Problem-solving? Use your brain, not the company’s wallet

For more than 20 years — and after working with more than 10,000 participants who attended my Kaizen workshops — I've refined a simple yet powerful tool that makes problem-solving useful for everyone.

- REY ELBO

It’s my eight-step problem-solving guide, a framework that has helped organizations save millions by reducing, and often eliminating operational wastes.I spelled out these steps in my 2016 book, Total Quality by Maximization (TQMax), which champions one simple but often forgotten truth: “Problem-solving is not progress if you have to spend money just to fix it.” In other words, if your “solution” requires a purchase order thick enough to choke a photocopier, you're doing it wrong.

My philosophy is simple: “Use your wisdom, not your wallet.” It’s a derivative of Taiichi Ohno’s classic reminder to “use your brain, not the company’s money.” I’ve seen this principle in action several hundreds of times during my annual visits to nearly 250 factories in Japan, Spain and the Philippines since 1993.

The secret of these model companies? Ingenious solutions that cost less than your average merienda. In learning from those best practices, I count on the four elements of TQMax: Maximize continuous improvement. Maximize current resources. Maximize employee contribution. And maximize customer satisfaction.

All of these elements are coequals. No one is above the rest as all of them can’t move without the other. It’s all about maximizing organizational resources toward achieving total quality. My Kaizen-mindedness continue to help me distill the values of TQMax which is the core behind the successes of world-class organizations.