Answering the question, “Does everyone want to be profitable?”, depends on the goals set by the CEO and executives of the company regarding the desired outcomes from the systems used by the firm to drive profitability. In most cases, it is up to the managers and their engineers to generate profitability from the existing systems that are integral to the organization’s production of products and services. These products and services are then valued by customers, who pay a cost to the company in exchange for them. Challenges and Solutions The challenge that engineers and managers face alike is the complexity…

RCA thinking is a tool for learning how the system operates and creating solutions to problems.

This article explores the various components of production costs and the factors that lead to their escalation, such as inflation, technological advancements, and market shifts. It emphasizes the need for a problem-solving culture as one of the Effective Cost Reduction Strategies in Production. The article highlights hidden opportunities for cost reduction through process optimization and provides a simple strategy for reducing production costs by categorizing operations and improving or eliminating them accordingly. Production costs Production cost refers to the total expenses incurred in making a product or providing a service, including materials, labor, and related costs. For a more detailed…

Engineering work is built on three essential pillars: process improvement, cost reduction, and root cause analysis. Engineers should dedicate their thinking to a specific and measurable target, use thinking tools and resources, and recognize and value engineering thinking. The PRIZ Innovation Platform offers tools for engineering thinking, including Process Functional Modeling, 40 Inventive Principles, and Effective Brainstorming. Engineers should focus on improving only those operations that increase the value of the product, remove all operations that do not increase the value of the product, and understand the origin of defects and eliminate them. What does an engineer do? What does…

Six Sigma is a popular approach for improving manufacturing quality, but small and medium-sized businesses often struggle to implement it due to a lack of resources. PRIZ Guru offers analytical and problem-solving tools to assist engineers at any step of the Six Sigma DMAIC process, including defining problems, collecting and documenting data, analyzing processes and systems, generating innovative solutions, making decisions, and effectively managing these projects. The Six Sigma process involves continuous problem-solving, and the PRIZ Innovation Platform is a comprehensive system designed to enable engineers to operate as professional problem solvers. SMB’s are Struggling to Implement Six Sigma Continuous…

Process improvement is crucial for organizational success. It helps organizations to stay competitive, reduce costs, improve quality and efficiency, become more responsive to changing market conditions, and encourage innovation. There are several process improvement methodologies available, each with its own set of tools and techniques. However, these tools rely heavily on people’s creativity and analytical skills, which can be a trial-and-error process for teams. PRIZ Guru offers analytical and problem-solving tools to assist engineers at any step of the process improvement undertaking, equipping teams to overcome barriers during this initiative. What is process? As usual, we will start with an…

Organizational processes are a vital part of any business, and improving them can lead to cost savings, increased efficiency, and better overall performance. Whether it’s identifying and resolving issues within a larger process or finding ways to reduce costs, the task of process improvement falls on many professionals within an organization. For those who work in teams, the process of analyzing, identifying problems, and finding solutions to improve the process is a daily task. And we created a tool to help with these tasks. Today, we want to introduce the newly released tool in the PRIZ Innovation Platform that is…

We always talk about solving problems and improving processes of an operation, a part of a bigger process. This is great! In fact, it is always encouraged to break the bigger, more complex process into smaller pieces so we can simplify the problem we are working on. However, this approach may create another issue. The engineers working on a problem, especially in large complex processes, might end up diving into the wrong operation of the process. In this article, we introduce the newly released tool in the PRIZ Innovation Platform that is built to help engineers look at the whole…

“Our life would never be as advanced and comfortable as it is if not for the application of tantalum and niobium.” And this is right. This is what I wrote at the very beginning of my book about tantalum and niobium chemistry. Tantalum capacitors are everywhere: in our cellphones, computers, in about any electronic device you use. Due to the unique properties of tantalum, these capacitors provide a champion performance within the smallest size. Defibrillators and pacemakers contain tantalum capacitors because of their reliability. Tantalum is the only material that is fully compatible with the human body; therefore, parts made…