Point of View – Local Ideality

According to our definition, ideality is likened to perfection, which implies that there is only one ideal state. But it is clear that ideality is strongly related to point of view, or to the local conditions pertaining to a system or problem situation. In other words, we can define a local ideality.

For example, the definition of the ideal ball point pen would have different meanings to the pen manufacturer, distributor, buyer, competitor, and end user. And we mustn't forget the inventor/visionary.

Example: A manufacturer of pencil erasers, who has made a significant investment in a particular technology, would likely wish to utilize that capital investment to continue generating profits. Manufacturing problems would thus be solved in such a way as to use the existing systems/technology. From the standpoint of long-term planning, however, it would be imprudent to ignore a high-level vision of ideality, such as performing the erasing function without the actual eraser.

When it comes to problem solving, local ideality is related to our ability to solve a problem with the resources that are available in the immediate environment.

Now that we know that our goal in problem solving is to move a system toward a more ideal state, how do we go about achieving this? The general approach for achieving near-ideal solutions is using Resources.