ABSTRACT

Problem identification, the first step in making improvements, involves the several concepts. People who are satisfied with the way things are can never achieve improvement or progress. Indeed, the first step in improvement is dissatisfaction with the status quo. Problem awareness will never occur in the person who is utterly without discontent, who says he is satisfied. People with counterproductive attitudes have become complacent and may not recognize a real problem when one comes along. Many companies imitate other companies to solve their problems. The best approach is to dig out and eliminate problems where they were assumed not to exist. Indeed, there is a tendency to think that when people are in motion they are working. Since there are four grades of motion, striving to eliminate everything except value-adding motion, assemble, disassemble, and use, is ultimately linked to the assertion that work means "people exerting strength to accomplish weighty tasks".