CV1-I2-6A-BASIC-Theory of Problem Solving

L.S.Kannan is currently working as Director with CSense Management Solutions. He is post graduate in management and chemistry. He is Certified Lead Auditor for ISO9001 and also having Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma, with 7 Years of experience in consulting and training, with overall 15 years of industry experience.

We hear people talk a lot over a trouble. Whenever I reflect for a while and ask, “What is the issue?” I get an insight about it and a whole new perspective of attending to it. Here, we discuss the theory of Problemand the theory behind Problem Solving.

Let us understand the problem: When there is a gap between our Expectations and the reality… we feel unhappy – which is a “Problem”. This is how a deviation from specification, a failure to meet time lines etc., become our problems. A problem could be defined as “the gap between our expectations and actual state or observation”.

From the gap analogy, we also understand that as the gap increases, our suffering gets intensified.

For example, you wanted your product yield to be at 95%; but after your manufacturing process, if you find your yield to be less than 95% – it becomes your problem. Intensity of the issue depends upon quantum of gap. Your reaction will be different when the yield is 90% and when it is 60%. This analogy applies to personal life as well.

Why to understand the problem?

“A Problem well understood is a problem half solved”. Many Problem-Solving projects are failing not because of lack in technical intelligence but mainly because of lack in understanding about the problem itself. Therefore, in DMAIC (Six Sigma) methodology, more than a third of time and efforts are spent on defining and measuring problem (Project ‘y’). A Better Problem Statement (in project charter) always talks about gap. In define phase, we deal with expectations (expected state) and in measure phase we measure actual state.

What is problem solving?

When one of your friends comes up to you with wrinkles on his forehead and says he is having a severe head ache, what will you say? “Have a pain killer”. This is how we handle our problems, thinking “pain killer” is the solution. This is not problem solving, but just managing it. Technically, this is called correction. This will not prevent trouble in future. Working on Correction creates a situation of fire fighting in our daily work. To solve a problem permanently, we need to understand and act on its root cause.

From the picture, we can see that each point of deviation (blue dots) has Cause (C1, C2...) & Effect (E1, E2...) Relationship (C1 causing E1). Each point of observation is an effect of preceding point (and each preceding point is the cause of succeeding point).

How to solve problem?

There are two ways. Philosophically, “Reduce expectations and problem will be reduced. Have no expectations you will not have a problem”.

But in real life, we cannot negotiate on expectations. We have to take the other way - bridging the gap by pushing actual state towards expected state.

Why to do Root Cause Analysis? - A Business Decision

There are two advantages of doing Root Cause Analysis – One with respect to cost and another is time.

Any businessman would invest where there is maximum return for minimum investment. Same way, what would be our investment point in problem solving journey? It is obvious that efforts to bridge the gap would be maximum at the point of observation and a minimum effort is required at the point of initiation. As we go backwards, our efforts – namely money, resources – to solve the problem is getting reduced.

The second is the greatest business advantage of doing Root Cause Analysis – “time”. We get advance information about the deviation before it becomes a defect.

There are handful of methodologies and tools like Brainstorming, Fish-bone or Ishikawa Analysis, Why-Why Analysis, Fault Tree Analysis, etc., to help us in reaching to point of initiation. The journey is called Root Cause Analysis. This is a journey from known territory to unknown territory of our thinking.

Corrective Action

Once Root Causes of issue are identified, then we need to take different set of actions to tackle them - not the symptoms. All such action we take to correct our journey of problem events (blue dots on the picture) are called Corrective Actions; or solutions in common terms.

In case of corrections, as we discussed earlier, we deal with symptoms. But in case of corrective actions, we identify root causes and act on them, thus preventing recurrence of same problem. This is the principal difference between correction and corrective action. All actions we take up to the point we identify root causes - to control, to manage and so on - are Corrections.

Preventive Action

Preventive actions are proactive actions we take to eliminate causes of potential problems. The key to differentiate corrective and preventive actions is seeing whether our actions are reactions (reacting to some muddle happened) or proactive actions based on risk analysis and identification. Hence, all actions we take to prevent root causes of problems we faced, including horizontal deployment, training etc., to be termed only as Corrective Actions.

Generally preventive actions are triggered from analysis of trends (where something is trending towards a problem, but up to that point we have not faced the issue), management reviews, risk assessment and FMEA, market / competitor analysis, etc.

Apply it

So, whenever you face a problem - even in your personal life, apply following points

Ask yourself "what is troubling me?"
Identify what your expectations are and what the actual situation is?
Take corrections to control further damage
Trace journey of deviations asking "why?"
Go to root cause and take corrective actions.
Share your learning with friends and colleagues - when they apply it to prevent occurrence of similar problem to them, it becomes their preventive action.