Innovation Rainmakers

Principle

27. Dispose

a. Replace an expensive object by a collection of inexpensive

ones, compromising other properties (longevity, for instance)

Principle Description: Use cheaper, simple, or disposable objects instead of more expensive material(s) in order to reduce costs, add convenience, or improve service life, etc.

Hints on Usage: Focus on substituting high-cost materials (gases, liquids, solids) within the system or situation with inexpensive materials that will provide the desired results. Or replace high-cost materials with many inexpensive materials placed / distributed / or arranged in such a ways as to work together to provide the desired qualities. Or replace high-cost materials repeatedly with low-cost disposable materials. Also find complicated objects that can be replaced with simple objects. Finally, consider giving up some of the desirable characteristics or properties (e.g., longevity). Consider all systems, situations and functions - not just mechanical or chemical ones; i.e., energy, information, people, and processes.

Examples:

• High volumes of disposable diapers
replaced cloth diapers which had a higher total cost of ownership to the user (initial cost, cost associated with purchasing, washing costs and time, etc.). Additionally, dirty cloth diapers were perceived as more inconvenience than the disposables.

• Low cost, disposable lighters
replaced expensive lighters that were easily lost.

• High volume, low cost, disposable
paper plates and utensils provided a more convenient way to feed large groups of people while being more convenient for increasingly mobile populations (camping, picnics, sporting events, etc.)

• Greater numbers of complex
systems — such as power drills for home use — have become disposable. As they became commodity items with reduced costs, manufacturers realized that serviceability was no longer an issue. This lack of a need for serviceability has allowed significantly lower-cost, disposable designs.

• Therapists sometimes stage mock
conversations between two people, by having one act as if they were the disagreeing partner. This exchange is practice for the real-life discussions.

• A power station in the western part
of Michigan pumps water from Lake Michigan, at times when energy is cheaply available, into a reservoir that is above the level of Lake Michigan. In times when energy is expensive, the water is released to rotate turbines to produce electrical energy. The energy stored in the form of water in the reservoir is disposable.

• Software prototypes only
demonstrate how the software will work. The real software may look the same outwardly but internally function differently. Hence, the prototype is “disposable information” meant to convey the end result of more in-depth software development.

• Contractors and consultants are “
disposable”, in that they are used to support a performance, particular task, or function. Then they are discarded.