Problem Solving

Problem Solving as a continuing activity By Following the PDCA cycle in its never ending rotation

Exposing problems : basic problem areas: Q C D S M

• Quality
• Cost
• Delivery
• Safety
• Morale

Wrong Mindset for Problem Solving : Mental Attitudes that block Improvement

Midset Issue

• "I Know everything is moving fine. There is no problem"
• "We have tried everything. I have all the reasons why things will not work"
• "This is how we have done it for many years. This is the best method for us"
• "It's not my responsibility to make improvements"
• "Improvement costs money. Give me then thousand dollars, then I can fix it"
• "I'm too busy to do anything"

Attitudinal Issues

• Not studying in spite of a lack of knowledge
• Not trying. Easily giving up. Not experimenting
• complaining to managers, staff people, otheres
• Not asking for comments or suggestions from others
• Taking a "what's in it for me?" attitude
• Assuming that making improvement is not fun

Right mindset for Problem Solving : mental Attitudes that promote Improvement

Mindset issues

• "There is no end for improvement"
• "Don't think of excuses for why it will not work. Think positively"
• "Always consider the current situation as imperfect"
• "Do away with a fixed mindset"
• "lets think from a broader perspective"
• "keep working on improvement so that fire-fighting will eventually go away"

Attitudinal Issues

• Unless we force ourselves to the corner, no ideas will be generated.
• Ask "why" repeatedly to get to the root cause and fix it, permanently
• Collect people's wisdom, as opposed to depending on one's own wisdom
• Implement good ideas immediately; stop bad habits immediately
• Even if it isn't perfect, let us to ahead one step at a time
• Work can be fun. Coming up with ideas and implementing them is a satisfying experience

Tools for Problem Solving

• Cause and effect diagram
• Histogram
• Stratification and is/is not analyses
• Checksheets
• Flow chart
• Pareto chart
• Control chart
• Scatter diagram
• Run chart

basic Concept and Techniques

• Using common sense, creativity, intuition
• Simplify, combine, and eliminate
• Elimination of seven wastes (from overproduction, waiting time, transportation, processing, inventory, motion, and product defects)
• Elimination of the eighth waste (not utilizing people's talent)
• Elimination of the ninth waste (waste of imformation)
• Asking "why" five times
• 4-M checklist (man, machine, method, and material>
• 5MIE checklist (4-M plus measurement and environment)
• 6MIE checklist (5MIE plus management information)
• Practicing the "three reals," i.e., real scene (fenba), real thing (genbutsu), and real fact (genjitsu)
• Attacking the key area first (i.e., use pareto principle)
• Controlling the scatter / uncertainly
• Practicing glass wass management
• PDCA (plan-do-check=act) cycle
• Looking at the picture from shop floor point of view
• Using QC story, or other organized problem-solving steps
• Brainstorming / group meeting
• Momos to record new thoughts or problems identified during work

Waste Reduction Techniques

• Quick response (JIT)
• Kanban
• TOC (Theory of Constraints)
• SMED (Rapid Change-overs)
• SPC (Statistical Process Control)
• TPM (Total Preventive Maintenance) & Good Housekeeping
• Poka Yoke, Jidoka and Andon

How to use the techniques?
An approach : Start with Quick Response (JIT)

• Reduce the time between operations by:
• reducing the Work-in-Progress
• reducing the batchsize

•  Trackling the problems at the source

Quick Response Approach

• Reduce queues between operations
• Reduce batch sizes
• Monitor problems
• Tackle problems at source
• Further reduce queues
• Further reduce batch sizes
• Applicable everywhere
• Scope depends upon business
• Speed of implementation depends upon organization

Where to apply Quick Response

• Focus on high volume products
• Focus on bottleneck resources
• Spread to whole of business

Quick Response Advantages

• Short lead time
• Reduced inventory
• Reduced obsolescence
• Quick response of problems, while "trail is fresh", this results in a higher yield and quality
• faster on learning curve
• Less NVAA (handling - paperwork - counting inventory)
• Lower costs
• Customer satisfaction
• Better morale of personnel (join the winning team) (team building)
• Increased flexibility on customer demands

Barriers to Waste Elimination : We have our efficiency targets, but:

1. Who is setting the efficiency targets?
2. Who is producing the improvement plans?
3. Does the shop floor own the targets and the plans?

Specific Tools for Problem solving
1. Industrial engineering (IE)

• Man-machine chart
• Work combination chart
• Process analysis
• material flow analysis
• Business Process mapping
• Setup time reduction
• Product-oriented layout
• One-piece flow production
• Cross-training and multi-process handling
• Cycle time analysis

2. Quality control (QC)

• Seven tools of QC - histogram, cause-and-effect diagram, check sheet, pareto diagram, graph, contral chart, and scatter diagram
• Seven new tools - relations diagram, affinity diagram, tree diagram, matrix, matrix data-analysis diagram, PDPC (Process decision progrchart), arrow diagram
• Others - fail-safe mechanisms (poka-yoke), flow chart, run chart, Taguchi method

3. Value engineering (VE)

• Value = Function/ Cost
• Parts commonality, variety reduction

4. Reliability

• Fault tree analysis (FTA)
• Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA)

5. Production and inventory control

• Workplace organization
• Lot size reduction
• Leveled production
• Pull vs. push system (kanban vs MRP)

6. New product development

• Inventory list of technology
• Quality function deployment (QFD)
• Design for manufacturability

7. Management

• Organization - leadership, communication, teamwork, motivation
• Marketing - market segmentation, attribute analysis, sampling
• Economics - pricing, supply and demand, net present value
• Finance / accounting - financial analysis, cash flow analysis
• Time management
• Project management - Pert chart, Gantt chart, flow chart
• Competitive strategy - benchmarks, etc.

Checklist to Review the Process of Problem Solving (QC Story)
1. Selection of Theme

• Was the theme discussed thoroughly by all team members?
• Was the theme selected voluntarily?
• Are the skills of team members adequate for accomplishing the objective?
• Does it reflect the needs of the workplace, mission, and objectives of the company?
• Was there evaluation of the actual situation vs. the plan, or level of customer satisfaction?

2. Description of Situation

• Were the Three Reals addressed appropriately?
• Are problems studied from differt view points?
• Are problem area narrowed down?

3. Goal Setting

• Is the process of setting goals appropriate?
• Is the objective of improvment clearly defined?
• Are reasons for goals convincing?
• Are there clear goals of what to do by when and how much?
• Is there clear plan of action using the 5W2H principle (who is to do what, when, where, why, how, and how much)?
• Ae there sufficient opportunities so that everybody can contribute?

4. Analysis of Root Cause

•  Is it evident that the them asked why many times?
• Is a cause-and-effect relationship clear?
• is the use of data / information appropriate?
• Is there good use of proprietary technology and problem solving techniques?
• Does everybody help by contributing their ideas?

5. Development of countermeasures

• Are there strong relationships between causes and countermeasures?
• Do countermeasures reflect everyone's creativity, including the opinions of managers, staff, customers, and suppliers?
• Is the solution unique or original?
• Are there evaluations of effectiveness, expected bebefit, and implementation of countermeasures?
• Is the plan to implement countermeasures executable?

6. Execution of Countermeasures

• Are countermeasures implemented using people's ingenuity?
• is there evidence of people making extra effort?
• Does everybody help in executing the plans?
• Are there considerations on stadardization in the future?

7. Evaluation of Accomplishments

• Are results, both tangible and intangible, monitored appropriately?
• Are there clear relationships between countermeasures and accomplishments?
• does the project move forward as planned?
• Do other parties buy into the improvement plan as well as the solution?
• Have the expected results been accomplished?
• What are the reasons for any difference between planned and actual results?

8. Standardization

• Does the team establish standards after resolution of the problem?
• Is there standardization to prevent the same problems form recurring?
• Is there creative thought in practicing standardization?

9. Lessons learned and Future Plans

• Do theam members develop confidence and self-esteem as part of process?
• is there adequate education and training for everybody?
• is there improvement from how the previous project went?
• Have many additional suggestions been generated in the process?
• Was the PDCA cycle practiced during the whole improvement activity?
• Following the lessons learned, is there clear direction for the future?