Test Your Problem Solving Skills

By David Patrishkoff

December 11, 2011

Do you want to be a better problem solver? Learn how to correctly use these 5 questions to get to the root cause of a problem at your organization: Who, What, When, Where and Why? Not all problem solving questions are created equal. After you have created a problem solving team, brainstorm with your team to ask these 5 questions several times so you know where the problem is concentrated (Who, What, When & Where) as well as what the root cause is (Why).

1.     Brainstorm by asking “Who” to get to the different groups of people that can show you who is associated with the problem the most often or ask the question of who could possibly contribute more to the problem than others. We are not asking “Who” to blame people, we want to blame the process, never the people. Typical Who questions will have you asking which groups of people might be associated with the problem. Here are some examples of targeted Who groups:

•       Work shift

•       Operators / Employees

•       Work Crews

•       Customer

•       Supplier

2.     Brainstorm by asking “What” to get to the different groups that are more associated with the problem. Here are some examples of targeted What groups:

•       Product

•       Product family

•       Product type

•       Defect / error type / fault code

•       Department

•       Machine

•       Weather

•       Etc.

3.     Brainstorm by asking “When” the problem occurs most often. Typical When questions will have you asking what times were associated with the problem. Here are some examples of targeted When groups:

•       Date, season, month, week, day of the week, shift, hour, minute, second

•       Last repair event time or date

•       Last time since _____ event? Fill in the blanks with multiple examples for your situation.

•       Last holiday

•       Etc.

4.     Brainstorm by asking “Where” the problem occurs most often. Typical where questions will have you asking where the problem happened. Here are some examples of targeted Where groups:

•       Country, region, state, city, county, office, factory, manufacturing line and call center.

•       Where on the parts are the problems?

•       Where on the applications or forms are the problems?

•       Etc.

5.     Brainstorm by asking “Why” the problem occurs. The Why question is the only question that will lead you to the root cause. The previous 4 questions are very useful because when you know the answers to those questions, you will know the hiding places of the problem and under what conditions the problem does or does not happen. The possible list you “Why” questions is infinite so they will not be listed here.

With the above short introduction to problem solving and root cause analysis, test yourself in your ability to see if you know when the root cause has really been identified. In which of the following 9 cases was the root cause identified?

1. The percentage of errors made at a specific fast food restaurant is twice as high on Fridays as on any other day of the week.
2. The percentage of errors made at a specific fast food restaurant is twice as high on Fridays as on any other day of the week, which is the only day that Joe works with drive-through customers.
3. 100% of all errors are created at the first and last hour of business.
4. Supplier Ajax accounts for the 70% of the material that customers complain about.
5. Third Shift has 4 times the defects as shift one and two.
6. The production of Product Beta has 2.5 times the defect rate as any other product.
7. The problem happens 80% of the times on Mondays on 2^nd shift with Supplier Ace’s material.
8. Crew #5 takes 60% longer to do the work when compared with any other Work Crew.
9. The problem only happens when producing product Zebra, using Supplier Alpha’s material and when Work Crew 1 is working at the factory.

None of the last 9 cases described instances where the root cause was identified because they did not answer the question “Why”. They only answered the questions Who, What, When or Where. Just knowing who caused a problem does not tell you “Why” the problem happened. With what you learned so far, now find out in which of the following 6 cases was the root cause identified?

1.     The problem only happens when employees with less than 10 hours of job training are working.

2.     It takes Work Crew #5 60% longer to do the same work as compared to any other Work Crew. Work Crew #5 has not had any training in the Standard Operating Procedures yet.

3.     The problem happens 100% of the times on 3^rd shift but only when operator #364 is present. Operator #364 failed the company eye exam recently.

4.     The package damage only happens when forklift drivers with older style forklift blades are moving material in the plant.

5.     The problem only happens when producing product Filo, with Supplier Aba’s material and when Work Crew #1 is working on Production Line 2. Work Crew #1 is the only Work Crew that has not been trained by Supplier Aba on the sensitivities of their new material being used.

6.     The problem happens 90% of the time on 2^nd shift when the ambient temperature drops below 30 degrees F.

All of the last 6 cases identified the root causes of the problem because they answered the question “Why”. If you are serious about improving your root cause analysis skills, check out one of many root causes analysis courses offered in the training section of my website.

About the Author: David Patrishkoff is President of E3 Extreme Enterprise Efficiency® LLC. He has trained over 3,000 professionals from companies in over 55 different industries and enjoys teaching people how to improve their efficiency levels and solve their “Mission Impossible” issues. Visit his website and learn more about the training opportunities and consulting services: http://www.eeefficiency.com/.