Lean Problem Solving

Teach your people to find permanent solutions to every day problems. This Lean minute video explains the basics of how to use simple root cause analysis to find the root cause of problems and develop and implement a permanent fix.

Learn How to Contain the Problem with an Interim Fix – Lean Minute Video.

Managing Problem Solving Concern Strips in Your Daily Meetings.

Read About Finding the Root Cause to Your Problems.

How permanent is permanent?

This lean minute describes how to identify a permanent corrective action for a problem identified in a daily meeting.

The challenge is to change people’s thinking that a permanent corrective action is Permanent and NOT a simple action that deals with today’s symptom.

At TXM we teach people to solve problems in a practical way.  We use the Solving Problems Every Day methodology as part of the Total Excellence System lean framework.

How you identify the action is to

1st respect the person raising the issue,

2nd clarify were we would go to see the problem,

3rd Ask Why five times until you get to the root cause “zone” of the problem

4th The next step is to challenge the barrier and lead action.

It might take some number of goes at the problem to progress through the 5 whys.  Sometimes the root cause takes us down a different path than we initially thought.

When writing the cause ideally we would use a sentence that follows the object, defect, and mechanism structure.  For example, the order code having an extra space is failing to look up the customer details.

Avoid writing a single word or phrase like “Space” or “Order code” as what is obvious to the people present is not obvious to everybody else.

The results you expect is that problems don’t return.

Your next step is to lead the writing of the permanent corrective actions and challenge individuals to write the permanent fix. Show a supportive leadership style and conduct one minute  mini teach training in the daily meetings.

When something goes wrong you usually need to take action to ensure that work can be continued and customers supplied. We call this the interim fix or containment action. Learn how to develop an effective interim fix when things go wrong in your business.

Learn More about Problem Solving and Concern Strips

TXM Lean Minute – Learn How to Use Problem Solving Concern Strips in Your Daily Meetings

Lean Methodology Video – Solving Problems Every Day

Read about the Metrics of Concern Strips in Our Blog

Purchase Concern Strips from our On-Line Store

Read the Video Transcript

So how do we get by today?

This video is about filling in a concern strip and specifically the Interim Fix. At Toyota, they call this interim fix the Containment Action.

The challenge is to have a containment action that is specific and doesn’t simply rely on the people doing the work to “Be more careful.”

At TXM we teach people to solve problems in a practical way. We use the Solving Problems Every Day methodology as part of the TXM lean framework.

Firstly spend up to two minutes in the daily stand-up meeting identifying the permanent corrective actions.  After this limited time, the meeting facilitator needs to step in and ask “So what are we going to do today to protect the customer and keep the business running?”

The facilitator then needs to help articulate the exact behaviour required.

Often it is good to play a scenario over the suggested Interim. This helps identify other problems and often the team can take over and define exactly who is doing what.

The results are that the business keeps going. Sure there is a problem that is getting fixed, but in the meantime, the team knows exactly what to do

Focus on defining the detail of the interim fix. Ask the question “So how do we get by today?”

I’m Anthony Clyne. Thank you for watching this TXM Lean Minute

TXM Concern strips are a really effective way to capture and permanently solve everyday problems in your business. This video provides practical tips on how to use concern strips in your meetings. Purchase Problem Solving Concern Strips for Your Business.

Read the Video Transcript

Hi, I’m Anthony Clyne, Welcome to this TXM Lean minute.

In this Lean Minute we discuss how to arrange your concern strips to enable an effective daily meeting in typically 5 minutes, but rarely longer than 10 minutes.

The challenge is to sort the concern strips into an order that can be quickly referenced in the meeting.

At TXM we teach people to solve problems in a practical way.  We use the Solving Problems Every Day methodology as part of the Total Excellence System lean framework.

A good action to do is to sort the concern strips according to the Plan Do Check Act disc.

Before an action can be Planned there needs to be a label called “New”

Once the action has been planned but no actions have commenced the concern strip can be in the “Do” stage.

After the corrective action is complete and ready to be tested simply move the strip into the “Check Phase”

Once the corrective action is deemed to be effective and other related problems have been identified and actioned then move the concern strip to be captured or store in the workplace.

A tip is to not have more than two concerns to be reviewed on the same day.  How you do this is to look at the other concern strip dates and agree a review date that doesn’t have another concern being reviewed on that day.

You should expect the concerns to be quickly scanned and not have to spend valuable seconds in the daily meeting organising the concerns.

The action is to use the Plan – Do – Check – Act disc on your concern strips and makeup labels today.

I’m Anthony Clyne
Thank you for watching this TXM Lean Minute.

Learn how creating flow in your business is like creating good traffic flow. When the flow stops it shows that something non-standard has happened and prompts you to solve problems. Learn why flow is so important in Lean Production.

Learn How “Traffic Light” signals can Also Work in Your Workplace – Lean Minute Video

Learn the Five Steps of Level Production – Lean Minute Video.

Read A Transcript of this Video.

Hi I’m Brent Johnstone from TXM

Flow – How does Work or Information Flow

Why is it that Flow ‘stops’ and what gets it ‘started’ again.

Competing priorities and varying durations mean things move at different rates with different need times

Driving to work is a great place to observe flow.

Traffic lights are used to ‘sequence ‘ flow  (Heijunka and visual management)

Ever been caught with lights not sequenced correctly?

Roundabouts can maintain continuous flow provided everyone approaches at the correct speed. (standard work)

If someone rushes in it causes everyone else to rapidly stop! Sound like an expedited job?

Ever been stopped for no good reason – well there probably is a good reason – something non-standard happened

Visual controls – traffic lights, speed limits,  can control the pace of FLOW

Heijunka – Light sequencing this controls the mix for the overall flow

Visual Standards – linemarking, these help keep the system from breaking down

Ever been stopped for no good reason – well there probably is a good reason – something non-standard happened

Creating flow will save you business time and frustrations every day!

Just like sitting in traffic and observing. Stand in the work area and just observe, you might be surprised what you see!

Daily problem solving is at the heart of continuous improvement. We often find companies struggling by making problem-solving harder than it needs to be.  In this Lean Minute video, Michelle Brown explains the importance of defining the problem and breaking it down into smaller clearly defined elements that we can address one by one.

TXM Lean Methodology: Solving Problems Every Day

TXM Lean Mintue: Creating a Culture of Daily Problem Solving

TXM Store: Concern Strips

Read the Video Transcript

Today we are going to look at how to overcome one of the biggest hurdles to successful daily problem-solving. Hello, I’m Michelle and welcome to this TXM Lean minute.

Daily problem solving is at the heart of continuous improvement and successful companies solve lots of problems every day, involving everyone in their organisation. We often find companies struggling by making the process harder than it needs to be.

The challenge that makes problem-solving so hard is how we define the problem. We see a problem and scale it up until it’s a huge task that needs lots of attention and money to fix. This makes the problem-solving process daunting, difficult and almost impossible for your average teams to investigate and fix – no wonder we feel we aren’t any good at problem-solving. We make it too hard for ourselves!

The key step is to understand how to define the problem. We need to break it down into a small, clearly defined issue, and allow our team the time to explore what is actually going on. Only then do we start to investigate possible causes and look for the most likely root cause that we can eliminate.

TXM can assist you by helping your team develop their problem-solving skills, so give us a call today.
Thanks for watching with TXM Lean Minute.

Creating a culture where your teams use simple practical problem-solving techniques every day can drive dramatic improvement in your business. However, how do you create a sustainable culture of daily problem-solving?

TXM Methodology: Solving Problems Every Day

Read the Video Transcript

Daily Problem Solving is difficult. People need leaders that encourage, support, understand, and tolerate errors.

Hi, I’m Anthony Clyne. Welcome to this TXM Lean Minute.

The TXM Solving Problems Every Day is straight forward lean tool that requires a lot of hard work and focus to do well.

The challenge for work teams is to break the reactive workplace cycle.

Often a workplace will be overwhelmed by regular daily problems.

TXM help workplaces break the reactive daily problem-solving cycle.

The TXM Concern Strips enable a structured way to write down problems and communicate theories, trials, and actions.

The leadership style required need to support people to have a go. Perfection is often the biggest barrier to problem-solving.

Remember, it’s NOT about filling out the concern strip properly.

It IS about the people that do the work deciding what to do, getting the action done, and checking that it worked.

Solving Problems Every Day boosts your improvement program. Plans can achieve the targets quicker, and future targets need less compromise.

Contact TXM to provide the structure and support.

I’m Anthony Clyne & Thank you for watching this TXM Lean Minute.

Solving problems using a structured process is one of the key elements of a Lean Production System, but it is extremely hard to sustain in practice. With the Solving Problems Every Day (SPED) Lean Methodology, TXM has developed a simple, practical and sustainable system to enable everyone in your business to be involved in improving and problem solving every day. Watch this Lean Methodology Video to learn more.

Lean More about the TXM Approach to Lean Problem Solving

Purchase Concern Strips for Your Solving Problems Every Day System from Our E-Store

Read the Best of Our Blogs on Lean Problem Solving

Read the Transcript of this Video

“A problem shared, is 10 problems solved.”

Hi, I’m Anthony Clyne, Welcome to this TXM Process Overview

Keep watching and learn how Solving Problems Every Day will give your business a competitive advantage.

At the core of the TXM solving problems everyday system is the magnetic concern strip.

Concern strips help create Plan-Do-Check-Act thinking every day.

The challenge is to solve small problems and eliminate wasted time and effort.

This wasted time and effort amount to valuable minutes and often hours for every person, every day.

We all know that solving problems is at the core of lean thinking.

However, providing the forum, and maintaining the daily discipline of solving problems in a structured way is really hard.

Team leaders, supervisors, and managers need support and coaching.

Looks easy, looks simple, but the self-discipline required can be tough.

TXM Solving Problems Every Day approach provides system, support, and coaching to turn problem-solving into a daily habit.

Go online to the TXM store and get some concern strips. Start with just ten strips.  Attend your short team meeting every day, and coach the team to solve their problems using the concern strips.

The suggestions, ideas, and solved problems will surprise you.  Employees will become actively engaged.  Future leaders will be developed.  Managers will be freed up from day to day fire fighting to become thought leaders.

In an office, a service, a workshop, or a factory, the concern strips develop a lean thinking culture.

A problem shared is 10 problems solved.

Contact TXM to learn how Solving problems every day can sustain improvement in your business

I’m Anthony Clyne, Thank you for watching this TXM process overview