Today at Phoenix Sintered Metals, I coached the team on some basic problem solving level II. Once you are able to identify your top 3 problems, chances are those top problems have multiple causes. Use a fishbone diagram and the 4M’s (man/woman, machine, material, method) to identify ALL possible causes.

If your team has a good sense of what the top cause is (or a top cause that is more easily solved), start your problem solving sheet there! If you’re still in the dark after identifying all the potential causes, go ahead and use a pareto diagram to keep track of the causes. Once some time has lapsed, you should have a better sense of what the top cause is. Then, you can lead your team through a problem solving sheet.