When you solve a problem does it return, if so read on.

When you solve a problem does it return, if so read on.

During the 15 years running my Quality Consultancy company I spent a significant amount of time with companies on structured problem solving. Frequently the introduction to the company would involve a review of a large folder of either their internal problem of their suppliers’ problems. What would become clear quickly was that within the folder there would be multiple recurrent problems.

It should be noted that a recurrent problem isn’t always obvious, many are, but it is not necessary for the symptom that is experienced to be same as the previous one. I will explain what I mean by this later.

Where to start

Style of approach is important, my personal preference is 8D problem solving (probably because in the past I was the subject matter expert and custodian of the Ford UK training materials for their Global 8D programme).

The actual technique or methodology used is not important. What is important is the mind set applied to the task of solving the problem.

The mind set

What I mean by this, which is critical to the success of your problem solving, is the sequence of tasks you undertake as a problem solver, knowing not to jump ahead in the process and knowing that you are right at each stage of the process.

Regardless of the methodology selected to solve your problem the sequence of steps you need to undertake to solve your problem are a constant, what they are called can vary from one technique to another. What is also a constant is if they are not undertaken correctly the problem will not be solved.

The steps to problem solving

The first step is the awareness of a problem – the symptoms as experienced by the person or organisation who have experienced the problem.

The second step is a thorough problem definition – you need to solve the right problem.

The third step is identifying the root cause and the escape point and proving you are right.

The fourth step is the selection of the appropriate corrective action(s) that will permanently solve the root cause and escape point – you need to prove they will work.

The fifth step is the effective deployment of the corrective actions – the actions must be sustainable.

The sixth step is to prevent the problem from returning.

Temporary containment

It is common practise to introduce a containment action either at the first step or after the second step or both. The Purpose of the containment action is as implied to contain the problem while it is solved.

This action has two key aspects to it, the first is to ensure that any potentially affected parts are quarantined to prevent use, regardless of location. The second aspect is to ensure that any future deliveries of parts while the problem is being solved only contain good parts.

A detailed look at each problem solving step

Detailed below I will explain what must be achieved at each step of the process and some of the typical pitfalls that I have experienced over the years.

Step 1 – Problem awareness

Your Customer, regardless of whether they are an internal or external Customer will complain to you that there is a problem. Typically, this is your first awareness of the problem.

In my experience there are two issues with this, one being they aren’t very good at explaining what is wrong and the second is they will use their language to describe the symptoms they have experienced.

For example; if I manufacture chairs I may get a complaint from the Customer that the chair supplied is not comfortable, the reason for this would be because that is what they have experienced. They do not know why.

Our job at this step is to work with the Customer to understand what they mean and the detail at this stage is important. So what is it about the chair that makes it uncomfortable, the height from the ground, the angle of the seat, the angle of the back, how padded the seat is the height of the arm rest, etc.

Without some clear direction you cannot solve the problem. You also need the appropriate evidence, pictures, returned goods, etc.

Step 2 – Problem definition

There are two stages to this, the first is the problem statement, which is a headline defining the object that has the defect and what the defect is. This is the problem you have chosen to solve.

Note: regardless of the approach taken you can only solve one problem at a time, if you group multiple problems together you simply will not solve the problem, you may get part of it but not all of it.

‘If you define the problem incorrectly you will solve the wrong problem’

The second stage of defining a problem is profiling the problem. This is a critical stage of the process and typically insufficient time is given to this task.

Problem solving is frequently a likened to firefighting where there is a rush past all of the early steps of the process lunge straight at the root cause of the problem. This is often ironically reinforced by management as it involves people rushing around ‘busy solving a problem’. Unfortunately, when you have scant data the probability of stumbling across the root cause in this manner is low.

Again ironically when you have a number of people ‘locked’ in a room spending time documenting all the facts that are true about the problem to be solved I have also had criticism from some managers who have said ‘what are they doing sitting in there when they should be out here solving the problem!’

A detailed problem profile will contain all of the clues required to successfully solve your problem.

Step 3 – Root cause and escape point

There are two elements to be identified here, the root cause and the escape point.

The root cause is the cause of the problem, it sounds obvious, but what is even more obvious when you think about it is what the root cause must be for the vast majority of problems.

In most cases the situation is that you have been manufacturing good parts previously and now you aren’t. Therefore, logically something has changed. By definition whatever has changed is the cause of your problem, find the change, reverse it and the problem will go away.

Now if you keep adequate records of what you change and when then somewhere in that list will be the cause of your problem, your problem profile will guide you to the date and time (when the part was manufactured not detected by the Customer) when the defects began. It should be a simple process of elimination to determine the root cause. It is essential that you prove that you are right.

The second aspect of the problem is that you did not detect that you had a defect and your Customer detected the defect instead, because it escaped. The escape point is the closest point in the process to the root cause when the defective part could have been detected. You now need to determine why you didn’t detect it.

Step 4 – Corrective actions

I see many examples where the actions focus on correcting the product not the process, these are known as corrections and will not solve a problem but are forms of containment. One of the reasons why this happens is because some software systems only have one field to document actions so the containment actions get listed there early on in the process and then get confused as corrective actions.

It is important that the corrective actions will resolve both the root cause and the escape point and have been proven to do so.

Step 5 – Effective deployment

This sounds simple enough but I have seen too many cases where actions are sound but the deployment is poor and therefore not sustained.

Step 6 – Prevent recurrence

This is the area where systemically I find the biggest failure of the process. The fact is that at the end of step five your problem has gone away and you are making good parts again. For many companies that logically is the end of the process. The reality is that all you have done is solved the current problem for the current set of circumstances. If these circumstances change and they usually do, guess what, the problem returns and they usually do.

In addition to the above we need to consider why the problem happened in the first place. What allowed the process to change thus creating the problem that you have just rectified. This is sometimes referred to as the root cause of the root cause. If this underlying issue is not addressed, then the only certainty is that you will continue to gets recurring problems. The confusing aspect of this is that how the problem manifests itself may not be the same as last time but it will be for the same underlying reason.

An example of this is where a company has high quality work instructions but they are not followed. You get one problem, additional measures are put in place, that problem does not occur again, you simply get another problem somewhere else for the same reason.

Step 6 is your most important investment in resolving problems long term.

I trust you have found this article of interest. Please provide feedback, also if you would like me to answer specific questions please get in touch. I can also provide consultancy and facilitation services.