The 4 Root Causes of Business Problems

Are your improvement initiatives hitting roadblocks? Here's why:

Many companies take one step forward and three steps backward in their improvement journey.

They launch multiple initiatives often collapse at the first sign of difficulty.

What causes these problems, and how can we prevent them from recurring?

Problems typically arise because:

1) There's no standard in place, so each person performs their job according to what they think is best.

2) Standards exist but aren't followed due to lack of management commitment.

3) Multiple root causes remain unaddressed.

4) The fundamental cause hasn't been identified.

That's why, before implementing improvements, management must first standardize each process by:

- identifying and eliminating all current or potential causes,
- implementing appropriate countermeasures, and
- maintaining the status quo long enough to verify the effectiveness of actions taken.

The SDCA cycle—shown in the figure below—is your tool for standardizing processes to achieve and maintain goals in Safety, Quality, Cost, and Delivery.

Only then should you pursue improvement initiatives using the PDCA approach.

While choosing between SDCA and PDCA might seem confusing at first, Lean is best learned through practice.

As Tracey Richardson✏️, The Author of The Toyota Engagement Equation says:

“𝑨𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒑 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎 𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒄𝒍𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑷𝑫𝑪𝑨 𝒐𝒓 𝑺𝑫𝑪𝑨.”

Brilliant Share By : Mohammad Elshahat