SIMPLE PROBLEMS, SIMPLE SOLUTIONS

The human race has developed into an excellent species with immense mind power. It can unravel the secrets of nature and its complex riddles with different ways and methods that it has evolved. So much so, it can hardly recognize a small problem when it sees one. With so much of accomplishments behind it, the mind actually fails to see a simple solution to any problem – big or small. Everything has to be analyzed, everything has to be attacked from every little corner and everything has to be approached in a big way. There are no small solutions to big problems and no small solutions to small problems too.

How then can you explain away this situation? It was the height of anti apartheid risings in South Africa. John was in a hurry leaving the town and he was walking past a large bungalow, to board a bus. There he chanced to meet two small boys about seven years of age. Nothing strange in that, but one boy was fair of skin while the other was black. He stopped and took further notice of them. He was astonished when he saw the white boy order the black one around, to go fetch this and that. Mr. John, himself a dark skinned person felt very crestfallen and wondered at the state of affairs where even a small child practices apartheid. As he was in a hurry to catch his bus he left immediately. Once he left the town limits he forgot all about it promptly.

After about six months he had to return to the same town. As he happened to pass through that particular bungalow he immediately remembered the incident he saw during the previous occasion.  His curiosity aroused, he took extra efforts to go close to the house and there again he saw the same two boys playing around. To his utter surprise he saw the dark boy now ordering the white around. He stood confused and presumed that the anti apartheid violence had seeped so much that even kids were being aware of it. He felt sad. He was a man of moderate tempers and suppression of any one or any form was totally not to his taste.

He was wondering if he should intervene and teach the boys some humanity, when he saw a white man at the extreme end of the garden silently watching the boys in action. Now John did not want the white man to feel the pinch of apartheid so he hurried over to him and said “don’t worry these kids do not know what they are doing. The other day I saw the dark one being ordered around”. The other man startled out of his stupor on hearing John speak and said “Oh, no, I do not misunderstand, for both are my kids and they play the “FETCH” game. The winner is the one who fetches the fastest.”

Here is a situation where the simple children’s game had been interpreted as some racial apartheid practice. Most often quite a number of family feuds spark at the children’s games.  How we adults try to carry our views and differences to the children’s world too? It would be best on such occasions for the grown ups to merely ignore the juniors and allow them to sort their differences out in the best way known to them.

Well, if this be the case in the emotional front, we do not fare better in the industrial arena either. Take the case of a famous Japanese soap company which positioned itself in the market as the only firm that sold the soap packed in an attractive soap box. They were quite successful in carving a niche for themselves in the consumables market and in fact, they capitalized on this aspect by constantly advertising that they sold the soap with the box.

Trouble began when complaints began creeping in that some of the boxes sold in the shops were returned as being empty. It was not just a single complaint to be ignored. The management realized that something had to be done immediately to prevent the problem from avalanching into a major crisis.  The problem was analyzed from all angles and it was localized that the problem was only in the packing and distribution section. The R&D department was called in and they came out with a proto type of a huge x-ray machine that would scan each of the box in the production output line, then another machine will weed out the empty ones. The cost of these machines worked into several crores and even then the accuracy sigma hovered at an unpleasant high.  Meanwhile time was ticking on and holding the stock any further would mean heavy loss to the company both monetarily and name wise too. The whole company was at a high hot. Watching the burst of activity going in the factory, a humble worker enquired what was going on. Then he got the news about the empty box.  Muscling up enough courage, he walked up to one of the top brass officer and volunteered that he could solve the problem very easily. The entire middle level management tried to brush him off like a fly. But the top management by then was so desperate for a solution that they were willing enough to take the advice of anybody, as long as the problem was resolved.  The worker wanted just three or four huge pedestal fans which he positioned in the output line. And very easily the empty soap boxes fell off the line, into a carton placed beneath the conveyor belt. This way it was ensured that the empty boxes did not escape into the market. Simple indeed!!