Group items tagged

We are all faced with problems to solve in our workday. There are many problem-solving methods, and the six-step method is just one of them. The problem for most people is that they do not use one process to solve problems and issues or to make decisions. Another problem is that people are not consistent in how they solve problems. They do not find something that works and then do it the same way over and over to be successful. 

Einstein was quoted as having said that "if I had one hour to save the world I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution." This quote illustrates the importance that before jumping right into solving a problem, we should step back and invest time and effort to improve our understanding of the problem. The first step is to define the problem and we should do so SMART-ly.

"The best time to train workers is when an error is first detected. It also is the best time to solve a problem." - Dr. Ryuji Fukuda, VP of Production at Sumitomo Electric When do you train your personnel in problem solving? How do you train them in problem solving? Dr. Ryuji Fukuda, VP of Production at Sumitomo Electrics says "The best time to train workers is when an error is first detected. It also is the best time to solve a problem." He refers to this activity as On-Error-Training (OET). The following five rules are necessary to make OET work successfully in your shop.

A customer asked last week whether Gemba Academy had a video comparison of solving a problem using a non-CI approach vs. solving the same problem with some basic CI tools and thought processes. While this is one of our favorite topics and is addressed here and there in blog posts, videos and podcasts, we didn't have this exact module. It is a good suggestion to collect and summarize these in one place. As a first step, here is my draft of the top 10 differences between traditional problem solving and problem solving that is infused with the principles and practices of continuous improvement.

In my talk, I argue that we should forget about "change management." Instead, we should involve people in solving business problems. Human beings are problem solving machines. We love solving problems. Someone invented the bow & arrow when she realized that the fastest human carrying a knife wasn't going to outrun the slowest gazelle. The brilliance of Angry Birds is that each level requires a new round of problem solving - which birds to use and where to aim them.

"I spent so much time putting out fires until I realized I was the oxygen." - John Toussaint, MD Unfortunately, a far too common management style in many companies is the reactionary style commonly referred to as fire fighting. But fire fighting consumes an organization's resources and damages productivity. Fire fighting derives from what seems like a reasonable set of rules--investigate all problems, for example, or assign the most difficult problems to your best troubleshooter. Ultimately, however, fire-fighting organizations fail to solve problems adequately. Fire fighting prevents us from getting to the root cause. And if we don't get to the root of problem we will be right back to fire fighting soon.

Accurate problem statements save time and effort when they contain all these elements: Keep it brief Avoid technical language Quantify the problem - Don't solve it! Explain the costs Define the scope State the consequences/benefits of possible solutions

During one of my training opportunities a Toyota Sensei once told me that the highest form of "respect for people" was allowing people to solve their own problems.  This statement stuck with me and I have often used this during training/coaching sessions.  Apparently, this statement also stuck with my friend.  In the hallway last week he said after a year of gemba he finally understood his role as a leader and what I meant when I talked about "respect for people."   He said at first he loved the Lean approach, because he loved being in gemba, but after a while the follow-up became overwhelming to him and frustrating to the teams he worked with.  He said each time he went to gemba he felt guilty about the increasing number of problems he was not having the time to solve.

Lean Tip #901 - Turn Employees into Problem Solvers and Improvement Specialists. The most important aspect of lean is to involve employees in developing lean processes. Many times companies create a culture in which the employees don't make the decisions, management does. Then when problems occur, employees are unable to diagnose or solve problems without involving a supervisor. Lean reverses that by revolving around employees and looking to them as the improvement specialists.

Good problem solvers use a combination of intuition and logic to come up with their solutions. Intuition has more to do with the emotional and instinctive side of us and logic is more related to our cognition and thinking. Good problem solvers use both of these forces to get as much information as they can to come up with the best possible solution. In addition, they are reasonably open minded but logically skeptical.

Lean Tip #241 - Leaders must teach by example to transform a culture. To get people across an organization to systematically work on improvement every day requires teaching the skills behind the solution. And for that to happen, their leaders and mangers also need to practice and learn those skills.

Lean Tip #251 - Effective problem solving requires good understanding of the problem and the current situation. The first step in problem solving is to be certain you have a good understanding of the current situation. To ensure your solutions get to the root cause, you must understand the process where the problem initially occurred. When starting to diagnose a problem, don't rely on verbal reports to provide the details. Go to the work area, observe the situation, solicit help from the people in the area, and collect hard evidence for yourself. Gathering the facts first hand will help you gain a better understanding of the problem which, in turn, will allow you to better focus your solutions.

Below are the 10 main ideas Wakamatsu claims Taiichi Ohno lived by: Wastes hide, so start by disclosing all of your mistakes Discover the truth beyond your understanding Increasing production while limiting the number of workers is the only way to gain true success Act on problems right away and do not procastinate Don't feel satisfied by saying "I finished the job"; go beyond that and say "I can do more" Add "Appropriate Timing" to "Appropriate Method" in problem solving Believe in "I can" and question "I can't" The key to achieving progress is to never give up Don't do work at an average pace; the shortest way is always the easiest Change yourself first, if you want to change someone else

Wastes hide, so start by disclosing all of your mistakes Love it! Act on problems right away and do not procrastinate Great! The key to achieving progress is to never give up Yes! Don't do work at an average pace; the shortest way is always the easiest Amazing! Change yourself first, if you want to change someone else Timeless!

His approach to expose problems and to help workers visualize the problems was simple:

Limit work in progress
Limit the number of workers
By doing both (1) and (2), Ohno believed that it will place workers in challenging situations that will force them to improve their processes and thereby creating a culture of continuous improvement.

"We don't know what the problems are…..that's why we make them visible. We don't know what the root causes of the problems are….that's why we ask 5 Whys? We don't know what the evidence is….that's why we collect data. We don't know what is actually happening….that's why we observe. We don't know what solutions will succeed….that's why we experiment."

In business, we tend to assume that crisis will either not occur, or when it does will be within our domain of being able to handle it… but we get surprised and our problem solving skills are stretched to the breaking point. Why? Because we have never really practiced those skills, and if we have, we have not been critical enough of how we went about solving routine problems, and we are sloppy.

This poorly made cartoon does a nice job with a cautionary tale about problem solving.

Lesson 1: The critical importance of the simple act of walking. When you get bogged down, distracted, or even discouraged rediscover the power of going to see. Lesson 2: Never walk alone. What is the benefit if only you see the current state and think of a better way to create a future sate? Always walk the value stream with the people who touch it. It will be their efforts who are needed to improve it. Lesson 3: Expand your focus. Many look primarily at the steps in the value stream and ask how to remove the waste. You must ask about the support processes to get the right people to the right place in the value stream at the right time with the right knowledge, materials, and equipment. Lesson 4: Reflect first on the purpose of the process. Focus on what problem the customer is trying to solve and ask whether the existing process, now matter how well, run, can effectively address their problem. Pay special attention to the way people are engaged in the operation and its improvement. Lesson 5: Make work fulfilling. There is nothing worse than seeing good people trapped in an unfulfilling process that they lack the power to improve. Lesson 6: Stability before full panoply of lean techniques. The process must be capable (able to produce good results every time) and available (able to operate when it is needed).

A common response is "Mark, that makes sense… but we just don't have time…." I'd like to make the case that "lack of time" should not be an excuse that shuts down the possibility for Kaizen, but rather it's the first problem statement to which we can apply our Kaizen thinking…

Great headline!

Leaders should adopt a 'gemba mentality' Firstly, leaders on a gemba walk need to realise that they cannot and should not provide the answers and solutions to the problems they encounter. They are primarily there to coach the process owners to take ownership of solving problems and developing solutions to make the process more effective and efficient, while also eliminating waste. It is the leader's role to ensure that all the people who are involved in the process are actively engaged in improving it.

It is difficult to assure quality at the source if leaders do not respect all associates. I have seen companies with people who do not feel comfortable reporting quality concerns at the gemba, because they are ignored or "punished" if they stop the line to report a problem. This creates an atmosphere of fear, and quality issues slip out the door reaching the customer and creates a snowball of problems for everyone.