Problem Solving and A3
Presented By:
David Meier
Session Abstract:
In this workshop David Meier will outline the process used by Toyota to guide their thinking and improvement activities. This process is greatly applicable to the issues facing healthcare practitioners and organizations today. While the problem solving process appears simplistic, the true challenge is in guiding and facilitating work teams and helping them to maintain focus and to stay on track. This process is ideal for working on complex issues that involve cross-functional areas of the organization, and require an ability to guide interdisciplinary teams of people.
In the workshop David will show how the first decision of identifying the problem clearly and concisely is the key to maintaining focus, and in achieving overall success. David will provide practical advice on how to avoid the most common mistakes, and how to achieve maximum results with minimal time and cost.
Target Audience:
The workshop is for Lean practitioners, and leaders who would like to increase their learning about this powerful A3 problem solving process and its application to leadership, based on the Toyota model.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn how to properly identify the problem and understand the relationships between the problem, its’ causes, and how the problem impacts other areas of the organization.
- Learn how to use an A3 problem report format to “tell the story” of the problem and to guide and structure the problem solving activity.
- Learn how to facilitate the problem solving activity and how to avoid the most common mistakes.
Other Information:
- Please come prepared with specific information related to a problem you are facing and would like to use as a case study.
- As you are developing your skills as a problem solving facilitator (which is about 90% of the process!) it is advisable to practice on a less complex problem- perhaps one that involves people from one work area only. This is more manageable for learning purposes.
- To aid in facilitating this workshop some participants may join with other people to work on a common problem.