4-R-Forum

Recognize-Rationalize-Resolve-Reconcile. A four word imperative, created to guide engineers to design products to meet customer needs, is applicable to many problem solving tasks. There are other similar slogans, Plan-Organize-Motivate-Control from Henri Fayol, Plan-Do-Check-Act from W Edwards Deming, and Observe-Orient-Decide-Act from Col. John Boyd. They share a common theme: be clear about your goals, plan your work, compare results to goals, and use feedback to improve future work. Applying these steps in an iterative fashion enables groups of people to solve large problems. Technology is providing increasingly sophisticated tools to tackle increasingly complex problems. The 4-Rs provide an approach for getting started, and scaling efforts for relentless problem solving.

The 4-R-Forum is a nonprofit entity which seeks to contribute insight and tools to the Aras community for the business of engineering. Meet the sponsor on LinkedIn.

To help middle and high school students develop skills for engineering, and to experience the rewards of making things work, the 4-R and STEM page provides a simplified process and examples of its use.