A bizarre complaint
A high-ranking executive of a well known major automobile manufacturer received this strange complaint :
“This is the second time I have written you, and I don’t blame you for not answering, because I kind of sounded crazy. We have a tradition in our family of ice cream for dessert after dinner each night. But the kind of ice cream varies, so every night, after we’ve eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have. Then, I drive down to the store to get it.”
“I recently purchased one of your new automobiles and since then my trips to the store have created a problem. You see, every time I buy vanilla ice cream, when I try to return back home, my car won’t start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. I want you to know I’m serious about this question, no matter how silly it sounds. What is there about this car that causes it not to start when I get vanilla ice cream? Whereas, when I get any other flavor, it starts up just fine!”
Some detective work to analyze the problem
The president of this auto manufacturer was understandably skeptical about the letter. But he decided to send out an engineer to check it out anyway. The engineer was most surprised to meet a successful, obviously well-educated man in a fine neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinner time and the two hopped into the car and drove to the store. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn’t start.
Now the engineer – being a logical man – refused to believe that this man’s car was “allergic to vanilla ice cream”. He arranged, therefore, to continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem. To accomplish this, he began to take notes. He jotted down all sorts of data:
- Time of day
- Type of gas used
- Time to drive back and forth, etc.
Within a short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor.
Why? The answer was in the layout of the store.
Vanilla – the most popular flavor – was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup. All the other flavors were in the back of the store at a different counter, where it took considerably longer to find the flavor and check out.
Identifying the true cause
Now the question for the engineer was why the car wouldn’t start when it took less time.
Once time became the problem – not the vanilla ice cream – the engineer quickly came up with the answer: vapor lock.
It was actually happening every night, but the extra time it took to find and purchase the other ice cream flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. However, when the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapor lock to dissipate.
What is the moral of the story?
Whilst buying vanilla ice cream and the car failing to start are correlated events, the story demonstrates that correlation does not mean causation.
This is often the mistake we make when we attempt to solve problem in the workplace.
This story highlights key elements of the Kepner-Tregoe Problem Analysis process that help teams and organizations save time and money. We hope you enjoyed this demonstration of systematic problem solving and the value of distinguishing assumptions from facts.
Read a similar tale based on a true story from our website administrator.
