Objectives
By the end of this session participants will be able to:
- Understand the need to have a clear understanding of the problem before starting to solve it.
- Create a Problem Statement
- Create a Problem Description
- Create a Process Flow Diagram
- Create a Cause and Effect Diagram
- Understand Containment Action
Introduction
When a problem exists, most people want to fix it as quickly as they can. Often, as soon as they become aware that a problem exists, they start to develop ideas for solutions and to implement them. Their enthusiasm and desire to do good motivates them to start to fix the problem fast.
Unfortunately, “jumping straight in” will often create more problems than it solves. It can mean that resources can be wasted solving something that doesn’t fix the problem that was identified or fixing something that isn’t really a problem at all. Before we start working on a problem we need to be clear about what the problem is and take some time to make sure we have a good understanding of it.
Once we know the problem well, we can better start to consider what its causes are and develop the best solution Taking time to identify and describe the problem is essential for effective problem solving – and too often neglected.
Develop the Problem Statement
The problem statement provides a concise understanding of the problem. Its careful creation, involving everyone in the problem solving team, is intended to ensure that you are properly focused on a problem that will be valuable to solve and that there is a common initial understanding of the problem that will align team activity, including the development of the problem description.
The problem statement says what the object of the problem is and the defect that is impacting it.
For example, in a fast food outlet, complaints about food quality have increased and that most of these increased complaints are about the salads. The increased complaints are about wilting of the lettuce. Salad ingredients are deteriorating more quickly than they normally do. The object is the salad lettuce and the defect is wilting.
Our initial understanding of this problem is that meal complaints have increased but before we work to identify the possible causes of this problem, we will take some time to ensure that we are focused as clearly as possible on what we need a solution to. We do this by first considering what we know about the problem. We do this by considering what we know about the problem but we need to be very careful not to rush to conclusions that are not based on facts.
For example, we know that the lettuce is wilting, we may also observe that the refrigerator appears to be working normally, that new staff have recently joined the fast food outlet, that the weather is warmer because it is summer and there is a higher demand for salads and that deliveries of the salad ingredients have been frequently delayed due construction on nearby roads.
It is tempting to develop solutions to the problem based on this information – for example, that the warm weather, the delivery delays, the higher demand or the road construction are causing the problem. However, rushing to one of these as the solution can mean that we waste resources on something that may not be the cause of the problem. Our observations can be helpful in understanding the problem but it is important that we don’t jump to conclusions on its cause.
Our observations of the problem will provide information that will allow us to create our problem statement. “Repeated Whys”, applied to the information that we have, will allow us to decide where we should focus our attention in solving the problem.
For the lettuce, our awareness of the problem occurred when customer complaints were received. When we apply Repeated Whys to the problem we can identify where our investigation to determine the problem source should focus:
The initial problem: Rise in meal complaints
Why?: More complaints about salads
Why? The lettuce is wilted
Why? We don’t know
When asking Why? results in a response of “I don’t know”, we are able to create the problem statement. In this case it might be:
Problem Statement for Fast Food Outlet: “There has been an increase in the amount of lettuce that is wilting.”
Focus on One Problem at a Time
Problem solving activity should not try to solve more than one problem at a time. The fast food outlet meal complaints may be about the lettuce in the salads and also about too much ketchup on the burgers. Focusing on both of these at the same time will divide the attention of the team and undermine the problem solving process. Where two problems exist together, focus on one at a time or create two different teams to work on them.
Develop the Problem Description
The Problem Description is an expanded version of the Problem Statement which provides further understanding of the problem so that we can start to gather information and evidence that will help us to identify what is causing it.
Is / Is Not Analysis prompts us to explore a wide range of problem aspects: What, Where, When and How Big? and enables us to better understand the various characteristics of the problem. In the following example we apply Is / Is Not Analysis to the food complaints:
| Is | Is Not | Possible Causes | Further Action | |
| What | Wilted Lettuce | Thawed Burgers | The wilted lettuce is stored in the refrigerator and the burgers are in the freezer section of the refrigerator | Check whether other food in the refrigerator is deteriorating more quickly than it should. |
| Where | East York Restaurant | Etobicoke Restaurant | Delivery truck delays from road construction | Test lettuce as it is removed from the delivery truck to see if the East York lettuce is more wilted. |
| When | Summer | Winter | Warmer temperature in the restaurant | Trial period of increased restaurant air conditioning. |
| How Big | 3 in 10 salads have lettuce that is unacceptably wilted when given to the customer. | 2 in 10 salads appear to have exceptionally fresh lettuce. | Salad rotation in the refrigerator. | Review the system for rotating lettuce use in the refrigerator. |
Our problem description can be created based on the Is / Is Not Analysis. It should provide a summary of the knowledge that the team has on the problem, that will inform the work to find possible causes and the root cause that the solution will be based on.
For the wilted lettuce the problem description might be; “3 in 10 of the customers are receiving wilted lettuce in their salads. This is a new problem that occurred this summer in the East York location. Delivery trucks are taking longer to reach the location due to construction. 2 in 10 salads appear to have exceptionally fresh lettuce.”
Process Flow Diagrams help us to consider where the problem may be occurring in the process. The process flow for the lettuce is provided here:
The Process Flow Diagram helps us understand the where the problem is occurring and the various points in the process that may contribute to it. For example, the wilted lettuce could be because of changes in the packaging process after picking, storage activity in the distribution centre, delays in delivery to the fast food outlet, etc.
Containment Action
When a problem occurs it is often important that it be solved quickly. In the case of the wilting lettuce, the fast Food Outlet will wish to eliminate the possibility that customers will receive inferior quality salads – they may act to contain the problem until a permanent solution is devised. Possible containment actions may include temporarily suspending the sale of salads or telling servers to inspect salads before giving them to the customer.
Containment action prevents the continuance of the problem and its consequences and creates more time to identify and implement a permanent solution.
A3
Create a diagram that describes the current process that is the subject of the problem-solving activity. Highlight where the problem exists. Include any measurable aspects of the problem that allow its extent and impact to be understood. Enter this in the Current Condition section of the A3.
The A3 would now look like this:
Case Study: The Canadian Canoe Company, Canoe Complaints
The Canadian Canoe Company had recently been receiving more complaints about its Kevlar canoes. Over the past month complaints had doubled from 42 to 85. 90 % of the increase was of water appearing in the bottom of canoes when they were on the water and was primarily on canoes sold in the past 90 days. The sales organisation had undertaken some investigation of these complaints and found that the water was appearing on days when there was rain and on days that were dry. They had not been able to find any evidence that the canoes were being mistreated but they knew that many users dragged the canoes across the shore when putting them into the water.
Many users transported their canoes on the roof of their vehicle, requiring that they be lifted onto the roofrack and strapped in place. While some new retailers had started to sell the canoes (and more canoes were being made and sold), visits to some of the retailers by sales did not find evidence that any damage was likely to be being done to them in the retail or distribution environment.
The recent increased demand for canoes had meant that the company had employed more people in their production facility. A third shift had been added to expand capacity and new operatives had been hired and trained at each stage of the production process. Standard operating methods had been created for the processes and each trainee had been trained and mentored by a senior operative in their department.
- Create a Problem Statement for the scenario described in the case study.
- Create a Problem Description for the scenario described in the case study.
- Brainstorm what might be done to contain the problem until it is solved.
- Complete the Current Situation section of your A3.
Operations and Supply Chain Management 