A design challenge / Final version of the thesis / Next research starting / On blaming…

It is well to read everything of something, and something of everything. Joseph Brodsky

A design challenge

Here is another toilet related design problem: how to make a device, which prevents stealing rolls of toilet paper but permits the use of paper for wiping. Add another requirement: the device should contain two rolls of paper, thus lengthening the replenishment cycle. And still other: the replenishment should be easy, but still require some simple key or tool, so that unarmed thieves cannot steal the rolls.
Pretty simple, a problem which should have been solve long ago. It turns out that this problem is still very much open and preliminary design solutions are numerous. Some have two rolls adjacent to each other, with a sliding cover exposing one of them. In others, the rolls are on top of each other, which sometimes prevents them from rolling. In some, there is just one large roll. Sometimes, there are two large rolls, either side-by-side or on top of each other. The solutions for exposing the a new roll after the other has been used up are also numerous - and most of them do not work.
I have been planning a short book or a photo exhibition about this significant, yet simple, design challenge. It is a pity I realized it after I took the "Product design and development"-course here in MIT. It would have been a perfect topic for the course. Maybe someone of the SDM06ers will take up the challenge. The market is there, the stakeholders are easy to contact, there may well be some lead users among the cleaning personnel, etc. Go for it!
The challenge has a been solved in Japan by eliminating the need of toilet paper completely. But as long as we use toilet paper, the challenge remains open and urgent.

Final version of the thesis

I made the mistake of loitering around my advisor's office the other day. He spotted me and told me to do some changes to my thesis. Now I have done so and will steer clear of his office for the next week or so. That's the plan, at least.

Next research starting

Now I can concentrate my full attention on energy issues. I have nothing but time to read the existing literature and articles. I can also meet professor, graduate students, researchers, who are working in the energy field. It is going to be quite fun until I leave to Finland. And it will be fun in Finland as well - maybe I can meet some bosses of some Finnish energy companies and maybe they are willing to support my efforts.

On blaming Wall-Mart

I am not the biggest fan of Wall-Mart and have been complaining on its practices in the past. Still, one cannot blame W-M for everything . For example, blaming W-M for owning and operating 5000 trucks and "polluting round the day", as someone does in the Le Monde Diplomatique, is plain stupid. We all know, that W-M has extremely efficient logistics, and I would guess that 5000 W-M trucks pollute less per per pound of merchandise than trucks of other retailers. If one wants to blame W-M on pollution, the right way is to attack large malls in general. It is the malls, which cause unnecessary driving, but it is the customers who do the unnecessary driving, not the retailer.
By the way, W-M is mandating more fuel-efficient trucks. It may well be the only company, which can tell Detroit, what kind of R&D Detroit should do. And Detroit agrees.

On design

Sometimes good intention can be spoiled with bad implementation. A simple example. After doign one's thing in the toilet, one wants to washes his hands. For this, one needs soap, water, and something with which to dry one's hands. One would not like to touch anything but the soap, water, and the paper. In particular, one would not like to touch the soap dispenser, faucet, and (perhaps) the paper dispenser. That's why some public toilets have motion sensor activated systems for all three things. In the local Marriot in Kendal Square, however, the soap dispenser and the paper dispenser were automatic, not the faucet. Thus, however one washes his hands, the possibility of contamination remains. Actually, automatizing the paper dispenser makes no sense. Strange how hard design and implementation are.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs January to February 2006".