Just Another Form of Waste
Is there ever a time when we should resort to quick fixes? The simple answer is no!!! Let us start by looking at the benefits and problems quick fixes cause.
The only benefit to quick fix solutions is a short term temporary solution to a current symptom of a problem.
The disadvantages are on the other hand many.
1. They breed a culture of laziness, since the symptom goes away so does the pressing need to actually solve the problem.
2. They hide the real problems, once the symptom is gone from sight it gets harder to look for the real problem, and it makes it to easy to ignore the real problems.
3. They delay real improvements that would actually solve the problem, no pressing need people and resources go else where.
4. They end up crippling the organization that uses them, instead of building the ability to actually solve problems you end up building an organization full of bandaid patchers, as long as they can hide a problem the better.
5. You create needless controls and functions, as most quick fixes involve creating some new rule to solve the symptom, the usual result is that for every problem you create a few dozen quick fixes to cover each of its symptoms. In the end you aalways find that the quick fix artists spent more time putting bandaids on symptoms than it would have taken to actually fix the real problem in the first place.
6. Quick fixes allow problems to fester to the point they can kill an organization, even if they do not because the problem is hidden it actual is allowed to get worse, so even if it is eventually treated, the treatment required becomes far more complicated and expensive. Additionally you end up having to go back and waste time cleaning up all the bandaids you have used to hide it.
7. They are just another form of waste, used to hide the real waste in an organization.
As you can see we are not real fans of using quick fixes. Here we would like to point out that taking a temporary action to get a process restarted, while you are working to find and solve the root cause is not a quick fix, they are in fact exactly what they are a temporary work around like a road construction detour that is used till the real problem is identified and a solutions is being implemented. True quick fixes are simply bandaids used to solve the symptom of the problem, no one ever looks for the real underlying problem.
No one would appreciate a doctor that simply gives you a pill to treat a symptom, and never does anything to find the disease that is causing the symptom, that is exactly what a quick fix is. A doctor like that would eventually end up in trouble, and many of their patients would end up dead. Managers, engineers, and other organization senior staff, that resort to quick fixes, are doing the same thing. Instead they should take action to reduce the symptoms effects, while taking action to solve the underlying problem, just like a doctor will give you something for a fever, but will determine the underlying cause and treat it as well.
Quick fixes carry with them a huge downside many ignore, they breed laziness and complacency in an organization, because they mask and hide underlying problems and remove the need to actually deal with them. Organization that rely on quick fixes end up crippled and unable to actually develop the ability to ever solve their problems. Just take a good look at how most governments are run.
Avoiding them will build your organization problem solving muscle, and ability. You will also gain, because every quick fix requires needless new controls, many of which would have never been needed, if the problem would have been solved in the first place. Get rid of these later will waste more time than it would have taken to fix the root cause in the first place.
