SCAMPER

SCAMPER is a technique that is often used by many to ignite the silent creative genius lying within them. When used correctly, and with purpose, it has the ability to help anyone, including your to rise above any present challenge. Basically, SCAMPER can be described as a general-purpose checklist which may contains questions that require extensive brainstorming.
From what has just been said, it seems like SCAMPER is an easy concept to implement in anyone’s life. However, the purpose of this piece is how to use SCAMPER techniques to improve productivity within an organisation. With that said, the truth is, SCAMPER in itself as a self-improvement technique isn’t that easy to make an integral part of one’s life not to talk of implementing in a multinational organisation or a small business with one or more employee.
SCAMPER is an acronym for seven words which are used to direct questions that require brainstorming. For example, imagine being in a brainstorming session in your organisation with the need to come up with the best design for an already existing product. How do you go about brainstorming for such ideas? You ask questions, right? These questions become more effective if they are built around the SCAMPER technique.
Now, what exactly does each letter stand for and how can your organisation or anyone use SCAMPER to effectively solve a problem? The answers to these are as described below:
The Meaning of SCAMPER and How to Implement It -

• S  Stands for SUBSTITUTE - the questions usually asked in this step may include: "What can I substitute in my current state of mind with?" or – if you’re an organisation, “What can you substitute your current process or product with? In short, what you should basically be doing here is to start thinking about substituting part of yourself or your product/process for something else that will bring about improvement. By looking for something to substitute you can often come up with exceptional new ideas.

• C says COMBINE – Consider combining two or more parts of your present challenge to achieve a different product/process or to improve productivity.

•  A for ADAPT - "What process or product can I adapt or copy from others?" A lot of processes these days are as a result of looking at what is helping other succeed and doing the same thing for yourself.

• M Stands for MAGNIFY - This step challenges you and your organisation to think about altering part or all of the current manufacturing processes or products in order to pave way for improvement and/or better products.
• P requires you to PUT TO OTHER USES – observer your current process and products and ask yourself "How can you possibly put them to other uses?"

• E says ELIMINATE irrelevant things or activities to create room for improvement. Questions like the following are often useful in this stage: "What can we eliminate or simplify to improve our process?"

• R stands for REARRANGE – last but not the least, think what would happen if you rearranged a part or all of your manufacturing process. You may ask questions such as "How can I change, reorder or reverse our current process to improve production or service?"

When brainstorming using SCAMPER in a business set up, the process becomes even more and more effective with participations from other members of the organisation; so involve as many employees as possible.