Essay On Problem Solving Techniques Used By Few Organisations

AcknowledgementAn old Chinese proverb says; When eating your bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them. Now that our sprouts are ready to eat, it is time for us to express our deepest gratitude to all those to have made this possible. We wish to express our sincere gratitude to our professor who guided and helped us from time to time to successfully conduct this research. We think her directions were the best thing that could happen to us and our project. We also would like to thank each other of our group members and hope you enjoy reading the report as much as we enjoyed making it.Contents Problem Solving Process & Steps Techniques used by various companies to solve their problems. 1) Nokia 2) Cadbury Dairy Milk 3) Tata Nano 4) Bisleri 5) Coca Cola 6) Allwyn photo copiersProblem Solving Process & StepsAs the owner of your own business you deal with problems on an almost daily basis. Being familiar with effective Problem Solving Techniques can dramatically affect the growth of your business. Although you find solutions to your problems, many businessmen and women are not really skilled in the methods of problem solving, and when solutions fail, they fault themselves for misjudgment. 1. Define the problemDiagnose the situation so that your focus is on the problem, not just its symptoms. Helpful techniques at this stage include using flowcharts to identify the expected steps of a process and cause-and-effect diagrams to define and analyze root causes. 2. Generate alternative solutionsPostpone the selection of one solution until several alternatives have been proposed. Having a standard with which to compare the characteristics of the final solution is not the same as defining the desired result. A standard allows us to evaluate the different intended results offered by alternatives. When you try to build toward desired results, it’s very difficult to collect good information about the process. Considering multiple alternatives can significantly en hance the value of your final solution.Once the team or individual has decided the â€Å"what should be† model, this target standard becomes the basis for developing a road map for investigating alternatives. Brainstorming and team problem-solving techniques are both useful tools in this stage of problem solving. Many alternative solutions should be generated before evaluating any of them. A common mistake in problem solving is that alternatives are evaluated as they are proposed, so the first acceptable solution is chosen, even if it’s not the best fit. If we focus on trying to get the results we want, we miss the potential for learning something new that will allow for real improvement. 3. Evaluate and select an alternativeSkilled problem solvers use a series of considerations when selecting the best alternative. They consider the extent to which: A particular alternative will solve the problem without causing other unanticipated problems. All the individuals involve d will accept the alternative.Implementation of the alternative is likely. The alternative fits within the organizational constraints. 4. Implement and follow up on the solutionLeaders may be called upon to order the solution to be implemented by others, â€Å"sell† the solution to others or facilitate the implementation by involving the efforts of others. The most effective approach, by far, has been to involve others in the implementation as a way of minimizing resistance to subsequent changes. Feedback channels must be built into the implementation of the solution, to produce continuous monitoring and testing of actual events against expectations. Problem solving, and the techniques used to derive elucidation, can only be effective in an organization if the solution remains in place and is updated to respond to future changes.Techniques used by various companies to solve their problems.1) NokiaAs we all know, Nokia had for so many years used the symbian operating system in their phones. It was working fine and Nokia had captured the Indian phone market very well. There was no competition to it from left right or centre. But in 2008 came a breathtaking technology by Google. They invented the Android OS. It became a benchmark for the mobile phone companies. Each and every phone started making their phones with the latest android technology, as android was fast, modern and the most important, user friendly. While Nokia still stuck to its old symbian os, and did not use the android technology. Slowly and gradually, Samsung took over the Indian market by storm.They had captured the Indian market which for long belonged to just Nokia. Nokia had a problem here. They did not use the android os because of some internal matters of their organization. So after a good amount of research and development later, nokia came out with a solution that would bring the brand nokia back in the market and try to regain its lost glory. They upgraded their technology and sta rted making phones with the Windows phone 8 OS. These phones gradually caught the eye of the Indian customers,  as it was something different than android. People started purchasing the Nokia Lumia series of phones and the sales of Nokia phones again where on a rise.2) Cadbury Dairy MilkIn eight outlets across Maharashtra, worms were found in some bars of Cadbury Dairy Milk, Cadbury's bread-and-butter brand selling 1 million bars a day and an icon of ‘chocolate' in India. Inquiry was instituted by the Food and Drug Administration and negative media publicity spread like wildfire. The extensively graphic media coverage led people to believe that every bar could be contaminated. Consequently, sales volume plummeted, retailer cooperation lessened and employee morale dwindled. All in all, the company's credibility suffered extensive damage. Reason behind this crisis..After a thorough investigation of the entire supply chain, it was found that the problem originated at the distri bution end.Apparently, at the retail outlets the infested bars were placed next to open unpacked items susceptible to worms. However, although the problem was not of its own making, Cadbury did take responsibility for the lack in educating retailers on storage and hygiene. The company launched a new double packaging that wrapped even the smallest 13 gm chocolate in an aluminium foil, heat-sealed for complete protection from all sides and further encased in a polyflow pack. The over-engineered pack, the first of its kind in India, cost the company a fortune, but fulfilled the company's promise to media and consumers. The new packaging was launched amidst much fanfare in a media conference.Amongst the material distributed in the conference were a comparison kit allowing evaluation of old and new packs and a video new release with packaging and factory shots for television coverage. To reinstate confidence among sales people and to motivate them, another audio-visual with a message fro m the ambassador Amitabh Bachchan was shown in a string of sales conferences.3) Tata NanoUntil the afternoon of 21 March when he took delivery of his Lunar Silver coloured Nano, 36-year-old Satish Sawant was your average citizen leading a normal life. On the Sunday of 21 March, accompanying him to collect the car  was his wife, five-year-old son and a temporary driver. It was close to 3 pm that day and they were nearing his residence. His wife pointed out that something was burning. Sawant looked out. Nothing was burning. She insisted and forced him to park. He got out—there was smoke coming out of the car’s rear. He hurriedly got his wife and son out. The smoke turned billowing black. He took the car’s papers out.The little vehicle now began to burn like you see in the movies. Tata Motors attributed the first couple of cases to the melting of localised parts caused by faulty combination switches. That is somewhat similar to sparks and smoke in your house†™s wiring caused by an electric short-circuit. There was no quality control deployed at the Tata motors production facility. So in order to bring the situation under control and solve this problem, Tata motors changed the vendors who supplied the combination switches and employed a proper quality control in their plant, by which each and every car would go through proper checks before being granted the ok status.4) BisleriIn the early 1990s, Parle Bisleri Ltd's (Parle Bisleri's) Bisleri1 had become synonymous with branded water and had a market share of 70%. In the late 1990s, Bisleri's market share began to erode with new players entering the market. The Cola majors, Pepsi and Coca-Cola and the confectionery giant, Nestle, also entered the branded water market in India. Pepsi and Coca-Cola had an established distribution network. Bisleri realized that with the new players also clambering on to the purity plank, it had to reposition itself to arrest its declining market share. In September 2000, Parle Bisleri launched its Play Safe ad campaign.The company tried to add a fun element to Bisleri to rejuvenate the brand. The ultimate aim was to increase Bisleri's turnover from Rs 4 billion2 in 2000 to Rs 10 billion by 2003. In 2001, both Kinley and Aquafina were making huge investments in bottling plants and distribution. By 2002, Coca-Cola India planned to double the number of water bottling plants to 16 and Pepsi announced that it would add seven more plants to the existing five. In contrast, Bisleri had only 15 bottling plants and three franchisees. Kinley had 500,000 outlets compared to Bisleri's 350,000.Analysts felt that Kinley and Aquafina had an edge over Bisleri because of their strong distribution network. In 2000, in the  face of competition from the new entrants, Bisleri decided to penetrate every possible segment of the market by introducing more pack sizes and to establish the brand strongly with trendy packaging. In 2000, Bisleri launched the 1. 2 litre pack. This added to the five pack sizes that Bisleri had (500 ml, one, two, five and 20 litres). The new pack was priced at Rs 12. In 2000, Bisleri also launched smaller packs like the 300 ml cup. This 300 ml cup was targeted at large gatherings like marriages and conventions. A study conducted by Bisleri showed that its one litre pack was not considered trendy enough.5) Coca ColaIn 2003, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a non-governmental organisation in New Delhi, said aerated waters produced by soft drinks manufacturers in India, including multinational giants PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, contained toxins including lindane, DDT, malathion and chlorpyrifos — pesticides that can contribute to cancer and a breakdown of the immune system. Tested products included Coke, Pepsi, and several other soft drinks (7Up, Mirinda, Fanta, Thums Up, Limca, Sprite), many produced by The Coca-Cola Company.This affected the sales of cocacola to a great extent, they went crashin g down. Later on after a detailed study, the company found out that the water they used for the manufacturing was safe and free from pesticides, but the problem was in the packaging department. The bottles in which the coke is to be filled is processed and cleaned with certain chemicals so that it becomes safe and all the impurities are removed, and later on the bottle is washed with water. It was seen that after cleaning the bottles with the chemicals, they were not being washed properly, which resulted in the chemicals staying in the bottle before the coke was filled in it. The company identified this problem and resolved this by keeping a proper quality control on the bottling plant and make sure that the bottles are washed properly after being treated with chemicals.6) Allwyn photo copiersThis is a shop which is situated in Mumbai. It undertakes the work of photo copying, printing, etc. For years they have been using the old Xerox machines. The name Xerox is synonym with photo c opy in India. But as the  time changes, there is a need to adopt new technologies to keep up with the competition in the market. So the company purchased new equipments and new printers which had the latest technologies like laser beam printing, etc. But after purchasing and using the new equipments, instead of their sales going up, they started declining. This was a matter of concern for the management as the sales were declining even after they were using the new technologies.They did a proper research on this and found out that the problem was not in the machinery, but the people handling the machines were not aware of the new machines properly and thus they were not able to use it efficiently. To overcome this problem, the management decided to train the employees who handle the machines. They were trained on various aspects as to how to make full use of machiniery with minimum efforts. Training the workmen is an important part of the production process. Thus when the handlers were trained properly, they knew how to use the machines properly and this in turn increased their efficieny. This resulted in more sales and more productivity.ConclusionThus we saw the case studies of various organizations and companies and how they overcome their problems. We can take a few inputs from these cases and implement it whenever we are stuck in any problem similar to these. Quality control and problem solving techniques are extremely important for an organization , as each and every organization faces some kind of the problem. What is important is that how they overcome it.