“Ideate” Idea Generation and

Idea Selection

Rodolfo Howard

August 12, 2013

Context

• The problem defined in the previous assignment:

• The owners of "Minuto Frío” needs a best way to manage their documentation and warehouse, because they do not have a systematic, easy to use, reliable and effective approach, whose current situation presents a major threat to this new business.

Idea Generation

What are the most obvious solutions for this problem? (even

things that you know already exist)

What can you add, remove or modify from those initial solutions?

How would you solve the problem if you had an unlimited budget?

How would you solve the problem without

spending any money?

How would you solve this problem if you had

control over the laws of nature (think invisibility,

teleportation, etc.)?

How would a 5-year-old child solve the problem?

• I used the following questions to generate the proposed ideas:

1. To record all sales in a notebook.

2. To see how is the perform of similar companies.

3. Daily control of money in the cashier register.

4. To generate "vouchers" (notes) with the details of each sale for delivery when paying.

5. To make weekly check list of the warehouse.

6. Upgrade the daily record of stock.

7. To have a detail of stock in each of the cooling machines.

8. To keep the original documents of each supplier in appropriate folders.

9. To assign responsibility of sales record to a specific worker.

10. To assign responsibility for control of warehouses to a specific worker.

Idea Generation: What are the most obvious solutions for this problem? (even things that you know already exist)

1. Digital Record of purchase invoices from suppliers.

2. To implement a system based on barcodes.

3. To implement a systems for online purchase orders.

4. Trying to have a small number of suppliers.

5. To have all the available documentation online.

6. To develop a formal process to record the sales, so that all employees follow it.

7. To develop a formal process to control the warehouse, so that all employees follow it.

8. To generate indicators and minimum levels of stock of products in the warehouse.

9. To standardize prices to easily track them.

10. To have vouchers which specify the purchase details.

Idea Generation: What can you add, remove or modify from those initial solutions?

1. To create a group of dwarves to put in charge of the warehouse.

2. Do not consider it as a problem.

3. That the Wizard of Oz looks at everything from above and he keeps the record.

4. To use a magic wand to solve the problem.

5. To generate an army of clones to be responsible for carrying out the entire business.

6. To do a giant machine that solves all the problems of the business.

Idea Generation: How would a 5-year-old child solve the problem?

1. To have a database with purchase price and profit on each product.

2. To implement a stock control software in the warehouse.

3. To hire more staff and vendors.

4. To have more cashier registers.

5. To implement an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning).

6. To implement electronic invoices.

7. A smartphone application available for transparent access to the records.

8. To have video system to record all sales.

9. To hire an outsourced control services for the warehouse.

10. To buy a cashier register that identifies the sales details.

Idea Generation: How would you solve the problem if you had an unlimited budget?

1. To generate spreadsheet of daily sales and revenue.

2. To have better coordination and communication with suppliers.

3. To improve the lay-out by product within the warehouse.

4. To ask customers what products are preferred to be consumed for them.

5. To ask to suppliers what warehouse control systems are used by them.

6. Register the profit for every kind of product sold in the store.

7. To conduct a historic shopping study.

8. To make weekly purchases.

Idea Generation: How would you solve the problem without spending any money?

1. To scan with their eyes the current stock of the warehouse.

2. To carry out the historical record of sales and purchases in a super brain.

3. To coordinate purchases with suppliers through telepathy.

4. The use of control over the time that allows going to the past to verify and confirm the current information.

5. To have an unlimited space warehouse.

6. To store and organize all documentation and make it invisible, with the ability to access it when needed.

7. To have a perfect knowledge of all things, therefore, everything about how to fix the problem.

Idea Generation: How would you solve this problem if you had control over the laws of nature (think invisibility, teleportation, etc.)?

Idea Selection

1. To have a detail with the stock of each cooling machine: Because the company mainly sells frozen products, to know the stock on each cooling machine is very important and means a lot. Every time that they refilled with products, they must record the amount of the total products in the machine, but also every time that they sell one of these products, to have an updated record.

2. To implement a system based on barcodes: It is a way to identify all products. Implementing this system will allow them to have detailed records of all sales, in order to know the products preferred by customers, the daily income, profit and others. This is an especially useful tool to generate a better purchase plan and to know the income of the business.

3. Digital Record of purchase invoices from suppliers: To have a back-up of the documents related to suppliers and the purchases are the main resource to help to identify products that have entered into the store, so to have it scanned, we will sort them by different criteria, to access them quickly and from different locations.

Thanks!