Page 13 - Logistics News - December 2021

OP I N I ON

looks like, where it comes from and how it manifests. to its most basic elements to find solutions. What
What are the conditions that generate the problem, has worked for one company – their silver bullet –
what feeds it, what makes it shift shape and what may do nothing to slay your problems.
will make it go away?
In our businesses, we need to know what
In classic Dracula, Professor Van Helsing is education and training make a good ‘supply chain
actually a polymath and medical doctor. He has much Van Helsing’. We need to give our slayers the
experience and education. He is not afraid to stalk opportunity to gain experience by examining
his prey, watch it and learn about it, and he is ready problems up close and personal; to give them the
to get his hands dirty up close. right tools for the right situation; to enable them to
be brave, determined and hands-on; to identify the
In our PC world, we WFH this and remote shapeshifters for who they are; and to get rid of the
that, we Zoom and we Teams to solve a variety of problem in the most effective manner.
problems in many different ways, often successfully.
But nothing beats ‘being there’. That is why we turn Revisit the classic problem-solving tools with
on cameras, we TikTok and we Instagram; never your team of slayers, let them Gemba and Kaizen,
have visuals been so popular. But this is why online let them 5S. These simple wooden stakes can be just
remote-control sessions still can’t beat the classic the tools needed to pin down a shapeshifting supply
Gemba – going to see the problem first-hand. chain problem for good. •

Elon Musk solves problems from first principles, Disclaimer: Problem-solving remotely using drones,
not by looking at what other solutions already exist. GoPros, simulation and virtual reality or 3D Composite L O GI S T I CS NEWS
Up close, we can observe the problem and all its Simulations of course have a place as well; it is just that
behaviours first-hand, then break down the problem wooden stakes cannot be applied remotely!

www .l o g ist i csn e w s .c o .z a NO V E MB E R/D E C E MB E R 2021 11