“I liked A3 Problem Solving, Curmudge, but it was a bit of a stretch to envision all of that information on an 11- by 17-inch piece of paper. Are we going to cover all of the problem-solving techniques used in Lean in that much detail? My brain is filled up.”
“No way, Jaded Julie. I recall several years ago when President Ronald Reagan said, ‘If I have to learn any more names, I’m going to forget some that I already know.’ I don’t want you to forget the really important stuff that we have already covered. Besides, one can google most of the common problem-solving tools and find good discussions of them in Wikipedia. We’ll discuss only those topics that are the most important, the most fun to write about, and those that don’t require us to squeeze a lot of figures into the blog.”
“Okay, Curmudge, but why shouldn’t everyone ignore the blog and just google everything?”
“Hey, you’re pretty negative today. The answer is that Curmudgeon gives readers an old guy, a feisty nurse, your couch-potato husband, and health care examples. If no one were to read Curmudgeon, we’d be unemployed.”
“You’re already unemployed, Curmudge. So what other than idle chit-chat are we going to do today?”
“Let’s begin by listing some of the common problem-solving tools and how they might be used. We most likely won’t devote further blog space to these:
Bar chart—A chart with rectangular bars of lengths proportional to the value that they represent. Used to summarize attribute (categorical or discrete) data. Improves the data’s visual impact.
Histogram—A bar chart showing the frequency distribution of quantitative values with the values, not time, on the x-axis. A common example is the number of students (y-axis) who achieved test scores within certain intervals [e.g., 61-70, 71-80, 81-90, 91-100] (x-axis). This is the basis for the familiar academic practice of ‘grading on a curve.’
Pareto chart—A special type of bar chart where the values being plotted are arranged in descending order. Use this for displaying the probable reasons for an unfavorable outcome, such as poor patient satisfaction scores. Tackle the reason with the tallest bar first.
Fishbone (Ishikawa or cause-and-effect) diagram—A diagram that shows the possible causes of a certain event. Use this to visualize the many possible factors contributing to a problem. Data are often organized into six categories: material, assessment, people, method, equipment, and environment.
Scatter diagram—A graph of pairs of numerical data, with one variable on each axis, to look for a relationship between them. Data grouped closely about a line suggest that the variables are related. Of course, this does not prove that the relationship is cause-and-effect.
Run chart—A line graph showing values (y-axis) plotted against time (x-axis). Can be used for most any data collected in time-order sequence.
Control chart—A run chart with control limits to differentiate between common cause variation and special cause variation (signifying a problem). Seeks to determine if a sequence of data can be used to predict the future. Sometimes used to look back in time to demonstrate compliance with a standard.”
“Curmudge, I’m not really turned on by variables and axes. But if I really need to use some of these tools, is there someplace on our intranet where an Affinity employee can go for more information?”
“Sure thing, Julie. From the home page, click on the Affinity Learning Center, then Lean, Lean Tools, and finally Problem Solving. In addition, templates for many of the tools are in the right bucket (margin). Finally, there was a course presented at Affinity ten years ago called Sailin’ Thru Statistics; many Affinity veterans should have a copy of the course notebook that you might borrow.”
“It looks to me as if the techniques you listed are more for finding problems than for solving them.”
“You’re right, Julie, but identifying the problem is pretty important. That’s the reason we introduced The Five Whys and root cause analysis last January. As Albert Einstein said, ‘The formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution.’”
“Thanks for the info, Curmudge. So what are we going to talk about next week?”
“Next week I hope we can talk about standard work.”
“You hope! Don’t you know for sure?”
“Julie, a senior citizen can never say ‘for sure’ when looking into the future. That’s why I have to pre-pay when I order a three-minute egg.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
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