Session 5. Identifying the Solution

On By Peter CarrIn Basic Problem Solving Course

Objectives

By the end of this session participants will be able to:

  1. Understand the importance of the Champion for the Problem Solving process
  2. Understand the concept of Permanent Corrective Action
  3. Apply an effective decision-making process to select a problem solution
  4. Verify a problem solution

Introduction

In this session we brainstorm and select a solution to the problem using an effective decision-making process. Good solutions are based on identifying the Root Cause, (which we did in the previous session) and then carefully selecting a solution for it that solves the problem permanently. As we do this we apply techniques that ensure that the solution that we select, from a range of possible alternatives, is best suited to the needs of the organisation.

The Importance of the Champion

Improvement activities will only be successful if the organisation provides authority to make decisions and resources to implement them. The distribution of authority varies between organisations – in some it is widely distributed and in others it is highly centralised. In all organisations, improvement should be aligned with its strategic objectives – improvements should be aligned with the things that the organisation believes are important.

The Champion in problem solving activity may be a manager or organisational leader who can approve resources and funding for the problem-solving team and, where necessary, get support for the problem solution from other parts of the organisation.

While the problem-solving team will be undertaking their own analysis and proposing the solution or solutions to the problem, they will often do this with the Champion. They may consult with them as they do their work and be influenced in their solution selection by their opinion. The role of the Champion is critical – if they don’t support the solution that the team proposes it is unlikely to receive the funding or resources that it needs for implementation and support for it to be sustained.

Permanent Corrective Action

Permanent Corrective Action is the objective that the solution should achieve. It should remove the Root Cause or Causes and prevent the recurrence of the problem. Many organisations fix problems with inadequate solutions that do not completely solve the problem, fix it but only temporarily or fix the original problem but create more problems elsewhere.

The process that we use to identify and select our solution should be designed to solve the problem permanently and not create problems elsewhere. Before we implement it, we should verify that it will work.

For example, the cause of the wilted lettuce may be that the increased volume of orders is leading to more lettuce being stored in the refrigerator in the fast food outlet. The solution identified is to tell staff to make sure they rotate the lettuce usage so that the oldest lettuce is used first. However, this means that it will take staff longer to serve a salad, causing customers to have to wait loner for their food and sales volumes to be reduced. Solving one problem has caused two more. Simply telling staff to do things differently is also unlikely to lead to it being sustained permanently.

The Decision-Making Process

The decision-making process should produce the best possible solution to the problem. If it does not consider enough information, involve the appropriate skills and expertise and result in a decision that the problem-solving team are committed to, then the likelihood that it will be inappropriate and unsuccessful is significantly increased.

There are various types of decision making. Some are based on an authoritative leader listening and making their own decision and others have more or less influence from the members of the problem-solving team and others. The best solutions are usually found when the problem-solving team is fully involved in the solution selection process, which should follow a logical, rational series of steps.

The steps are:

  1. Describe the end result: What should the solution do?
  2. List decision criteria: The characteristics that the solution should possess.
  3. Rate the importance of each decision criteria.
  4. Decide on the possible solutions.
  5. Rate the solutions against the decision criteria.
  6. Assess their risk.
  7. Make a final decision based on the logical, rational process.

For the wilted lettuce, the solution desired should ensure that the customers receive crisp lettuce in their salad.  The criteria that the solution should meet in doing this are as follows. Their rating indicates their relative importance in the decision that is made. For example, food hygiene is very important and cost is a relevant but less important factor.

  • It’s cost should be minimised (Cost): rating 7
  • At least the same number of customers should be able to be served using the system (Productivity): rating 10
  • It should be easy for the staff to use (Easy): rating 8
  • It shouldn’t reduce refrigerator capacity (Storage): rating 7
  • It should meet food hygiene requirements (Hygiene): rating 10

The wilted lettuce problem-solving team have brainstormed possible solutions to the problem cause:

  1. Change standard working practices to ensure rotation of lettuce in the refrigerator, including implementing a visible system that makes system non adherence easy to identify by the manager. This solution is simple and cheap to implement but will reduce the speed of serving customers and will be complicated for staff to use. Cost $250. (Working Practices)
  2. New refrigerator with lettuce rotation shelving that enables a rotation system to be seamlessly integrated in the work process. This would be simple to use but involves a significant capital cost. $2000. (New Fridge)
  3. Implement Just in Time lettuce delivery to the fast food outlet. Only hold enough lettuce in the refrigerator for 4 hours of customer demand. Increase the frequency of lettuce deliveries. Cost $50 per day in delivery costs which will be offset by reduced wastage and increased productivity. (JIT Lettuce)
  4. Reduce the amount of lettuce in the salads and increase other ingredients. This will mean that less lettuce will need to be held in the refrigerator and allow a simple, non productivity lowering, rotation system to be implemented. Cost $120 per day in additional salad costs but the price of salad may be able to be increased to offset this. (Less Lettuce)
  5. Install monitors on lettuce packages that will enable lettuce inventory to be tracked on the manager’s smartphone, highlighting lettuce rotation non adherence. Cost $500 plus annual app subscription of $120. (Monitors)

They then assembled the following decision matrix table for selecting the solution and, as a group, decided on the ratings for each possible solution.

  Cost – 7 Productivity – 10 Easy – 8 Storage – 7 Hygiene – 10 Total
Working Practices 7 5 5 5 10 32
New Fridge 3 9 8 6 10 36
JIT Lettuce 4 10 8 7 10 39
Less Lettuce 4 9 7 5 10 35
Monitors 5 5 5 6 10 31

 

The table indicates that the solution that best meets the needs that the problem-solving team have identified is the just in time lettuce delivery.

Verification

Once the solution has been identified work should be done to verify that it will perform in the way that has been anticipated in the decision-making process. This involves gathering data and, where possible, testing the solution. In the case of the just in time lettuce, prices for the new system would be checked with the delivery contractor and a temporary implementation may be possible to test the impact on productivity.

A3

Insert a description of the solution, including the decision matrix and a diagram of the solution in the A3 chart. For the Wilted Lettuce, it might look like this:

 The A3 would now look like this:

Case Study: The Canadian Canoe Company, Canoe Complaints

The incorrect application of Kevlar when the canoes are made has been identified as the cause of the problem. This problem has arisen because of the influx of new employees who have not been properly trained and the pressure to increase output due to increased demand for canoes. Now the problem-solving team will consider the possible solutions to this problem and select the best one, which will provide a Permanent Corrective Action for implementation.

The problem-solving team at the Canadian Canoe Company have brainstormed the possible solutions to the problem and identified those that they think will work. They are:

  1. Automation of the Kevlar application process. A new robotic process is now available for applying the Kevlar to the canoe frame. This would ensure process consistency, although employees would still be required to set up the canoe frame, finish it after Kevlar application and move and inspect the completed canoe. Cost $280,000. Savings per year $76,000. (Automation)
  2. Implementation of an additional inspection stage in the production process to identify leaks in the canoes. This would require two extra employees who would ensure that the leaky canoes would not be shipped to the canoe retailers. The process would remain unchanged prior to the new inspection step and leaky canoes would continue to be produced. Cost $120,000 per year. Savings, $100,000 per year in product return shipping fees. (Inspection)
  3. Refresher course for team leaders and increased disciplinary activity. Team leaders are responsible for the quality of the process that they manage and have failed to identify and solve the problem of the leaking canoes. The refresher course would focus on management of employee adherence to standard working methods and promote the use of disciplinary processes to enforce them. Cost $30,000 for trainer fees and overtime. (Refresher/Discipline)
  4. Implementation of performance metrics that focus on quality and quantity and improved training for employees. Performance metrics, which influence annual bonus payments for team leaders and employees, currently focus on maximising the number of canoes produced. Modification of these incentives towards canoes that are produced correctly the first time and improved training for new employees is proposed. Cost, $10,000 for improved training resources and trainer fees in the first year. (Training/Metrics)

After consulting with the project Champion and others in the company the criteria for selection of the solution have been determined by the team. It should be of low cost, be consistent with the Canadian Canoe Company’s positive employee relations environment, minimise disruption of existing production and be scalable as output of canoes increases or decreases in the future. Weightings were assigned to these criteria and are included in the following decision matrix:

  Low cost – 7 Employee Relations – 8 Minimise Disruption – 10 Scalable – 10 Total
Automation          
Inspection          
Refresher / Discipline          
Training / Metrics          

 You should:

  1. Complete the decision matrix and determine which solution should be chosen by the Canadian Canoe Company.
  2. Propose how verification of the solution may be undertaken.

 

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