The Origin of Family Roles and Worries
Amid the hustle and bustle of the city, Tom is a professional dedicated to the field of automotive engineering. Meanwhile, he also has another important identity - the father of an 8 - year - old boy. The child is in the second grade of primary school, a stage full of curiosity and vitality. People may wonder how the family life of such an automotive engineer differs from that of other families.
In fact, in essence, Tom is not much different from other fathers. Every father shows endless concern for his children, especially when it comes to the children's physical health and safety. This kind of concern is particularly evident. Tom is no exception. He often worries about all sorts of possible situations that might occur when his children are on their way to school.
A detailed analysis of the risks of going to school
Tom's thinking was very meticulous. He began to list in his mind the things that might happen to the child on the way to school. First of all, he thought that the child was at an age when they loved to play. On the way to school, they were very likely to be attracted by the new things by the roadside, such as a cute puppy or a beautiful flower, and then forget the time, resulting in being late for school. Once they were late, the child might be punished by the teacher, which would in turn affect their learning mood and progress. Tom thought the possibility of this situation occurring was relatively high. According to his own evaluation criteria, he gave the occurrence degree (O) of this situation a score of 5 or 6.
In addition, there is a road that the child needs to cross on the way to school. Although there are traffic lights and zebra crossings in the vicinity, the potential risk of traffic accidents still exists. Even though the probability of occurrence is not particularly high, Tom still determines the occurrence rate (O) to be 3 or 4 points. Of course, there are also some other low-probability events, such as suddenly encountering bad weather or being hit by a falling object. However, the possibility of these situations occurring is very small. Tom believes that the occurrence rate (O) is only 1 or 2 points, so he doesn't consider them any more.
Next, Tom conducted a risk assessment on these possible scenarios. He thought that although being late for school would have a certain impact on the child's learning, the overall risk was not particularly high. Therefore, he determined the risk coefficient (S) for it to be 4 or 5 points. On the other hand, traffic accidents were completely different. Once they occurred, the consequences would be unimaginable. So Tom set the risk coefficient (S) for traffic accidents at 9 or 10 points.
Clever strategies for coping with risks
After analyzing the risks, Tom began to think about how to avoid these situations or minimize the losses after they occurred. Naturally, the most ideal way was for him to personally send his children to school every day, so that he could ensure their safety and punctuality throughout the process. However, due to his work, his time and energy were limited, and he couldn't do this.
However, Tom didn't give up because of this. He came up with a clever idea: writing a note every day and asking the child to hand it to the teacher for signature. In this way, he could clearly know whether the child arrived at school on time every day. Tom thought the detectability of this method was very high, so he determined the detectability (D) as 3 or 4 points. In addition, to reduce the risk of the child having a traffic accident, Tom carefully studied the surrounding routes and chose a school route for the child that didn't require crossing the road. As a result, the possibility of the child encountering a traffic accident was greatly reduced, and the new occurrence (O) was determined as 1 point.
The child was very puzzled by his father's actions and asked his father why he did so. Tom told the child mysteriously that the method he used was the Potential Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, which was very popular in the automotive industry and was abbreviated as FMEA in English. The child only half - understood. Although he didn't think much of his father's words, he still obediently did as his father told him.
Attention to and methods for children's academic performance
In addition to the safety of his children, Tom also cares very much about their academic performance. Due to his busy work, he doesn't have much time to accompany his children in their studies. In order to better understand his children's learning situation, he came up with a method: to draw a curve graph for each of his children's exam results. He told his children that this is called an X - R control chart, which is a method of statistical process control (SPC).
The child was full of curiosity about this strange thing and asked his father what the chart was for. Tom patiently explained that through this chart, one could monitor the changes in academic performance so as to detect problems early and take preventive measures. For example, if there were points beyond the control limits on the chart, or if several consecutive points showed an upward or downward trend, analysis was needed to find out the underlying reasons.
The child laughed after hearing this and asked, "If my grades keep rising, doesn't it mean that my academic performance has improved? What else is there to analyze?" Tom looked at the child seriously and said earnestly, "Even if your grades keep rising, you still need to conduct an analysis. The purpose of the analysis is to find out the reasons for the improvement in your grades. In this way, we can turn these good methods and habits into standards and strengthen them so that your grades can always stay at a good level." The child nodded as if understanding but not really understanding.
Professional guidance in extracurricular activities
The extracurricular activities of the child are also the focus of Tom's attention. Once, the school organized each child to make five handicrafts to participate in a competition, and provided detailed production standards, requiring the works to be submitted on Friday. The child quickly finished making one handicraft. Just as the child was about to start making the next one, Tom stopped him/her.
Tom told the child not to rush to continue making the next four. First, take the well - made handicraft to school tomorrow for the teacher to check. After the teacher confirms that it is qualified, then continue to make the rest. The child thought his father was too cautious and couldn't help laughing at him. However, Tom told the child seriously that this is called Product and Process Approval, abbreviated as PPAP in English. As the saying goes, "Caution enables a ship to sail for ten thousand years." Doing things in this way can avoid many unnecessary mistakes.
Although the child didn't quite understand, he still followed his father's instructions. As a result, the child's work was finally successful, while several students in his class were disqualified from the competition because their works did not meet the standards. Through this experience, the child finally began to admire what his father had done.
End-of-term glory and unexpected answers
The final exam is over. Little Tom was praised by the teacher for his excellent performance in various aspects such as study, safety, and extracurricular activities. When the teacher and classmates asked Little Tom to share his secrets to success, Little Tom originally wanted to promote the knowledge his father had taught him, such as FMEA, SPC, and PPAP. However, due to being overly excited, his mind went blank and he couldn't remember these professional terms at all. Finally, he blushed and said, "Because my dad is a car engineer."