Troubleshooting

I did design work on televisions, airborne radar displays and flight navigators for about 35 years. As an Electrical Engineer, I was often called to find and fix problems on our assembly lines.

When I was at Philips (Magnavox), I did my design work in our engineering building just east of Knoxville. One of Philip's factories was about 50 miles northeast of the engineering building. When the failure rate -- the number of televisions on the assembly line that failed before final inspection -- was over about 0.01% (1 out of 10,000) I would get the "call." (In 2024 one grade in Colleton County schools  had a failure rate of 91% in a particular subject per www.ed.sc.gov.)

I would jump into my truck and head toward the factory. Once I arrived, I would have to talk to assembly people, techs and inspectors to find out symptoms. Then I had to define the problem. Once I knew the source of the problem, I could formulate corrective actions. Perhaps it was the wrong part installed. Perhaps it the test equipment gave a faulty reading. Perhaps the flow solder machine was set incorrectly. The list was nearly endless. I was there to find the problem by looking at the symptoms.

One thing I learned early was to not play the "Blame Game." That game is played by blaming any and everyone for the problem. When the "Blame Game" is played, the problem still exists and people are annoyed. Forget the "Blame Game" and find the problem no matter who or what caused it.

Another trap for troubleshooters is what we called "Shotgunning." That is where you start proposing "solutions" before you understand the problem. Try this. Try that. Try something else. Keep trying different things until maybe, with a lot of luck, the problem goes away. "Shotgunning" seldom works.

Another pitfall is to treat the symptom and not the problem. If you get a splinter in your finger (a problem), it hurts (a symptom). You can treat the symptom (take a painkiller), but until you address the problem (the splinter), relief is only temporary.

The most effective technique is to

Find the Problem
And
Fix it!