Q 84. Quiz on SCAMPER

 

"SCAMPER" is an acronym formed from the abbreviation of: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify (Also magnify and minify), Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse. It is a lateral thinking technique which helps you generate ideas by encouraging you to ask seven different types of questions, which will help you understand how you can innovate and improve existing products, services and processes. These targeted, thought-provoking questions/ideas help boost creativity and find innovative answers to problems. Elaborate the use of the technique with a suitable example."

 

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I think 5why is one of the ways of doing this.

Product/Idea:Making cutlets with Potatoes at home

 

Substitute:
Oil Free, Fried

Ingredients to be substituted: Only mashed potatoes, Potatoes with other vegetables, Potatoes with vegetables and dry fruit

Time to be substituted: Can we serve cutlets in breakfast or It can serve as snacks before meal

Combine:Can we make cutlets with potatoes and sabudana

Adapt: How can the cutlets be used?

1. To serve for guests at home
a. Serve with green sauce or red sauce or both
b. To make healthy for old and heart patients

 

   How can we start business of making cutlets? 

2. Can we sell cutlets in our society/colony?
a. Can we print and distribute pamphlets door to door?
b. Can we do mouth publicity for making families aware about the initiative?
c. Can we open a stall somewhere inside/outside our home?
d. Can we provide home delivery with our delivery boy in the morning.
e. Can we make a whatsapp group for society families and make them aware about this initiative?
f. Can we give discount offers for sale increase? 
  

3. Can we sell cutlets in market?

Thinking small in large volume-Sachet Marketing
a. Can we have value added suggestions for the item: Expiry remarks, best time to eat, Recommendations for Heart patients and children below certain age, Health related suggestions
b. Can we partner with any other brand who has good customer volume?
c. Can we start any loyalty programme to increase sale
d. Can we give TV ads, banners and posters for popularity of our product? 

Modify/Magnify

What can be magnified?
1. Can we build  a big display images using the proposed packaging concepts?
2. Colour Intensity: Can the colour of images be changed from Light for oil free cutlets to darker for more oily cutlets?
3. what characteristics can be enlarged:High calories, Low calories   
4. Can we modify our cooking procedure?

PUT To Other Uses

What else can be done with our cutlets:
a. Can we supply it for making Burgers, sandwiches etc.
b. Can we supply tissues/napkins for hand cleansing with cutlets.
c. Can we supply sauce sachets to serve with cutlets

ELIMINATE

a. Can we eliminate oil from our procedure?
b. Can we eliminate human faces from TV ads
c. Can we eliminate selling as snacks with meal?
   Now, it can be sold/display in:
a. School, Hostels, Universities and institutes canteens
b. Hotels and Restaurants during morning breakfast buffet
c. Food Courts in metro stations, commercial buildings, 

Re-arrange

a. Can we re-arrange the supply schedule?
   In stead of selling product in all 30 days, we can serve in schools, colleges, universities and commercial areas during weekdays.      

b. Can we make it main ingredient for making burgers and sandwiches at home by providing suitable guidance
c. Can we start taking orders on whats app from society?
d. Can we connect your customers on whatsapp and share their feedback and suggestions to improve quality and taste of cutlets?

 

'SCAMPER' is the brainstorming technique or a tool which is used by asking question about existing products/services using each of seven prompts Substitute, combine, adopt, modify, put to another use,eliminate,reverse or rearrange. These questions helps us to come up with creative ideas for developing new products or services or improvements in existing one.

 

For example McDonald's founder already done a lot of work to establish his business, so if we see how SCAMPER is used in his business.

•  Put to another use: Selling restaurants and real estate business instead of only burger
• Eliminate: Letting customers serving themselves so avoiding the use of expensive waiters.
• Combine: instead of selling individual products, selling in combination and made a meal or combo meal.
• Modify: modification in bill payment , having customer pay before eat so that there will be no hassle after finishing the burger.
• Substitute: instead of running restaurant at one place, started a chain system and starts to  franchise to make more profit by substituting place, time ,people
• Adopt: as per this technique he might be adopted to offer soft drink with burger like Dominoz is offering with pizza. Adopted to serve ice-cream , french fries with burger to make more delicious .
• Reverse: reverse or rearrange  aims to explore the potential when changing the order of the process in production line or in deliver line. or we can say how can we rearrange the current status for better output. so in McD , they started to produce baking all raw material in advance in such a way that customer dont wait too much, they changed the method of taking an order then start to produce. another rearrange for delivering outside in the vehicle of customers outside itself, no need to come inside and place an order on counter. So by this whoever just in hurry can order outside counter of the restaurant and can take it from there so time saving of customer.

 

The SCAMPER technique is one of the easiest and direct methods for creative thinking and problem solving through a number of techniques or questions.It can be used to explore existing products and services from seven different point of view.

SCAMPER Techniques – Examples are taken from the Processes or activities related to Banking Sector

Substitute

Means replacing a process/concept which will help in Customer Satisfaction/ process improvements.

Example: Introduction of cash deposit Machine in Banks works as a substitute for Cashier for depositing Money in Bank. This saves Valuable Time of Customer and leads to Customer satisfaction.

Combine

Combining different existing processes to arrive at some workable solution.

Example: ATM Machines – is a combination of various activities – Cash Withdrawal, cash Deposit, Change of Mobile No., Request a cheque book etc

Adapt

Adapting is a gradual activity – slowly adapting to an New Processes/Technologies which is already proved to be the best way to do an activity.

Example: Adapting to Digital Banking – Usage of Computers in Public sector banks like SBI, CANARA etc. is a sign of adapting to new Technologies

Modify

Changes/Modification in Existing Process to find new insight/perspective while performing an activity

Example: Go Green Initiatives in bank i.e acceptance of Soft copies of documents instead of Hard Copies have helped reduction of paper works.  

Put To Another Use

Usage of a product in several different ways

Example: Mobile/Internet Banking is being used in different ways - It works as a mini bank form the customers i.e;  Fund Transfers, FD A/c Opening, Bill Payments, Investments & Insurances,  Other Services like stop payment of cheque/ Blocking of Credit Card etc. ease of the customers.

Eliminate

Identification of redundant processes that can be eliminated for faster execution of processes.

Example: A/c Opening facility through Tab have eliminated the Paperwork processes at Banks.

Reverse

Reverse or rearrange or reuse a product or process for new possibilities.

Example 1: Customer approaching for Loan instead of Sales pitching the case is a reverse order for Loan Processing

Example 2: Same Customer being approached for various products i.e A/c Opening, Loans, Credit Cards, Insurance, FD’s etc.

It is a tool or technique which suggest that if we look in to solution for some problem then that solution may already be available in some other manner. It works on 7 rules or principal like substitute. combine , adapt,  modify,  put to reuse or another use, eliminate and reverse. these principles form a checklist that can be used to find solutions pertaining to existing programs or products. each letter in SCAMPER indicates a different manner by which we can look into the features of that particular product and look for new ideas or increase or enhance creativity

The best answer is that of M Kumari Lalita. She has chosen a very simple example and stuck to true meaning of the acronym SCAMPER. The answer includes very simple examples that are interesting and everyone can relate to.