The Quality Blog

In honor of our 8D Workshop on June 10th & 11th, QAI is offering a free downloadable file – A Problem Solving Worksheet!  Please click the following link:  Problem Solving Worksheet.  Remember, if you have any questions regarding Problem Solving tools please contact us at 248-280-4800

QAI is doing some last minute preparation for our Upcoming 8D Training in June 2010.  There are still a few open seats in the room….. Interested?  Call (248) 280-4800 and ask for Marjorie for more information!

http://www.quality-one.com/events/workshops.php

Have questions about Problem Solving Methods?  We have your Answer!  Visit http://www.quality-one.com/events/workshops.php for more information!

8D Workshop – June 24 and 25, 2010

Eight Disciplines of Problem Solving is a well established step by step process to scientifically describe the problem in such a way that the root cause and subsequent solutions are intuitive and logical. If you have ever watched the television series CSI, you are seeing an application of a scientific problem solving approach similar to 8D.

One key aspect of 8D that many do not understand is that 8D is not initially concerned about what the root cause IS, but rather what IS NOT. It is easier to collect data on possible causes to eliminate them than it is to find a specific root cause. This is actually faster than going straight for the root cause without data to support the most likely causes.

Quality Associates International is extremely pleased to announce our Eight Disciplines for Problem Solving (8D) Training / Workshop! This is similar to our Workshops for Global 8D provided for Ford Motor Company and many other Fortune 500 Companies.

We have created this dynamic Workshop to bring the 8D process to life for any participants who have tried 8D and have not experienced the benefits. This course provides real “hands on” experience with a real problem solver. We are very confident that you will find this course beneficial!

Key Topics:

• Why 8D instead of other tools?
• 8D and Six Sigma compatibility
• Team problem solving models
  • Core team structure
  • Selecting support team SME’s (Subject Matter Experts)
• Fishbone, Affinity, Control Point, Escape Point
• The Multiple Why Technique (5 Why)
  • Three legged 5 Why
• Problem symptom, problem statement, problem description evolution
  • Verb / Noun problem statement
• IS / IS NOT exercise for scientific problem description
  • Difference and changes comparative analysis
• Interim Containment Action
• Root Cause theory and analysis
• Verification and Validation of solutions
  • Active and Passive
• Prevention including the FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) relationships
• 8D legacy and team encouragement

Quality Associates International, Inc. will be hosting this event on June 24th and 25th, 2010 at our technical center in Troy, Michigan. Upon successful completion of this course each attendee will receive 8D Certification from QAI.

The registration fee of $695 will cover the complete course for both days, including materials and certification. Please note that group discounts may apply.

Preventing failure saves time, money, and lives.

The popular 5 Why technique has been used in problem solving for some time. Some even swear by it. I have found that the 5 Why technique does not actually allow the team/users to find the root cause. It points to where to look but is not fundamentally able to refine the info needed to close in on the root cause(s). I like to use Is?Is Not as a way to build the criteria for testing my theories, but more important than that, Is/Is Not allows us to compare the differences and look at the process and or environmental changes that may have contributed to the difference in the Is and Is Not.

Without the discipline of a technique used to take facts and perform the comparative analysis, 5 Why may go off into weird directions. (Some of you knw what I mean)

Best to use 5 Why to get to the point where facts are not available and switch to a more useful fact gathering technique.

Discovering failure and acting on it has a 10 times cost savings impact – 1 dollar prevention equals at least 10 dollars savings.

Just  got back from the AIAG working group on Error Proofing. I have a couple of observations about error proofing. First, error proofing should be deployed on characteristics that are very important and have some level of risk. (Often outputs of FMEA’s) When the need for a characteristic is known, immediately the first course of action should be error proofing and then only after full consideration has been given to error proofing, consider statistical capability to an acceptable Cpk. level. Second, error proofing has to make sense. Cost and technology should be kept to the minimum and the main way to do that is to assure that the error proofing be implemented at the root cause level. This is the simplist and therefore most fundamental point of engagement. Keep it simple and least expensive, but it does require that the root cause level is known, not some intermediate problem description or control point….

I was returning a car the other day at Hertz at the Detroit airport. And lo and behold, on the wall upstairs were large poster sized examples of how to do an 8D. 8D, as you may know, is a great way to get to a root cause of a problem by working it from the Symptom to the Problem Statement using the “5 why” process. From there the statement is converted to a problem description using an IS/IS NOT analysis. The IS/IS NOT gathers facts about the what, where, when and How Big. This analysis is more about finding out what the problem is not as opposed to looking for the root cause initially.

The root cause is only agreed upon after developing theories based on the facts and the differences and changes that have taken place. Change is usually where the problem is. The fact that change takes place without proper verification and validation makes the 8D process very effective. The team does not have to be Six Sigma experts to use it effectively, but it ties in nicely with six sigma process.

I hope Hertz uses the process effectively and I wish them good luck and applaud the effort to find the root cause and fix it at that level.

Just another note on the 8D relationship to the FMEA, I am sitting in a facilitation of the Lean FMEA approach and one of the matrix items is the 8D inputs. The past failures is one item in the 3 cases for doing an FMEA.

The  FMEA and more appropriately the Lean design Matrix for the FMEA family should always be present for the 8D development. The brainstormed causes already present in the FMEA can shorten the root cause activity by at least one and possibly two layers of the “WHY” discussions.

Keep in mind that the FMEA will be updated at D7 (prevention) or if done most efficiently in real time at D2 and D4 as the 8D progresses.

Lee