Bobby MoestaInnovator, Entrepreneur, Professor and Advisor

PROBLEMS OF VARIATION - Taguchi #shorts #innovators #productdevelopment #entrepreneurs #taguchi

2 May 2024 · 1 min

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In this short monologue, Bobby Moesta reflects on Genichi Taguchi’s principle that every problem is fundamentally a problem of variation in a product’s function. He explains that products have intended functions and unintended failures, and these failures arise when the underlying function varies. Moesta points out that teams typically measure the symptoms—the problems—rather than the function itself, which obscures the source of variation. He emphasizes that each problem has two sides, and identifying the central function is key. Without a function‑centric focus, solving one issue often creates another, so he advocates for concentrating on the function to truly address variation and prevent new problems.

Chapters

Hey. So one of the things that I was just thinking about was the fact this is like Taguchi used to talk about that all problems are problems of variation. And it took me a long time to understand it. There's things our products are supposed to do and there's things that they're not supposed to do. And typically the reason why they're not doing it is because at some point in time the function is not performing. And ultimately all variation of function causes these problems. Which is a really important aspect is that most of the time when we look at our measures and what We think about— we measure problems, not function. And ultimately, we don't know where the variation's coming from. There's always 2 sides to every problem. But once you see the center of the problem, you start to realize that's the function. If you usually solve one problem, you usually create another, unless you actually focus on the function.