Eliminating defects - Part Five

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

OK, quick recap:  In part one we talked about definition; in part two we discussed data identification and collection, and interim containment; part three discussed identifying the root cause.  Part four discussed fixing the true causes of the problem.

Now that we’ve  implemented our chosen fix, we want to focus on how to ensure that we don’t have the problem recur.  This is often a misunderstood step in the process.  If the prior step was “fix xyz”, I often see folks who document the step on prevent recurrence as “continue with xyz”.  Well geez, that’s brilliant!  I’m guessing that it’s a bit more complicated than that, tho…

So, what does ‘prevent recurrence’ really mean?  Let’s start by expanding our thinking - we want to prevent recurrence not only for this defect, but for additional potential causes as well.

Additional potential causes??!? Where am I supposed to get THAT info?  Ahh, that’s where the beauty of the tools we used in step three come in — we can go to our pareto diagram, our cause-and-effect (fishbone/Ishikawa) diagram, or other investigative tools.  Although we were able to eliminate the problem by focusing in on the root causes we identified, we can go back now and figure out what are probable causes of future defects - and prevent them before they occur. For all  you folks who have implemented ISO 9001 and have trouble identifying preventive actions, here’s a great place for it.

Now let’s be clear — if you find a defect on line 2 of a manufacturing plant that has three identical manufacturing lines, and you implement the fix on lines 1, 2, and 3, this is not corrective for line 2 and preventive for lines 1 and 3 - this is simply complete/comprehensive corrective action.  But, if you also implement a ‘fix’ on something that hasn’t ‘broken’ yet [since you're implementing and training anyway, you might as well do it for multiple as for one], you are doing true preventive action.    Woot!

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Eliminating Defects - part one

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

Eliminating defects - that’s something that everyone can agree is a good thing to do - whether it’s getting rid of the bad golf swing, the poor purchasing decision (these shoes don’t match anything I own!) or the manufacturing or design error, we want to eliminate defects from our lives.

Before we eliminate a defect, we have to all agree on what a defect is.   Let’s start by defining a defect, so we’re all on the same page.  A defect, according to Webster’s dictionary, is

1 a: an imperfection that impairs worth or utility : shortcoming <the grave defects in our foreign policy>
b: an imperfection (as a vacancy or an unlike atom) in a crystal lattice
2 [Latin defectus] : a lack of something necessary for completeness, adequacy, or perfection : deficiency <a hearing defect>
moreover, the Etymology gives us additional insight into the word: Middle English, from Latin defectus lack, from deficere to desert, fail, from de- + facere to do

So, defect comes from a lack, from deserting a “do”.   Sums it up pretty well, I think.  Shortcoming, deficiency - yup, that sounds like a defect.

We can have defects in anything in life - in what we eat, what we wear, what we do, even a pessimist will see defects in who they are.  In some cases, it’s easy to eliminate a defect; in others, it may be much more difficult to do so.
What’s the methodology for eliminating a defect?  The first step in most methodologies is understanding of what the defect is.  We’ll call this Definition.  Not word definition, as we did above, but defect definition.
What is defect definition?  Simply put, it’s defining the defect or problem in such a way that elimination of it will eliminate the other factors.
The definition is not as easy as it sounds, since it requires that we define the defect in such a way that it can be eliminated.  So, we have to ensure that we are identifying the true defect, not merely a symptom of that defect.
How do we separate the symptom from the defect? One of my favorite ways to do this is to steal a technique from a toddler - the 5 Whys method.  When you have a problem you want to eliminate, you want to identify the defect so it can be removed.  The 5 Whys help you to do this.

Here’s an example of the 5 Whys:

I didn’t have a good time at dinner last night.    WHY?
Every time I tried to chat, I had to yell above the noise.  WHY?
The restaurant was too crowded to relax.           WHY?
A busload of travelers got there just before us.  WHY?
The restaurant is a favorite of bus tour operators.  WHY?

As you can see, the technique can go on forever - was it that it was too noisy, too crowded, too popular?  You need to decide when you’ve gotten the true root causes.  Once there, then you can decide how to define the defect.  The noise and the crowd are just symptoms; the root cause is that you were looking for a restaurant where you could chat and relax, and selected the wrong one.

Do you agree that this is the root cause?  Why or why not?

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