Lean management focuses on eliminating waste, improving efficiency and effectiveness. It helps raise the standard for the organization year on year. There are four important areas for effective Lean management, these are kaizen, daily management, value stream mapping and problem solving.

Lean Problem solving focuses on removing obstacles faced in the value chain to deliver superior value to the customer. Problems in Lean are referred as obstacles that impact the process by brining stop to it or slowing it down significantly.

Lean Problem solving is a not stop journey across the organization’s value chain to identify facts based obstacles and team up to identify root causes and resolve it. Problem solving can be also related to going to raising the level of standard at which the organization operates. Going to next level of standards would also need removal of obstacles in the value chain to make the shift.

Problem solving in general must be handled structurally with facts and prioritization to ensure priority obstacles are addressed first and addressed first time right. Jumping to gun and rushing to resolve problems could create several other problems that the team might not have thought as they would have not studied all possible root causes and effects of change.

Types of Lean Problems

To ensure right approach is applied to problems, the problem must be first identified and categorized correctly. The problem categorization will help select the correct approach for analyzing and identifying the root causes, impacts and solution for the problem. The categorization also helps identify the correct tools and processes to be used for effective and efficient problem solving.

There are generally four types of Lean prescribed problem categories. The first two categories (Troubleshooting and Gap from standard) are related to obstacles that happened in the value chain and identified as a problem to be solved. The other two (New Target condition and Innovation / Open Ended) are obstacles foreseen or happened while raising the standard or level of the value chain. Let’s understand these four types in little more details,

1. Troubleshooting Problems – Troubleshooting problems are common types of problems that every organization has. This type of problem solving is generally called reactive problem-solving as the problem is solved only after it has happened and created an impact for the value chain. In this type of problem solving the fix is quickly identified and fixed. But it might be that the problem will repeat again unless root causes are fully identified and process changes made to ensure it doesn’t repeat.

Here is an example to understand this type of problems,

The organization has a manufacturing line for Electronic Water Heating Kettles. The manufacturing line produces 100 Kettles per hour by putting together several parts of the Kettle and assembling 10 Kettles every 6 minutes. During the morning shift an Andon alarm sounds off and the production line has to be stopped. Everyone gathers around to review what happened. The team founds that the Kettles plastic base is not being placed properly by the machine as the pressure pad seems to have spoiled. The team quickly replaces the pressure pad and the production line is restarted with a downtime of 1 to 2 hours. The team has replaced the pressure pad but didn’t fix it from reoccurring as they did not check the frequency when the pressure pad must be replaced to avoid any significant downtimes again. In such cases a proper root cause analyses and long term monitoring can help to understand when the pressure pads should worn out and replaced. The threshold can be set to replace the pressure pads at the appropriate interval and the problem will be stopped from reoccurring.

2. Gap from Standard Problems – The second type of problems are called Gap from Standard problems. These problems are Gaps found in the standards procedure and outputs / performance of the process. These problems have to be solved structurally to ensure the value chain outputs and outcome match then stipulated standards. These problems have huge impact to the overall value chain and value creation so they need to be resolved in such a way that they do not repeat. A quick fix won’t work for these problems.

Here is an example to understand this type of problems,

The organization has a manufacturing line for Electric Irons. The manufacturing line produces 100 electric irons per hour by putting together several parts and assembling 10 irons every 6 minutes. The production line has been operational but the throughput of the production line has dropped from 100 per hour to only 50 per hour over past 3 days. In this case the production can continue still but the team must sit together and look at the cause and effects of what could be causing the problem. Tools like 5 Why’s and Fishbone analysis etc, should be used to identify root causes. The Gap in the standard output is clear, the root cause could be many areas and each must be checked and analysed to come to conclusion on root cause. The fixes can be applied accordingly and a cadence on reporting and monitoring must be placed to check if the fix has worked. The entire problem solving approach and process must be structurally done to ensure first time right resolution of the problem without any room for reoccurrence. In this case the root cause was assembly output where out of 100 irons produced only 50 were passing the quality checks. The reason identified was the soldering gun on the assembly line was missing the soldering point resulting in irons not working post assembly. The further analysis reflected the soldering wire used was of poor quality making the solders non effective and loose ended. The real root case was to change the soldering wire vendor and choose better quality soldering material.

3. New  Target Condition: The third type of problem is caused due to New Target Condition in the value chain. The new target condition can arise due to kaizen improvements or events. It can also arise if the standard output and outcome of the value chain is already above its stipulated target mark, so the organization can decide to raise the standard to next level target. But raising the output levels also means understanding the gaps in detail on what obstacles could be faced if not handled well while raising the standard target output. This also requires structured approach to understand current capacity and capability of the resources and what needs to change to meet the new standard accurately. Kaizen tools as well as A3 problem solving tools should be used in full to ensure each area is well studied for cause and effect.

Here is an example of new target condition,

The organization has a manufacturing line for Electric Irons. The manufacturing line produces 100 electric irons per hour by putting together several parts and assembling 10 irons every 6 minutes. The production line has been operational but the throughput of the production line has been consistently up from 100 per hour to only 150 per hour over past 1 week. In this case the organization is thinking about raising the standard to 150 irons per hours looking at past 1 week performance. Before the step is taken the team will need to formally run through Kaizen event including value stream mapping and use of other cause and effect tools to understand full overview and impact of the change in the long run.

4. Innovation / Open ended: The fourth type of problem is innovation related and can be also called open ended problem solving. These type of problem solving emerge from the organization bringing in new innovation in the value chain. The innovation will impact and change the entire value chain. In such situations it’s not easy to realize what problems could arise and how to resolve them. The team will need to work through the process to identify areas in the value chain that could lead to obstacles if the new innovation value chain is introduced. In such cases a risk log with mitigation actions and ownerships must be workout and put in place.

Here is an example of new target condition,

The organization has a manufacturing line for mobile phones. The current manufacturing value chain is a mix of people and machines working together to get the outputs. The current output is 50 mobile phones per hour. The organization has decided to bring an innovation to double the production of mobile phones. For achieving this the value chain has been planned to be made full automated with robotics. A trial run has proven that it should work out. This is an innovation problem which will require the team to work together to identify how this will need to be orchestrated to avoid any problems. The team can structurally work out the plan to step by step ramp up and introduce the new innovation as well as plan for required capacity and capability plans.

In this article only this much. In the next article we will discuss the process of problem solving and how it helps the organizations to raise the standards.

Lean Problem Solving is important for all organizations. It helps to remove the obstacles in the value chain / value stream and brings the organization to the new standard, reducing costs, improving efficiency, effectiveness, and value for the customer.