THINK DIFFERENT: GET AHEAD BY PUTTING IT IN REVERSE

Motor, Nov 2007 by Menchu, Jorge

By combining what we know about a diagnostic problem with our knowledge of engineering and automotive repair, we can devise a fundamental process that can be used as a foundation for diagnostic reverse engineering.

Preparing our brains for the ongoing rush of technology starts with selfawareness-learning to pay attention to the basic processes your brain goes through to collect, organize and analyze data to make decisions. Only through this type of self-awareness can you start to purposefully improve your brain's problem-solving capabilities.

Once you adopt this mind-set you'll be on your way to becoming a professional learner. In fact, I will say that as a professional technician, you also have to be a professional learner. As a professional learner, one of the things you'll come to recognize is that being smarter and being a better learner have a lot to do with technique. In this article I'll discuss the techniques engineers use to overcome the built-in limitations of our brains and how we can use these techniques to improve our brain's performance, with the goal of developing better diagnostic and problem-solving skills.

Let's start by establishing a goal. To prepare for increased automotive complexity, we have to learn to think more clearly and be more organized, develop the ability to deal with greater amounts of information and be quicker at knowledge assimilation.

To do this we need to first be aware of our built-in limitations. Have you ever heard of the 7 ±2 rule? Research has shown that regardless of whether you're the shop expert or the broom pusher, your brain has the ability to deal with only seven plus or minus two things at a time.

If th is true, then our goal has to be to learn to deal with this limitation. And perhaps this is one of the most important things that we can learn from the engineering field. Every year new products are designed, and each year the complexity of what can be designed also increases. The increase in complexity is certainly a result of experience, but it's also a result of advancements in the techniques of dealing with information. We must learn techniques that overcome our brain s limitations so we can continue to deal with higher levels of complexity and information.

Diagnostic Reverse Engineering

The phrase diagnostic reverse engineering describes the process of performing a diagnosis based on actual evidence, combined with building a working knowledge of the system on which you're working. This is quite a bit different from guessing, go/no-go testing or even systematic testing.

Diagnostic reverse engineering does not default to a specific process or pattern. The process you take is totally up to you. Interestingly enough, there's a pattern we all use to solve for the unknown, and it's easily demonstrated in a simple math equation: 10 x = 18. You have to know what you don't know, but you can't solve it by focusing on what you don't know. You solve it by starting with what you do know.

If we combine what we know about the problem with our knowledge of engineering, our limitations and our strengths in automotive repair, we can devise a fundamental process that can be used as a foundation for diagnostic reverse engineering:

1. Determine your goal.

2. Find out what you know (and what you don't know).

3. Follow the clues.

At first glance, all of this may seem simple when compared to the complex solutions we've become accustomed to searching for. But it offers a lot more than it appears, and you may never realize it unless you put some thought into it and implement it into your next diagnostic reverse engineering situation.

The Situation

You're in the middle of a difficult diagnosis. The easy fix fixes nothing and the silver bullet is a blank. It's time to try to understand the system and perhaps that will lead to success.

The first step in the process is to establish your goal. Ask yourself these very important questions: 1. What is the problem? 2. How is the system supposed to behave and what is it capable of?

The answer to the first question is obvious. The answer to the second is one you do not want to take for granted. You must make sure you have a good understanding of what the system is all about and what it's capable of. If you don't know what it's supposed to do, you probably can't fix it.

This is especially true with newer vehicles. With their higher degree of system integration and software-based strategies, you have to be ready to handle the unexpected.

The second step is to determine what you know (and what you don't know). I call this "taking inventory." Simply ask yourself, What do I know about this system and the problem? You might be tempted to take this step for granted, but you very well may be cutting yourself short, extending thie time it takes to accomplish your goal. Remember, you cannot solve a problem by focusing on what you don't know. You have to start with what you do know.

The key to maximizing this step is to do what I call thinking through the box (Fig. 1 above). By thinking through the box, we're looking at the problem or challenge from different perspectives. To understand this, think of the system or problem you want to reverse-engineer as an object in a translucent box. Each side of the box represents a different perspective. One side is your perspective as a technician, another is thie vehicle owner/operator, another is the engineer, etc. I'll discuss this in greater detail later.