The 7 step method for Practical Problem Solving skills & the 10 most common mistakes to avoid
- Russell Watkins
- Nov 11, 2024
- 8 min read
Updated: May 15
Welcome to the Blog - The 7 step method for Practical Problem Solving skills & the 10 most common mistakes to avoid.
Practical Problem Solving models are often shared online BUT the pitfalls are rarely well explained.
Drawing on 25 years of experience, working with hundreds of companies worldwide, we’ve seen what works and what doesn't. We’ll show you the 7-step Practical Problem Solving model, learned from Toyota Group then walk you through the top 10 pitfalls, with insights on how to avoid missteps at each stage.
We’ll even “open the kimono” and tell you about our personal biggest practical problem solving failure - more of that later. At the end we’ll share 3 secrets to help you to turbo charge your Practical Problem Solving
How This Blog is Structured
📖 Part 1: The 7-Step Practical Problem-Solving Method We’ll break down
📖 Part 2: 10 Pitfalls in the 7 step Practical Problem Solving Method
📖 Part 3: Turbocharging Your Practical Problem Solving We’ll share 3 secrets to level up your approach, including how to avoid problems altogether!
The Importance of a Problem-Solving Method
The initial question, as ever, has to be “Why do we need a method for Problem Solving?”
There are three main reasons
1) Containment
We’re generally okay at containment when a problem happens, at making sure that we stop the issue spreading even further
2) Short-term countermeasure
We're not bad at coming up with a short-term countermeasure (solution) - like putting a sticking plaster over an open wound to stop the bleeding
3) Recurrence Prevention
Most manufacturers aren't particularly strong on recurrence prevention - they don't get to the root cause of why the wound occured in the first place
A common problem is people jumping to conclusions based on previous experiences, leading to the wrong conclusions because something is different to last time.
The 7-Step Practical Problem Solving method
So, here's the Practical Problem Solving method, showing the 7 steps.
You can see that it's a funnel shape reflecting the fact that we're going from a large area, vaguely grasped and explained, down to a really focused problem that we've solved.
The seven steps are:
1) “Grasp the current condition”
Understand what's going on and find your tight focus point
2) “Locate process causing the problem”
That's the process where it's caused not where it's found in in your physical process
3) “Investigate”
Using two tools often here, and for the next couple of steps - 5 why and fishbone
4) “Identify the probable causes”
Where we narrow down from our fishbone into what we think are the most likely causes – one, two or three of them and have a look at each in depth
5) “Identify the root cause”
What we as a team believe, through go-look-see observation and experimentation, is the root cause
6) “Countermeasure”
Try solutions, one at a time
7) “Confirm”
Using our PDCA cycle to make sure that we've got rid of the problem
Referring back to the funnel, you'll notice that there are two things on the right to look at. Firstly, it’s very important to protect the customer early and stop bad material or other problems flowing out to them. Secondly, you’ll see halfway down, after you've done a bit of investigation that you're ready to set a target: A “What?” by “How much?” by “When?”
A Problem Solving Example: Fizzy drink canning factory
We've learnt that when it comes to teaching problem-solving, real-world examples are the most effective way to make concepts stick. Theories alone don’t cut it, people need to see how these methods apply in messy, unpredictable shopfloor environments.
Inside SempaiGuide, we walk through a true-to-life problem-solving example using a fizzy drink canning factory. This is Problem Solving in action, step by step, using a case study on dented cans, you and your team can apply immediately. Want to see how Practical Problem Solving works in real scenarios? then explore it here
10 Pitfalls in the 7 step Practical Problem Solving Method
Let’s go back to the funnel model to look at the Problem Solving pitfalls
Step 1) - “Grasp the current condition” - Pitfall
The key pitfall here is not having a tight focus, having too broad a problem to try to solve.
This is where good analysis comes in. Looking at the data using 80/20 thinking, if we just focus on a general defect, our scope is too broad. Instead, we might see that there are actually three distinct types - 30 occurrences of one, 8 of another, and 4 of a third. To make meaningful progress, we prioritise the defect with 30 instances, as it has the highest frequency. Occasionally, though, a defect with lower frequency may have a higher cost impact, making it the better choice for intervention.
Problem Solving is hard enough to do without trying to mix up and unpick a heap of variables affecting 3 different problems. If you try and do them all at once, you won't manage it. Picking 1 of the 3 to solve is good “Problem Framing”.
Step 2) - “Locate process causing the problem” - Pitfall
Critically, here you're not looking for the process where you found the problem. It's where you identify that it's being created. There's a very big difference between treating a symptom and a cause. Be careful that you’re not looking in the wrong spot.
Step 3) - “Investigate” - Pitfalls
This is often the area of biggest weakness, apart from Problem Framing in Step 1 above. When it comes to problem solving there are two major tools - Fishbone (aka Ishikawa diagram) and the 5 Whys. There are others, these are just the most common and useful.
The Fishbone and 5 Whys can be used together or they can be used independently. You don't always have to use both, but I'll come back to that later.
The first pitfall, in the Investigate step, is to brainstorm alone if you use a fishbone. Doing this, you only get one narrow set of ideas and experience. Involving other functions, like Maintenance for breakdowns, or Quality engineers for defects brings in other experts. Never, ever, forget to include the most important expert of all – your Operator. They know the process better than anyone as they live with it for 40 hours a week.
The second pitfall on this step is to remember is that you need a tight scope, a very tight problem well described. Be specific for example a dent in the top right hand radius of male extension ring ABC.
Step 4) - “Identify the probable causes” - Pitfalls
If you’ve used a Fishbone, you’ll then have maybe 20-40 post-it notes with possible causes on. You now go back over all of your post-it notes to identify the most probable causes. Don't get hung up trying to work out, scientifically, which are the right ones to pursue. Just agree as a team and pick the top two or three you believe. Then pursue them one at a time.
Also, don't try to critique as you brainstorm as switching from one side of your brain (creative) to the other (analytical) gets the worst of both worlds. It’s mentally jarring and ideas won’t flow. Finish the brainstorm first, then critique the ideas respectfully.
Step 5) - “Identify the root cause” - Pitfall
Here you take your “probable causes” one a time and pursue the 5 whys – checking at each why stage whether what you’re suggesting is true. The pitfall here is simply staying in a training room or being rooted to the spot in the factory where you’re doing the Problem Solving. You can’t do either Step 4 or 5 in a training room or without looking at the process close up. Go-look-see and confirm on the shop floor.
Step 6) - “Countermeasure” - Pitfall
It’s really important to countermeasure (put a fix in place) for one thing at a time, otherwise you don't know which change got you the result - it's just a mix of variables. Don’t spend money too early, try solutions with old or scrapped materials, capital is scarce, thinking is free.
Step 7) - “Confirm” - Pitfall
Confirm is where we use our Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) cycle to see if our countermeasure has worked. To know if it has, you need something to compare against. So, at Plan stage, quantify the result you expect. For example, say after Step 4 “Investigate” that you have enough information to set a target. If you set that target at “20% reduction in dents in orange cans vertically across the bottom rim” and you only achieve 5% after countermeasure, you know that you’ve missed something.
Knowing When Your Practical Problem Solving Has Worked!
There are two ways to check whether your countermeasures work:
You can recreate the problem at will
If you can turn the issue on and off you’ve sorted it.
Data Analysis
When you do your daily or weekly Data Analysis, this specific problem doesn't occur again or is greatly reduced.
The 3 Secrets to Turbocharge Your Practical Problem Solving
We promised earlier to tell you about our biggest ever failure. That was 20 years ago when being trained by a Japanese sensei. We locked a team, for two days, in a room with a vaguely defined problem and created the world's biggest fishbone.
A fishbone that we guessed and speculated about and didn't go to the shop floor enough, to grasp and confirm the problem. That combination of a bad focus and too many guesses meant it was a waste of time.
As promised, here’s a bonus of 3 secrets to turbocharge your practical problem solving:
Secret 1: Speed Is Everything
If you can get to a problem fast it's like a fresh crime scene for a detective. It's warm, there's a body, there's a smoking gun and blood on the floor. It's easy to crack. If you get there late it's like a cold case
Secret 2: You don't always need a Fishbone
Some people love a fishbone but, to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. We only use it in certain circumstances; like if we can't recreate a defect or it looks as though there are multiple variables involved, or if there's a benefit to getting a team around it.
Secret 3: Avoid problems altogether!
This is the closest we’ll get to a silver bullet. Train your people to be able to spot abnormality early, get your shop floor organised through your 5s and Standardised Work, so that you can react when things start to go wrong, rather than when there's a problem.
Secret 3 is so powerful we've built a dedicated course - Area Patrol - inside SempaiGuide, our digital lean toolkit for manufacturers, to help teams prevent problems before they escalate.
One last piece of advice
Follow the steps, use data and verify on the gemba at every stage. Otherwise, you’re just guessing and guessing isn't a strategy.
To support this blog, we’ve created a video on our YouTube channel.
✓ Learn as you go, on the shop floor
✓ Access step-by-step guidance from industry experts
✓ Be able to identify which problems to tackle first
✓ Improve skills by up to 50% after just one use
✓ Exceed SQDCPE targets
✓ Gain essential skills for career growth
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