The core of root cause analysis (RCA) is to properly identify the underlying problems of an issue. It is one of the most widely used retrospective methods for detecting issues. RCA uses a systematic approach to identify both active errors and latent errors which contribute to adverse events. RCA helps organizations avoid the tendency to single out one factor to arrive at the most expedient (but generally incomplete) resolution. It also helps to avoid treating symptoms rather than true, underlying problems that contribute to a problem or event. More often than not, we tend to assess blame and focus on just the mistakes made by individuals.

Most RCA experts believe that achievement of total prevention by a single intervention is not always possible, and see RCA as an ongoing process that strives for continuous improvement. It is not a one-size-fits-all methodology. There are many different tools, processes, and philosophies of accomplishing RCA. In fact, it was born out of a need to analyze various enterprise activities. RCA should follow a specified protocol that begins with data collection and reconstruction of the event in question through record review and participant interviews. A multidisciplinary team should analyze the sequence of events leading to the error, with the goals of identifying how the event occurred.

The outcome of the root cause analysis is an action plan that the organization intends to implement in order to reduce the risk of similar events occurring in the future. The plan should address responsibility for implementation, oversight, pilot testing as appropriate, timelines, and strategies for measuring the effectiveness of actions. Organizations can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations through addressing the root issues of problems. For the purpose of an RCA, the focus should be on systems”how to improve systems to prevent the occurrence of events or problems. It involves digging into the organization’s systems to find new ways to do things.

For more information and training on RCA, click here.

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For the past decade, healthcare has been the focus of a spirited campaign of debate in America. Both sides of the argument have focused on how best our healthcare would be delivered. Today, the debate rages on, but the core problems that truly affect a system continue to hurt those in need. The true need in healthcare reform is to improve operational efficiencies. Neither side is looking at the core issues of wait times, capacity or cost. These three elements are what plague the system today. Spend some time in any healthcare facility in this country, and you will see the signs of our issues. Patients stack up in waiting rooms for hours to receive a service that takes 10 minutes to deliver.

Lean Innovation Partnership in Healthcare

Up to this point, we have traditional methods of improvement, such as Lean or Six Sigma and have achieved modest results, which are slow in coming. With today’s modern technologies, we are at a crossroads for massive innovation and real change — specifically, with digitized patient data, machine learning AI, IoT real time data, predictive analytics, cloud infrastructure and smartphones. These elements come together and present a unique opportunity, especially when combined with lean thinking. Healthcare is an environment of a complex network of interdependent units operating individually to deliver care. Understanding the true operational function of these units, then bringing them together as a functioning unit that operates at a maximum level of efficiency is the true path to improvement.

Focusing on using sophisticated lean methodologies, combined with data science, plus machine optimization can significantly improve the efficiency of our system. It will significantly improve efficiencies, reduce wait times and costs in a system that right now is not providing the absolutely the best and most innovative level of care possible.

Read more about healthcare improvement opportunities here along with a perspective on Lean healthcare here.

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The DMAIC Process 

Define: This is when you define the system, the goals and the current data, as well as the projected goals and expectations. Be very specific and clear and include a time frame.

Measure: Do this at the current level. Collect any data that will be relevant to the current issue you want to fix. The more actual data you collect, the more noticeable  improvement is likely to show up.

Analyze: Perform this for all the data, and show cause and effect. Conduct a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and show all data to support and ensure all possible actions for improvement have been taken.

Improve: Using tools such as Poka Yoke as well as mistake proofing using data to support your claims. Do test runs and conduct a pilot run to support improvement.

Control: Continuously monitor to ensure any corrections needed are immediately taken care of.

Benefits of Implementing Six Sigma 

• Reducing or completely eliminating variances and errors. Consistency in the product or service is what is key. This is also at the core of Six Sigma strategies, it is the reason Six Sigma exists.
• Maintaining high quality. Six Sigma methods and tools were created to help companies find the root of the problem. Tools such as Root Cause Analysis, Pareto Chart, Fishbone Diagram and 5 Whys are a great way to find the root causes once and for all.
• Focus and compliance on standards. Six Sigma’s main focus is on quality standards. Many businesses are in industries that have compliance with other regulatory agencies, such as OSHA and Six Sigma, that lines up with their quality standards. 
• Continuous education and training. Six Sigma puts emphasis on continuous education, and the Six Sigma culture feels that training and ongoing education is very important for the success of a company, regardless of the industry it serves.

For more information on our Lean Six Sigma courses and services, please visit 6sigma.com. 

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4 Concepts of Six Sigma That Can Help You Achieve Your Objectives at Work

Trying to achieve your objectives at work without a proper roadmap or plan in place is pure insanity. This is the same as going into a battle expect to emerge victorious without taking any weapons with you.

There are 4 concepts of Six Sigma that will help you emerge victorious in battle and this article will talk about them. Not only can these concepts be used to make improvements in how a person works, but they can also be used to achieve personal objectives as well.

1. Have a clear picture of the necessary improvement you need to make

When you say to yourself that you want things to be better this year, just simply saying it won’t cut the mustard. Some tough questions need to be asked like what areas do you want to improve? You have to set a realistic goal that has a starting point as well as an end.

If you are working in an organization, do you want to increase revenue? If you are very specific with what you want to achieve, you give yourself a big chance of achieving your objectives.

2. Don’t have a tunnel vision, expand your mind

There is a very famous expression that says knowledge is power and for anyone who wants to achieve their objective, having a tunnel vision doesn’t help. It means that you won’t be able to see the bigger picture and by expanding your line of sight, one is able to gain more knowledge.

If you are running a successful business, you should be able to measure things like labor cost, revenue as well as customer satisfaction metrics. If the goal of the business at the end of every year is to make more profits than previous years, you need to be in a position to evaluate all the things that will make you achieve that objective.

This includes things like offering customers good quality service, retaining existing customers and offering them discounts on products or services.No matter the chosen method, it has to be broken down into factor that will drive you to get the results you are looking for.

3. Make sure everything is put in a logical way or manner

Take ATM machines, for example, their main purpose is to give customers money after they have made a withdraw. When a large number of withdrawals are made in a day or the money runs out, the bank moves quickly to put the money back.

This is the same approach one needs to have to achieve their objectives. Just like how things move smoothly with the bank, one has to aim to follow suit and make sure everything is done in a logical way. Applying six sigma gives you the biggest chance to achieve your objectives.

4. Reduce any waste that’s in the way

A major goal of Six Sigma as a method is to cut downtime that is wasted while trying to achieve your objectives. When waste is reduced, you will notice that the way that things are done in your organization will speed up. It is used to make things better with the help of what is known as the 5S.

• Sort – Look around the workplace to see if everything is ok and if something is off, dispose of it very quickly.
• Set in order – When that is dealt with, look at what you have left and place each item in its place.
• Shine – This involves systematically cleaning the space you have whether on a weekly, daily or even monthly basis. If you are low on stock, make sure you restock because the two goals in this step are to keep things clean and have a clear view of inventory.
• Standardize – You have to make sure that you put things where they belong after using them while making sure that work colleagues do the same.
• Sustain – Make sure that you schedule a 5S review all the time so that it comes naturally to everyone.

Conclusion

The 4 concepts of six sigma when used well will easily help achieve your objectives at work because you will go into things prepared. Going back to the analogy of going into a battle expect to emerge victorious without taking any weapons with you, Six Sigma ensure you are armed and ready for battle.

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Why It’s Never Too Late for Innovative Approaches

One of the worst things you could do to your organization is to shy away from innovation because you believe that the company is too far gone for that. And while that might be true in a very small number of cases, those are usually extreme examples where the writing is on the wall for quite some time.

In most cases, you can never go wrong with considering a bit more innovation in your operations. And there are plenty of opportunities for that nowadays as well. You just need to keep your eyes open and explore what the market offers on a regular basis.

The Market Is Always Moving

It doesn’t matter what industry you’re involved in. The market you’re dealing with is likely highly dynamic and requires constant attention if you want to keep up with its trends. This means that you can’t count on today’s methods to still be viable tomorrow. That’s something many leaders realize all too late and end up pushing their companies in the wrong direction stubbornly until they can go no further.

You Can Always Benefit from an Improvement

This brings us to our next point. Even if you don’t see any point in innovating heavily in your current state, you can pretty much always benefit from improving things in this regard. Think about it is there really a downside to improving production rates or decreasing the frequency of manufacturing errors? In most cases, there isn’t.

Even if it’s a small change, it can often impact your operations in a major way. You should not underestimate the potential of certain improvements for transforming the entire state of your operations in the long run. It starts with small changes, and they can add up over time.

Long-term Benefits Can Add Up Fast

And that’s another important factor to consider. Even if you don’t see any results in the beginning, you’d be surprised how fast those can stack up over time. Small changes can become very pronounced given enough time, and sometimes the right combination of a few small factors can completely alter your perspective on your production and other aspects of your organization.

Of course, this is not valid for absolutely every small change you can make. But with a bit of exploration and experimentation, you’re quickly going to find the right combinations.

Preparing for the Worst

Innovation is not just about improving your current performance. It can also be useful for addressing potential future problems within your organization which may not even be on the table yet. You might not even realize the need for some of those changes until it’s too late. But with the right approach, you can easily protect your company from many types of negative effects over its lifetime, and ensure that you don’t meet the same fate as some of your failing competitors.

On that note, make sure that you analyze the performance of other entities on your market as much as possible. You never know when you might spot an opportunity to prevent a major disaster in your own organization, and often this is about being vigilant and paying attention to how the market is moving.

Evaluating the Impact

If you’re still not convinced that you should make a certain attempt at innovation, you should do a study that evaluates the potential impact of your actions, and use that as a reference to figure out if it’s a worthwhile idea. You should take into account all current factors related to your operations though, not just the ones which have an obvious connection to whatever you’re going to attempt.

Because in some cases, there will be effects that will not be predictable, simply because they are related to patterns in the background that can be too difficult to decipher. Even with some complex analytical systems, you might still miss those connections from time to time. So to be safe, just factor everything you can into your calculations and ensure that you’re looking at the big picture as best as possible.

In the long run, you will never regret taking the time to optimize your operations and look into ways to innovate. But if you want to get the most out of this, you should be patient and consider all possible effects as carefully as possible.

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Creating Vision and Aligning Goals

This is one one in a series of 4 articles about Toyota’s Stages of Leader Development

An organization is nothing without a properly defined target. It’s important to always strive for results that will bring improvement and long-term sustainability, and identifying the critical factors for those developments is an important skill any good leader must have.

To put it simply, it’s up to the leader to constantly be one step ahead and look towards the future, analyzing the company’s current situation with regards to its past performance, and looking for opportunities to shift the goals in a more productive direction.

Complete vision from top to bottom

It’s also important that the whole company is aligned towards the goal being pursued, from the high-level executives, to the workers down at the value-added level. Everyone will likely have some differing opinion on the situation, depending on what piece of the puzzle they are able to see. Therefore, it’s important that the leader works as a communication node between those different levels, ensuring that they are all aware of the main reason they’re doing their job in a certain way. What might seem “anti-Lean” to one department might actually be the best thing for the entire value stream.

Propagating knowledge along the value stream is also one of the leader’s key responsibilities. Especially in a large organization, it can be quite complicated to ensure that information flows smoothly and reaches its intended destination departments (without getting altered through confusion along the way).

This means that the leader also has the critical role of being a central link in the communication chain, whether they like the idea or not. This can save the company a lot of trouble in the future, both in the short and long term, as it ensures that all departments will be chasing the same targets.

The skills needed to maintain a consistently high level of quality in this communication can be improved over time, but it’s important for any leader to realize their potential shortcomings in this area as early as possible, and work on addressing them.

Keeping the short term in mind

While it’s important to ensure that the company has solid long-term goals, and all departments are aligned to them, it’s just as critical to have a good day-to-day schedule (also known as leader standard work), and always look for opportunities to align it better with the company’s plans for the future.

There will be some inevitable need for change, as the structure of the organization grows and new responsibilities are introduced to various departments related to the company’s current long-term plans. A good leader must ensure that the new responsibilities of a department don’t clash with those of another, as this is not an uncommon problem in even smaller organizations, where the communication chain is not as complex.

The traditional Toyota method typically assigns different color codes to the various metrics collected in the company’s day-to-day work, and the way those resources are utilized is presented using graphical analysis. This is an important part of implementing kaizen correctly, although the specific form of representation can vary from one company to another, in order to better suit the needs of the particular organization.

The important point to gather from this is that all day-to-day metrics must be aligned with the company’s long-term goals, and this can only be done through constant re-evaluation of those metrics, and of the references they’re being compared against.

This is another point that’s worth bringing up sometimes the data you’re comparing against will be outdated, and this will make the entire foundation of your analysis invalid. This makes it important to keep those models up to date, and always keep communicating with the different departments about their own metrics.

Conclusion

Continuous work on the company’s vision and long-term goals, and ensuring that they’re aligned with the current short-term plans of each department, is a critical component of applying kaizen to an organization. Any good leader must learn how to handle this in the most efficient manner with respect to both the organization as well as their own personal skills. Establishing a good framework for long-term planning is one of the best ways to ensure that the company’s development is always on the right track.

Read about the other stages of leader development at Toyota >>>

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Does Lean Six Sigma Have a Place in Sports?

Lean methodologies, and Six Sigma in particular, have gained a lot of mainstream attention over the last few years, and people are now exploring more and more creative ways to apply them to various problems around us. It’s clear that the applications of Six Sigma extend beyond areas like manufacturing and production, but just how deeply can we integrate them into our society?

There are some specific areas that are investigating the potential benefits of applying Lean and Six Sigma, specifically the sports industry. Considering that Lean and Six Sigma is all about defining a process and improving it in a systematic way, why should its potential benefits be ignored?

Seeing data that makes sense

One of the most commonly mentioned benefits of applying lean methodologies to any process is the fact that certain patterns start to arise which were not obvious before. This can be particularly useful in sports, as the process of improving one’s skills in any sport mostly comes down to a realistic overview of the athlete’s past records and results, and correct identification of areas where they can use some improvement.

This approach is also beneficial in cases where it’s clear that the athlete has room for improvement in their technique, but they’re unable to identify the exact root cause of the problem. Looking at raw data without any connection between the points usually gets you nowhere, but when you are able to systematically break down your play into its fundamental pieces, the problematic aspects eventually start to surface.

From single players to large teams

A great aspect of Six Sigma is its scalability, and the ability to adapt the core philosophy to a project of any scale. This applies in the context of sports as well – you can use it to improve the game of a single player in a sport like tennis, as well as a whole team in a game like football. The only constraint is how well you’re able to define the important data points for the performance of the player(s), and the rest comes down to proper analysis of that data.

Of course, you wouldn’t be using the exact same analytical techniques in those two cases, but the basic concept stays the same, and Six Sigma can prove very useful when it comes to driving a sports participant forward in their performance.

The most famous example of statistical thinking applied to a sports team is the Oakland A’s major league baseball team, made famous by the book and movie title “Moneyball.” Using data instead of intuition, the team was able to better evaluate talent based on non-traditional measures of success (like on-base percentage, instead of RBIs or batting average), and thus compete with other teams that had much higher salaries.

Continuous improvement matters a lot

Sports is one of the areas where the concept of continuous improvement can really shine, as it’s truly important to always strive for your best here. One of the most common mistakes made by professional players is to become complacent with their current skills, not realizing when everyone manages to sweep past them because they have not been striving for improvement.

This can never happen if the philosophy of Six Sigma is applied to the training process, as one of the core concepts of is to always seek opportunities for improvement, and to realize them as often as possible. A sports player following these concepts will therefore always be able to identify when their game can be improved in a certain area, and they’re going to follow up on those improvements. Tracking and monitoring the correct data will provide the feedback to each athlete that their performance is trending in the wrong direction, or the practice they are putting in is not having the desired impact.

Let’s look at an American football team as an example, to see where process improvement could be applied to these potential metrics

Player talent evaluation:

• Tracking player’s 40-yard dash time over the season to better detect unstated injuries
• QB accuracy at hitting a target, tracked over season
• QB release time from start of throwing motion to release
• QB correct decision % (how often did they select the correct option)
• RB route decision % (how often did they select the correct route based on blocking)
• Placekicker accuracy by hash mark and distance
• WR catch % (how often did they catch it when it was within range)
• Snapper accuracy rating (how close to a target)
• Lineman blocking times (see image below)

In the image above, you can see that tracking the time until their opponent reaches the quarterback (QB) can show graphically how well they perform. Lineman #72 is very consistent (even though not the fastest or slowest), and #77 is the best, as they can hold out the longest and maintains at least 3 seconds for the QB. On the other side, #75 is very inconsistent because of the wide variation, and times near zero.

Some of these techniques are already being applied to player evaluations during high school. For example, National Camp Series KIX rating system evaluates high school placekickers, punters and snappers using Six Sigma concepts to provide objective ratings of players, so college coaches have higher success during recruiting.

Analysis can be performed to confirm the allegations of racial differences in program retention using Six Sigma methods, as explained in this article about the 2020 University of Iowa football program.

Let’s look at other ways that data can be used to make improvements for this football team, outside of the player performance:

Office Area

• Using data to compare employee performance for ticket sales, marketing, customer responsiveness
• Valid experiments and split-testing to compare marketing techniques (responses to Ad Concept #1 vs #2, Web vs. TV vs. Radio advertising, Player A vs Player B on marketing materials, Logo A vs. Logo B)
• Address customer (internal and external) complaints correctly to improve process
• Reduce errors and defects:
  • Tickets delivered late, wrong name, charged wrong amount, improve timeliness of responses, video breakdown delays, rehab process errors, legal issues
  • Identify and prevent “potential” or high-risk issues (reduce failure modes in the process)
  • Litigation, unsafe conditions, customer dissatisfaction, player injuries and illnesses, negative press

Finances

• Advertising sales outstanding, overdue bills to suppliers, late billing, wrong billing, inconsistent quotes, late quotes, missed leads/sales, understanding reasons for low ticket sales, excess inventory for training room/equipment (use kanban instead)

Conclusion

It’s clear that there are some strong, real benefits for many sports players and teams in the adoption of lean thinking and Six Sigma methodologies. However, the results will likely vary a lot from one sport to the next, and it’s important to approach the problem with a critical, yet open mind. Lean methodologies are still seeing active developments as well, and they’re changing constantly, and it’s hard to say what we’ll discover tomorrow that can work even better for sports.

If you like the concept of improving sports teams, check out a great website Lean Blitz by Chad Walters >>>

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The Effectiveness of the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle

The Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle is a popular business management method to achieve continuous improvement in an organization. It is widely implemented as a part of a tool within larger improvement methodologies, or as a stand-alone approach to quality control and change management.

The PDCA cycle was popularized by Dr. W. Edwards Deming, and is sometimes referred to as the Deming cycle. It was loosely based on the scientific process, which starts with a hypothesis, continues with an experiment, and finishes with analysis and a conclusion. Those steps correspond to the first three steps of the process. Since the cycle needs to lead to actual results, the last step is meant for taking action and making changes.

But in order to really understand the PDCA cycle and why it works so well, we need to first look at each step in more detail.

Step 1: Plan

The cycle begins by establishing a hypothesis about a possible improvement. In reality this step of the process can actually be broken down to two sub-steps. The first thing that needs to be done is outlining a clear problem, or imperfection in the current state of affairs. The second thing that needs to be done is making a plan for fixing it. The plan should not only induce the changes that need to be made, but a step-by-step implementation strategy as well. Remember, most of the Plan phase is to investigate what is going on, determine the causes, and identify possible solutions. Most of your time should be spent on Plan, otherwise you will be guessing and having to go back through the PDCA cycle multiple times.

Step 2: Do

After the blueprints for the solution of the particular problem are ready, they can be implemented so their effectiveness can be tested. This means not just making a particular change and being done with it, but monitoring it continuously while the experiment is going on, and recording as much data about the change being made. Collecting data on the correct metrics provide the evidence needed to determine if it truly is working or not.

Step 3: Check

After the test has been running for a while, the company should have enough information on how the proposed and provisionally implemented change affected the problem. This data needs to be analyzed, and the results need to be measured compared to the hypothesis from Step 1. This allows you to determine the effectiveness of the implemented solution.

Step 4: Act

In this last step of the cycle, the conclusions made from the test can be put to practice. If the tested solution has some significant outcomes and is cost-effective, it should be implemented. If not, another one must be investigated or a more economical solution needs to be identified. Either way, it’s important to remember that this step is only nominally last, and it is not the end of the process. The cycle should be repeated again and again, and should lead to constant improvement. This will help drive a culture of continuous improvement.

What Makes the PDCA Cycle Effective?

The PDCA Cycle gives an easy to understand framework for iterative improvement. It depends on real-life experiments (not educated guesses), and forces teams to review the data and evidence in order to draw conclusions. Being based on the scientific method, this cycle can be viewed as an approach that has proven itself, and that can reliably produce improvement.

One of the main benefits of implementing a PDCA cycle is that there is a clear separation between each iteration that is tested, allowing for true causality to be established. This will inevitably lead to a reduction in waste, and increase productivity in the long run. The processes becomes better and better understood, and more and more problems are uncovered and solved.

Making the PDCA cycle a part of the way a company operates minimizes the risk when implementing change by increasing control. It also establishes a commitment to constant betterment and improvement that allows a company to remain competitive, and to constantly improve and adapt.

Read more articles about PDCA >>>

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