Sublime

Work process charts: Because the accountability chart can’t capture all the interactions necessary to run a business without a mass of dotted lines running all over the chart, it’s better to keep the accountability chart clean and then establish four to nine work flow charts representing the critical processes/value drivers that flow through the or

the common issue across all situations is creating conditions in which people’s ingenuity can be liberated for its best possible use.

Some organizations choose also to train everybody in frontline skills. At FAVI, the French automotive supplier, all engineers and administrative workers have been trained to operate at least one machine on the shop floor. The

Kaizen Principle 4: Use the “Five Whys” technique to identify a problem’s root cause

In 1962, Karou Ishikawa introduced “quality circles” and offered a course through JUSE. You might think of it as a kaizen continuous-improvement club. Workers whose jobs overlapped would work together to increase productivity flows between each other.

In essence, Shewhart created a way to continually improve any manufacturing line. This was the first time factory managers had been given a tool to let them manage the uncertainty in production. His method, Statistical Process Control, let managers compare variation across workers and machines.

PURPOSE An alternative method for telling your story, by hunting backward for the root cause of pernicious, recurring problems.* *This exercise is partly based on an established Japanese quality technique and its description by quality consultant Peter Scholtes. OVERVIEW Asking “Why,” five times, in a team setting, with discussion.