5-7 works best, all from different departments).
• Appoint members of the Lean Manufacturing Implementation Team.
• Train the Implementation Team in the various lean tools - make a point of trying to visit other non competing businesses that have implemented lean.
• Select a Pilot Project to implement – 5S is a good place to start.
• Run the pilot for 2–3 months - evaluate, review and learn from your mistakes.
• Roll out pilot to other factory areas.
• Evaluate results, encourage feedback.
• Stabilize the positive results by teaching supervisors how to train the new standards you've developed with TWI methodology (Training Within Industry).
• Once you are satisfied that you have a habitual program, consider introducing the next lean tool. Select the one that gives you the biggest return for your business.
Three steps to be implemented in other to create an ideal Lean manufacturing system are:
1. Design a simple manufacturing system
A fundamental principle of Lean manufacturing is demand based flow manufacturing. In this type of production setting, inventory is only pulled through each production centre when it is needed to meet a customer’s order. The benefits of this goal include:
• decreased cycle time
• less inventory
• increased productivity
• increased capital equipment utilization
2. Recognize that there is always room for improvement
The core of Lean is founded on the concept of continuous product and process improvement and the elimination of non value added activities. “The Value adding activities are simply only those things the customer is willing to pay for, everything else is waste, and should be eliminated, simplified, reduced, or integrated”. Improving the flow of material through new ideal system layouts at the customer's required rate would reduce waste in material movement and inventory.
3. Continuously improve the Lean manufacturing system design
A continuous improvement mindset is essential to reach a company's goals. The term “continuous improvement” means incremental improvement of products, processes, or services over time, with the goal of reducing waste to improve workplace functionality, customer service, or product performance. “For improvement to flourish it must be carefully cultivated in a rich soil bed (a receptive organisation), given constant attention (sustained leadership), assured the right amounts of light (training and support) and water (measurement and data) and protected from damaging.”
The combined effect of Lean Manufacturing and other manufacturing techniques like Six Sigma, has led to improvements in product quality (98% reduction in errors) and turnaround time (50% reduction). These improvements have resulted not only in cost reduction, but also the possibility of presenting these improvement stories to the customer, building the reputation of the company as a leading supplier of quality, and thereby increasing the probability of getting higher volumes of business..
Examples of real life application of Lean Technique are stated below:
• University Medical Imaging (UMI) in Brighton, New York, USA successfully implemented a Lean and Six Sigma transactional process improvement and training program when delays and other issues began to affect patient satisfaction.
• When Valley Baptist Medical Centre in Harlingen, Texas, USA, faced with the problem of discharging in-patients, it decided to apply Lean, Six Sigma and change management techniques within one pilot unit.
• United State Government agency used Lean Six Sigma to streamline a cumbersome reimbursement process for new hire relocation expenses. The changes eliminate the reimbursement bureaucracy for new hires and save the company $185,000 a year.
• The problem of high inventory cost of key materials was approached and solved with Lean and Six Sigma. Manufacturers now use Lean to transform their processes from making for stock to making to order.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
BRAINSTORMING
AN ASSIGNMENT
ON
BRAINSTORMING
SUBMITTED BY:
OLANRELE OLADEJI OLUNIYI.
MATRIC NO: 134315.
DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL/PRODUCTION ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT.
LECTURER IN CHARGE: ENGINEER A.D ADEYEYE.
AUGUST 2010.
BRAINSTORMING
Brainstorming is a group creativity technique designed to generate a large number of ideas for the solution of a problem (Osborn 1963). It was proposed that groups could double their creative output with brainstorming but researchers have not found evidence of its effectiveness for enhancing either quantity or quality of ideas generated, because of such problems as distraction, social loafing, evaluation apprehension, and production blocking, conventional brainstorming groups are little more effective than other types of groups, and they are actually less effective than individuals working independently (Nijstad, 2003).
Source: www.nwlink.com/~donclark/perform/brainstorm.html
Visited on 09-08-2010.
INDIVIDUAL BRAINSTORMING.
While group brainstorming is often more effective at generating ideas than normal group problem-solving, study after study has shown that when individuals brainstorm on their own, they come up with more ideas (and often better quality ideas) than groups of people who brainstorm together. Partly this occurs because, in groups, people aren’t always strict in following the rules of brainstorming, and bad group behaviours creep in. Mostly, though, this occurs because people are paying so much attention to other people’s ideas that they're not generating ideas of their own or they're forgetting these ideas while they wait for their turn to speak. This is called "blocking".
When you brainstorm on your own, you'll tend to produce a wider range of ideas than with group brainstorming you do not have to worry about other people's egos or opinions, and can therefore be more freely creative. For example, you might find that an idea you’d be hesitant to bring up in a group session develops into something quite special when you explore it with individual brainstorming. Nor do you have to wait for others to stop speaking before you contribute your own ideas. You may not, however, develop ideas as fully when you brainstorm on your own, as you do not have the wider experience of other members of a group to help you.
GROUP BRAINSTORMING.
When it works, group brainstorming can be very effective for bringing the full experience and creativity of all members of the group to bear on an issue. When individual group members get stuck with an idea, another member's creativity and experience can take the idea to the next stage. Group brainstorming can therefore develop ideas in more depth than individual brainstorming. Another advantage of group brainstorming is that it helps everyone involved to feel that they’ve contributed to the end solution, and it reminds people that other people have creative ideas to offer. What’s more, brainstorming is fun, and it can be great for team-building!
Brainstorming in a group can be risky for individuals, valuable but strange suggestions may appear stupid at first sight. Because of this, you need to chair sessions tightly so that ideas are not crushed, and so that the usual issues with group problem solving don’t stifle creativity.
WHY USE BRAINSTORMING?
Conventional group problem-solving can be fraught with problems. Confident, "big ego" participants can drown out and intimidate quieter group members. Less confident participants can be too scared of ridicule to share their ideas freely. Others may feel pressurized to conform with the group view, or are held back by an excessive respect for authority. As such, group problem-solving is often ineffective and sterile.
By contrast, brainstorming provides a freewheeling environment in which everyone is encouraged to participate. Quirky ideas are welcomed, and many of the issues of group problem-solving are overcome. All participants are asked to contribute fully and fairly, liberating people to develop a rich array of creative solutions to the problems they're facing.
There are four basic rules in brainstorming (Osborn, 1963) intended to reduce social inhibitions among team members, stimulate idea generation, and increase overall creativity:
• No criticism: Criticism of ideas are withheld during the brainstorming session as the purpose is on generating varied and unusual ideals and extending or adding to these ideas. Criticism is reserved for the evaluation stage of the process. This allows the members to feel comfortable with the idea of generating unusual ideas.
• Welcome unusual ideas: Unusual ideas are welcomed as it is normally easier to "tame down" than to "tame up" as new ways of thinking and looking at the world may provide better solutions.
• Quantity Wanted: The greater the number of ideas generated the greater the chance of producing a radical and effective solution.
• Combine and improve ideas: Not only are a variety of ideals wanted, but also ways to combine ideas in order to make them better.
PLAN AND AGREE THE BRAINSTORMING AIM.
Ensure everyone participating in the brainstorm session understands and agrees the aim of the session (e.g., to formulate a new job description for a customer services clerk; to formulate a series of new promotional activities for the next trading year; to suggest ways of improving cooperation between the sales and service departments; to identify costs saving opportunities that will not reduce performance or morale, etc). Keep the brainstorming objective simple. Allocate a time limit. This will enable you to keep the random brainstorming activity under control and on track.
MANAGE THE ACTUAL BRAINSTORMING ACTIVITY.
Brainstorming enables people to suggest ideas at random. Your job as facilitator is to encourage everyone to participate, to dismiss nothing, and to prevent others from pouring scorn on the wilder suggestions (some of the best ideas are initially the daftest ones - added to which people won't participate if their suggestions are criticised). During the random collection of ideas the facilitator must record every suggestion on the flip-chart. Use Blue-Tack or sticky tape to hang the sheets around the walls. At the end of the time limit or when ideas have been exhausted, use different coloured pens to categorise, group, connect and link the random ideas. Condense and refine the ideas by making new headings or lists. You can diplomatically combine or include the weaker ideas within other themes to avoid dismissing or rejecting contributions (remember brainstorming is about team building and motivation too - you don't want it to have the reverse effect on some people). With the group, assess, evaluate and analyse the effects and validity of the ideas or the list. Develop and prioritise the ideas into a more finished list or set of actions or options
BRAINSTORMING STEPS:
• Gather the participants from as wide a range of disciplines with as broad a range of experience as possible. This brings many more creative ideas to the session.
• Write down a brief description of the problem; the leader should take control of the session, initially defining the problem to be solved with any criteria that must be met, and then keeping the session on course.
• Use the description to get everyone's mind clear of what the problem is and post it where it can be seen. This helps in keeping the group focused.
• Encourage an enthusiastic, uncritical attitude among brainstormers and encourage participation by all members of the team. Encourage them to have fun!
• Write down all the solutions that come to mind (even ribald ones). Do not interpret the idea; however you may rework the wording for clarity's sake.
• Do not evaluate ideas until the session moves to the evaluation phase. Once the brainstorming session has been completed, the results of the session can be analyzed and the best solutions can be explored either using further brainstorming or more conventional solutions.
• Do not censor any solution, no matter how silly it sounds. The silly ones will often lead to creative ones, the idea is to open up as many possibilities as possible, and break down preconceptions about the limits of the problem.
• The leader should keep the brainstorming on subject, and should try to steer it towards the development of some practical solutions.
• Once all the solutions have been written down, evaluate the list to determine the best action to correct the problem.
SELECTING A SOLUTION.
When you are sure the brainstorming session is over, it is time to select a solution:
• Use a show of hands (or another voting method) to allow each person to vote.
• Write the vote tallies next to the ideal.
• Once the voting is completed, delete all items with no votes.
• Next, look for logical breaks. For example, if you have several items with 5 or 6 votes, and no 3 or 4 and only a couple of 1 and 2, then retain only the 5 and 6 votes. The group can help to decide the breaking point.
• Now, it is time to vote again. Each person gets half number of votes as there are ideals left. For example is you narrowed the number of generated ideals down to 20, then each person gets 10 votes (if it is a odd number, round down). Each person will keep track of his or her votes. The scribe should again tally the votes next to the ideal, only this time use a different colour.
• Continue this process of elimination until you get down to about 5 ideals.
• Put the remainder ideas into a matrix. Put each ideal into its own row (first column). Next label some columns using selected criteria. For example:
Generated Idea Low Cost Easy to Implement and is Feasible Will Help Other Processes TOTAL
Outsource it to a vendor.
Hire a new employee.
Share the extra workload.
• Next, working one column at a time, ask the group to order each idea. Using the above example, which one will cost the least, the most, and will be in the middle.
• In this case, the lowest number column, "Hire a new employee," would be the best solution.
• Note that you should work each column first (not each row).
• Some of the columns will require much discussion, as choosing an arbitrary number will not be that easy in some cases.
• Often, you will have a couple of ideas that tie, but having it diagrammed out in a matrix makes it easier to make a decision.
REFERENCES
Nijstad, B. A., Stroebe, W. Lodewijkx, H. F. M. (2003). Production blocking and idea generation: Does blocking interfere with cognitive processes? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39, 531-548.
Osborn, A.F. (1963) Applied imagination: Principles and procedures of creative problem solving (Third Revised Edition). New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Son.
ON
BRAINSTORMING
SUBMITTED BY:
OLANRELE OLADEJI OLUNIYI.
MATRIC NO: 134315.
DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL/PRODUCTION ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT.
LECTURER IN CHARGE: ENGINEER A.D ADEYEYE.
AUGUST 2010.
BRAINSTORMING
Brainstorming is a group creativity technique designed to generate a large number of ideas for the solution of a problem (Osborn 1963). It was proposed that groups could double their creative output with brainstorming but researchers have not found evidence of its effectiveness for enhancing either quantity or quality of ideas generated, because of such problems as distraction, social loafing, evaluation apprehension, and production blocking, conventional brainstorming groups are little more effective than other types of groups, and they are actually less effective than individuals working independently (Nijstad, 2003).
Source: www.nwlink.com/~donclark/perform/brainstorm.html
Visited on 09-08-2010.
INDIVIDUAL BRAINSTORMING.
While group brainstorming is often more effective at generating ideas than normal group problem-solving, study after study has shown that when individuals brainstorm on their own, they come up with more ideas (and often better quality ideas) than groups of people who brainstorm together. Partly this occurs because, in groups, people aren’t always strict in following the rules of brainstorming, and bad group behaviours creep in. Mostly, though, this occurs because people are paying so much attention to other people’s ideas that they're not generating ideas of their own or they're forgetting these ideas while they wait for their turn to speak. This is called "blocking".
When you brainstorm on your own, you'll tend to produce a wider range of ideas than with group brainstorming you do not have to worry about other people's egos or opinions, and can therefore be more freely creative. For example, you might find that an idea you’d be hesitant to bring up in a group session develops into something quite special when you explore it with individual brainstorming. Nor do you have to wait for others to stop speaking before you contribute your own ideas. You may not, however, develop ideas as fully when you brainstorm on your own, as you do not have the wider experience of other members of a group to help you.
GROUP BRAINSTORMING.
When it works, group brainstorming can be very effective for bringing the full experience and creativity of all members of the group to bear on an issue. When individual group members get stuck with an idea, another member's creativity and experience can take the idea to the next stage. Group brainstorming can therefore develop ideas in more depth than individual brainstorming. Another advantage of group brainstorming is that it helps everyone involved to feel that they’ve contributed to the end solution, and it reminds people that other people have creative ideas to offer. What’s more, brainstorming is fun, and it can be great for team-building!
Brainstorming in a group can be risky for individuals, valuable but strange suggestions may appear stupid at first sight. Because of this, you need to chair sessions tightly so that ideas are not crushed, and so that the usual issues with group problem solving don’t stifle creativity.
WHY USE BRAINSTORMING?
Conventional group problem-solving can be fraught with problems. Confident, "big ego" participants can drown out and intimidate quieter group members. Less confident participants can be too scared of ridicule to share their ideas freely. Others may feel pressurized to conform with the group view, or are held back by an excessive respect for authority. As such, group problem-solving is often ineffective and sterile.
By contrast, brainstorming provides a freewheeling environment in which everyone is encouraged to participate. Quirky ideas are welcomed, and many of the issues of group problem-solving are overcome. All participants are asked to contribute fully and fairly, liberating people to develop a rich array of creative solutions to the problems they're facing.
There are four basic rules in brainstorming (Osborn, 1963) intended to reduce social inhibitions among team members, stimulate idea generation, and increase overall creativity:
• No criticism: Criticism of ideas are withheld during the brainstorming session as the purpose is on generating varied and unusual ideals and extending or adding to these ideas. Criticism is reserved for the evaluation stage of the process. This allows the members to feel comfortable with the idea of generating unusual ideas.
• Welcome unusual ideas: Unusual ideas are welcomed as it is normally easier to "tame down" than to "tame up" as new ways of thinking and looking at the world may provide better solutions.
• Quantity Wanted: The greater the number of ideas generated the greater the chance of producing a radical and effective solution.
• Combine and improve ideas: Not only are a variety of ideals wanted, but also ways to combine ideas in order to make them better.
PLAN AND AGREE THE BRAINSTORMING AIM.
Ensure everyone participating in the brainstorm session understands and agrees the aim of the session (e.g., to formulate a new job description for a customer services clerk; to formulate a series of new promotional activities for the next trading year; to suggest ways of improving cooperation between the sales and service departments; to identify costs saving opportunities that will not reduce performance or morale, etc). Keep the brainstorming objective simple. Allocate a time limit. This will enable you to keep the random brainstorming activity under control and on track.
MANAGE THE ACTUAL BRAINSTORMING ACTIVITY.
Brainstorming enables people to suggest ideas at random. Your job as facilitator is to encourage everyone to participate, to dismiss nothing, and to prevent others from pouring scorn on the wilder suggestions (some of the best ideas are initially the daftest ones - added to which people won't participate if their suggestions are criticised). During the random collection of ideas the facilitator must record every suggestion on the flip-chart. Use Blue-Tack or sticky tape to hang the sheets around the walls. At the end of the time limit or when ideas have been exhausted, use different coloured pens to categorise, group, connect and link the random ideas. Condense and refine the ideas by making new headings or lists. You can diplomatically combine or include the weaker ideas within other themes to avoid dismissing or rejecting contributions (remember brainstorming is about team building and motivation too - you don't want it to have the reverse effect on some people). With the group, assess, evaluate and analyse the effects and validity of the ideas or the list. Develop and prioritise the ideas into a more finished list or set of actions or options
BRAINSTORMING STEPS:
• Gather the participants from as wide a range of disciplines with as broad a range of experience as possible. This brings many more creative ideas to the session.
• Write down a brief description of the problem; the leader should take control of the session, initially defining the problem to be solved with any criteria that must be met, and then keeping the session on course.
• Use the description to get everyone's mind clear of what the problem is and post it where it can be seen. This helps in keeping the group focused.
• Encourage an enthusiastic, uncritical attitude among brainstormers and encourage participation by all members of the team. Encourage them to have fun!
• Write down all the solutions that come to mind (even ribald ones). Do not interpret the idea; however you may rework the wording for clarity's sake.
• Do not evaluate ideas until the session moves to the evaluation phase. Once the brainstorming session has been completed, the results of the session can be analyzed and the best solutions can be explored either using further brainstorming or more conventional solutions.
• Do not censor any solution, no matter how silly it sounds. The silly ones will often lead to creative ones, the idea is to open up as many possibilities as possible, and break down preconceptions about the limits of the problem.
• The leader should keep the brainstorming on subject, and should try to steer it towards the development of some practical solutions.
• Once all the solutions have been written down, evaluate the list to determine the best action to correct the problem.
SELECTING A SOLUTION.
When you are sure the brainstorming session is over, it is time to select a solution:
• Use a show of hands (or another voting method) to allow each person to vote.
• Write the vote tallies next to the ideal.
• Once the voting is completed, delete all items with no votes.
• Next, look for logical breaks. For example, if you have several items with 5 or 6 votes, and no 3 or 4 and only a couple of 1 and 2, then retain only the 5 and 6 votes. The group can help to decide the breaking point.
• Now, it is time to vote again. Each person gets half number of votes as there are ideals left. For example is you narrowed the number of generated ideals down to 20, then each person gets 10 votes (if it is a odd number, round down). Each person will keep track of his or her votes. The scribe should again tally the votes next to the ideal, only this time use a different colour.
• Continue this process of elimination until you get down to about 5 ideals.
• Put the remainder ideas into a matrix. Put each ideal into its own row (first column). Next label some columns using selected criteria. For example:
Generated Idea Low Cost Easy to Implement and is Feasible Will Help Other Processes TOTAL
Outsource it to a vendor.
Hire a new employee.
Share the extra workload.
• Next, working one column at a time, ask the group to order each idea. Using the above example, which one will cost the least, the most, and will be in the middle.
• In this case, the lowest number column, "Hire a new employee," would be the best solution.
• Note that you should work each column first (not each row).
• Some of the columns will require much discussion, as choosing an arbitrary number will not be that easy in some cases.
• Often, you will have a couple of ideas that tie, but having it diagrammed out in a matrix makes it easier to make a decision.
REFERENCES
Nijstad, B. A., Stroebe, W. Lodewijkx, H. F. M. (2003). Production blocking and idea generation: Does blocking interfere with cognitive processes? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39, 531-548.
Osborn, A.F. (1963) Applied imagination: Principles and procedures of creative problem solving (Third Revised Edition). New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Son.
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