Simple Solutions

Got this in a forwarded email. Thought it was worth sharing here.
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For each and every problem there are many solutions but select which is
simple, safe, less cost and easy to understand :

Case 1

When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that
the pens wouldn't work at zero gravity (ink won't flow down to the
writing surface). To solve this problem, it took them one decade and $12
million.

They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down,
underwater,
in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range
from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.
And what did the Russians do...??

They used a pencil.




Case 2

One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was the
case of the empty soap box, which happened in one of
Japan's biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint
that a consumer had bought a soap box that was empty. Immediately the
authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which
transported
all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department.
For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty.
Management asked its engineers to solve the problem.

Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with
high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch
all the soap boxes that passed through the line to make sure they were
not
empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent a
whoopee amount to do so.

But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with
the same problem, he did not get into complications of X-rays, etc.,
but
instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial
electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan
on,
and as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out
of
the line.