This sounds like a (perhaps apocryphal) story I've heard of Feynman when he was a "fresh" engineer in Los Alamos. There was an engineering defect in <some thing> and after a quick look at the engineering diagrams he had a solution. I think this was from "The Pleasure of finding things out" but I couldn't find the story in my copy.
The reason I think it may be apocryphal is that is bears a striking resemblance of the "knowing where to drill the hole" story told elsewhere in this thread.
The reason I think it may be apocryphal is that is bears a striking resemblance of the "knowing where to drill the hole" story told elsewhere in this thread.