Commentary by Bob Malanga

I always used a combination of Six Sigma & TRIZ to solve problems but always started with the Ideal State and worked backwards. A simple problem like figuring out the fastest way to get from Chicago to New York in the traditional psychological inertia way of thinking might be taking a jet plane or a high speed rail or even a rocket. The ideal state in this case might be more along the lines of a teleporting device. Well that may be impossible at the moment but that's where I would start to figure out the fastest way to get from Chicago to New York.

In a real life situation we once had an issue with mistakes in an invoicing process. These mistakes were costing the company $millions. Invoices were sent to one corporate location, scanned, then the scanned information was sent to another location for input into a computer program and then sent to another location for payment. Along the way we found invoices were scanned twice or three times, weren't scanned at all and people were making mistakes during the program inputting process. In one case what was a $400,000 invoice to be paid was mistakenly inputted as a $700,000 invoice.

Following the paper trail it was easily ascertained that the process was ripe for many errors. This process employed many people, including people in another country who were reading the invoice scans and inputting the information into the computer. I found 14 steps that were prone to human error. Eventually I was tasked with either fixing the process or creating a new one. This was my first foray into creating the ideal state.

I sat down and stared at the inventive principles of TRIZ. I then thought of what would be my ideal state for this process. It was obvious that the people part of this process was creating the problems so the first thing I thought of was eliminating all of the people and create a device that would read the invoices without making mistakes.

Without getting into all the details and with the help of some associates we created my ideal state by using a camera, high speed computer, neural network technology and I was able to create a machine that could read the invoices, was self taught and never made a mistake. We literally eliminated everyone in the original process who had the opportunity to err.

Bob Malanga is a graduate of Princeton and Stony Brook Universities where he majored in Mechanical Technology and Total Quality Management. Bob's time at Princeton was a U.S. Navy sponsored program. Bob spent most of his career in the Aerospace, Automotive, and Financial Services Industries where he held the following positions: Vice President of Six Sigma Quality for G.E. Capital Corporation, Vice President of Quality for Chromalloy Corporation, Director of Quality for Fairchild-Republic, Director of Operations for Transpo Electronics, and Research & Development Manager for U. S. Filter.

Bob also spent time in Washington, D.C. as a Lobbyist for a Major Defense Contractor. In 1986 he orchestrated a filibuster which in essence achieved the objective and in the process held up the U.S. Budget that resulted in the Federal Government's inability to pay workers and technically run out of money.

He is a Certified Six Sigma Master Blackbelt, Triz Master, ISO9000 Lead Assessor, ASQ Certified Quality Manager and holds numerous U.S. and World Patents for three different companies. Additionally, he has served on the State of Florida's Sterling Committee and is currently serving on the Central Florida Board of Industrial Advisors.

Bob began his real estate career in New York on a part time basis, but decided to make it a full time endeavor in Florida. He specializes in commercial, land and investment properties with a focus on Condo-Hotel conversions. Bob was one of the first Realtors to be involved with Condo-Hotels in Central Florida and has been highly touted for his expertise in that area of real estate.

Bob resides in Lake Mary, Florida with his wife and daughter.

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