MEDRAD Problem Solving Story

Here’s a note about Ken and how daily meetings are raising problems less than 24 hours later versus over a month from the time of the problem.

When do you know about problems? Do you find out about quality errors days or weeks after the produce has come through your team?

Check out the story about MEDRAD and Problem Solving below . . .

So we’ve been coaching daily meeting and problem solving on a production floor near Pittsburgh for sometime now, and another light bulb went off for the team. How familiar does this situation sound:

Ken was receiving reports, that a problem happened . . . 4 to 6 weeks ago. Part of his responsibilities was to approach his team member and do “problem-solving” around the error/mistake.

How successful can anyone be around solving a problem that happened over a month ago? Unless the problem was rather major – chances are low any one will even remember the problem, let alone the possible causes.

Ken then noted that his team members know within a day or so that there was an error on the product. This is when the product is brought from inspection back to the process for rework. Ken then added: “Shouldn’t problem solving be done at that point by the team members?”

Ken’s  from MEDRAD “light bulb” about Problem Solving

. . .“Shouldn’t problem solving be done at that point by the team members?” . . .

The answer, of course, is yes! All problem reporting does is tell you about problems. Coach your team members to not only identify problems but to solve problems by capturing the root cause and eliminating it. After all, problems are blessings, i.e. opportunities for your team to improve.

What Ken did was and is in the process of doing is reducing monthly problem recognition in the form of a report to a daily cycle by having his team report on problems via the daily meeting. Reducing problem recognition and the beginning of problem solving from 6 weeks to 24 hours (or less) greatly increases the chance of actually finding the root cause of the problem and eliminating it!

The Lesson about MEDRAD and Problem Solving

Remember, problems are blessings. The way to get your team to have this mindset is to ask them what their problems were the day before (via the daily meeting) and coach them to do problem solving (via the problem solving sheet). Reporting systems are just that – they report out. People are problem-solvers, the daily meeting and the problem solving process begin to unlock that creativity by bringing problems to the surface so those same people can see and solve problems in order to continuously improve. We’ll keep you updated on Ken’s team as they continue to learn with KCOE.

Keep up the good problem solving work at Medrad, Ken!