Page 305 - Design for Six Sigma for Service (Six SIGMA Operational Methods)

Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) 273

• Use bridge loan arrangements to help cash flow.
• Subcontract occasional services, e.g., accounts, cleaning, and transport.
Principle 25. Self-Service
A. Make an Object Serve Itself by Performing Auxiliary Helpful Functions
• Quality circles.
• Self-help groups.
• Brand image circularity. For example, Harvard Business School produces
bright people; these people enhance the school’s reputation, and hence lots
of people apply; hence Harvard only takes on very bright people; bright
people in equals bright people out; and so the circle reinforces itself.
• “Cookies” on the Internet gather data useful for future marketing
activities, while performing a useful service for the web surfer.
• Bar codes in supermarkets provide instant pricing information, but the
system also gathers information to assist future marketing decisions.
• Edward DeBono’s suggested to Ford UK that it buy national car parks
and then only let Ford cars into the parking lots. Thus motorists buying
a Ford would also be buying a parking place in every city.

B. Use Waste (or lost) Resources, Energy, or Substances
• Rehire retired workers for jobs where their experience is needed.
• Loan out temporarily underutilized workers to other organizations
(load-capacity balancing across companies). For example, this can be a
win-win situation in football: the football player stays match-fit, and
the loaner team saves wages and fills a skills shortage for another team.
• Industrial ecosystems—e.g., plan factories so that waste heat from one
operation provides power for another operation; install cogeneration
equipment so that waste heat can generate electricity that can be used
for your own operations or sold to the electric power utility.
• Brown-field developments.
• The Body Shop recycles used containers brought back by customers
which helps promote a corporate green image.
• Recycle all packaging material.
• Scan mail into data systems and recycle the paper.
Principle 26. Copying

A. Instead of Using an Unavailable, Expensive, Fragile Object, Use Simpler
and Inexpensive Copies
• Experience virtual reality via computer instead of taking an expensive
vacation.