Two Fundamental Ways to Apply Root Cause Analysis
Root cause analysis involves identifying the root cause of a problem, with the primary objective being to design a solution…
Why Risk Assessments are Essential to Solution Design
A risk assessment can take various forms, but it asks questions such as “what could possibly go wrong?” and “what…
State Your Problem Correctly and Win
It is only when we understand the true importance of the problem statement that we can appreciate the amount of…
How to Identify Independent Possible Causes
Several possible causes may be prevalent at any one point in time. The process of identifying possible causes…
How to Choose the Best Solution
Solutions are designed to address the root cause of a problem, and each root cause identified would need to be…
Why we need to find the root cause of our problem
Understanding problem causes is a significant aspect of problem solving. While we often refer to the causes of problems, there…
Measure your Problems to drive Success
If we define a problem to be a performance gap for which we do not know the cause, then knowing…
Why Problem Solving Skills are not Enough
Problem solvers require a number of important skills…
The Vital Role Played by Problem Detection
Before we can begin the process of problem solving, we first need to know we have a problem…
What is A3 Problem Solving?
A3 Thinking comes out of A3 Reporting, an approach used by Toyota in the Toyota production System, or TPS…
When is a Performance Gap not a Problem?
Problem solving is most effective as a vehicle for continuous improvement when it is focused on results or outcomes.
If You Don’t Have Problems, Create Some
Problem solving is one of the most powerful tools we have available to close any performance gap for which we…
Why Problem Solving is not a Linear Process
When someone says that they will solve a problem, it is easy to imagine them meaning that they are about…
Are you Correcting Problems or Solving them?
Many organisations find themselves in a perpetual state of wheelspin when it comes to performance improvement…
What is Waste and How do we Eliminate it?
Problem solving is the most powerful way to eliminate waste in organisations. Once we understand what is of value to…
What is Continuous Improvement?
The two words “continuous” and “improvement” almost make a description of this important concept seem superfluous, but there are subtleties…