1-1 The Toaster Oven From Hell (Problem Set #1 - Problem #1)1-1 The Toaster Oven From Hell (Problem Set #1 - Problem #1)
This is your first assignment, designed to motivate performance-centered thinking while exposing our respective biases on the topic. You will receive 1 (one) point for completing the assignment. Please restrict your response to AT MOST one page. See below for further guidance. It is due via e-mail any time prior to the class following the one where the problem was assigned.
Situation: The Toaster Oven From Hell
The Wheaton family (Mr. & Mrs., Grandma, Uncle Joe, and the four children, ages 8 through 17) owns a toaster oven with the following characteristics:
What it does.
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How you do it.
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Makes toast
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Open the door and remove the oven tray from the toasting shelf.
Place bread on the toasting shelf.
Close the door.
Click the toaster oven switch to the "ON" position.
Press the toaster lever down.
Wait for the "ding" when the lever pops up.
Remove the toast.
Close the door.
Chick the toaster oven switch to the "OFF" position.
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Bakes things
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Open the door and remove the oven tray from the toasting shelf.
Place whatever you wish to bake on the tray. Line with foil if desired.
Place the oven tray onto the toasting shelf.
Close the door.
Set the (analog) temperature gauge to the desired temperature.
Click the toaster oven "ON" switch.
Time the baking (by external means...there is no timing device included in the oven controls)
Open the door and remove the oven tray with your baked item.
Click the toaster oven switch to the "OFF" position.
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The Controls
The Fire
THE PROBLEM: Notice item E in the "Bake things" list. There is an analogue temperature gauge that regulates the oven temperature. It does NOT operate independently of the toaster when the toaster lever is activated. This means that if the last person to bake forgets to turn the temperature gauge back to zero, the oven will heat to the set temperature IN ADDITION TO the device making toast for the next person. So after the "ding" when the toaster lever pops up and the toasting heat stops, the OVEN HEAT will remain on at the set temperature.
THE RESULT: The unsuspecting toast maker who gets distracted for a couple of minutes after the "ding" and does not immediately remove the toast finds his or her bread in the form of charcoal, with the house smelling of burnt offerings and perhaps filled with smoke. The smoke detectors in the house are often the backup indicators that the toast is done.
YOUR ASSIGNMENT: Describe HOW you would solve the burnt toast problem in the Wheaton home for the Toaster Oven From Hell. The GOAL is to PREVENTanyone from burning toast in the future because of the design of the oven.
GUIDELINES: There are none, except restricting your response to 1 - 3 pages (...oh, okay, if you insist on writing more, that's fine...but don't hand in "War and Peace," okay?). Invoke your personal experiences, common sense, and human nature. I am not looking for a "right answer" (although there may be one or more best solutions). You will receive one point for handing in the assignment (submit via e-mail to gdickelman@epsscentral.net).
PURPOSE: The purpose of this assignment is to motivate performance-centered thinking while exposing our respective biases on the topic. There are many ways to approach such a problem, including the learning approach (make the family take a course on operating the Toaster Oven From Hell), the behavior modification approach (arrest and torture the offending baker who leaves the temperature gauge at 350), the performance improvement approach (reward all family members proportionally with increases in allowances and/or privileges for each day that no toast is burnt), the human factors approach (redesign the toaster oven), the practical approach (throw it away and buy one that doesn't have this problem), the abstinence approach (ban toast in the house), and more! Use your best judgement - as a professional in whatever field you work - and propose a solution.