This is a real story that happened between the customer of General Motors
and its Customer-Care Executive.
A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors:
"This is the second time I have written to you, and I don't blame
you for not answering me, because I sounded crazy,
but it Is a fact that we have a tradition in our family
we have 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 and
I drive down to the store to get it.
It's also a fact that I recently
purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a
problem. You see, every time I buy a vanilla ice-cream, when I start back
from the store 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 a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get vanilla
ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?"
The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter, but sent an
Engineer to check it out anyway.
The latter was surprised to be greeted by a successful, obviously well educated man in a fine neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinnertime, so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was vanilla ice cream that night
and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn't start.
The Engineer returned for three more nights.
The first night, they got chocolate. The car started. The second night, he
got strawberry. The car started.
The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to 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. And toward this end he
began to take notes:
he jotted down all sorts of data: time of day, type of gas uses, time to
drive back and forth etc.
In 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, being the most
popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick
pickup. All the other flavors were kept in the back of the store at a
different counter where it took considerably longer to check out the
flavor.
Now, the question for the Engineer was why the car wouldn't start when it
took less time. Eureka - Time was now the problem - not the vanilla ice
cream!
The engineer quickly came up with the answer: "vapor lock". It was
happening every night; but the extra time taken to get the other flavors
allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When the man got
vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapor lock to dissipate.
Remember:
Even crazy looking problems are sometimes real and all problems seem to be
simple only when we find the solution with cool thinking.
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