Beyond Ishikawa cause and effect diagrams and 5 levels of why root cause investigation, there is a need for shared framework for breaking apart problems and parsing data without disregarding important information.
Consider the importance of lean thinking and learning to see waste
- Wasted Ideas ... do we listen enough to vendors, employees, colleagues, neighbors, members of the community, stakeholders customers who are constantly giving ideas in the form of questions, comments, criticisms? When we don't like the way that somebody suggests something, doesn't the frustration say more about our weaknesses and inability to use ideas than anything else? Why isn't work more exciting, more challenging, more meaningful -- have we done enough to LISTEN?
- Defects, Scrap, Rework ... why not make it right the first time, every time? When we do make it wrong, why don't we admit failure, ask forgiveness, let go of the baggage and learn as much as we can from the experience? What is standing in the way of PERFECT habits?
- Excess Inventory ... why do we tolerate excessive investment in inventory, equipment, resources, real estate? Why do we believe that having more things standing around than what we need is helpful? Doesn't the need for slack resources, shock absorbers or extra comfort indicate that our thinking is not as tight and focused as it needs to be on what the requirements of the solution are?
- Overproduction ... given that it costs more, why do we produce more, better, sooner, faster than what is required? Have we spent enough time understanding exactly what the customer wants when the customer wants it -- are we over-producing, over-delivering, over-promising in one area to hide deficits in another area?
- Overprocessing ... why do we think that we inspect into the product? Why do we redundantly re-check (i.e. triple-check, quadruple-check, quintuple-check ...)? Why use overly expensive resources to produce a product when simpler resources can do the job? Why aren't problems in the organization solved at the lowest level? Why aren't problems solved immediately -- do we allow weasels to handoff frustrations to other weasels who handoff the frustrations to other weasels?
- Waiting, Delays, Frustration ... what resources are idle because of poor balance, lack of evenness. Have we looked at the cadence and smoothness of our workflow to find and understand the constraints and bottlenecks so that we can manage them more appropriately?
- Chaos, Bad Ergonomics ... why is our workflow overly chaotic and frustrating? Why do we tolerate tools, technology, workplaces that are less than efficient in delivering the primary goal sought by the customer? Are there unnecessary motions that our workers go through because the workplace is poorly structured?
- Transport, Handling, Physical Structures ... why do we ever handle or transport the product or service? How could we make the product or service onsite where it will be used or consumed in a just-in-time or on-demand fashion? Is the overall layout in the value chain as efficient as it could be? Why do we need the shelves, carts, racks, warehouses, offices, cars, trucks, planes, trains?
