In a past podcast, I had Daniel Matthews author of The A3 Workbook: Unlock Your Problem-Solving Mind and ask him why he favored A3s over 8D or some other problem solving tools. The answer I received was much different that what I expected.
Daniel learned what it takes to make a truly successful Lean transformation by comparing his 14 years of experience at Toyota with his observations of more than 20 different types of organizations. During his time with Toyota, Daniel was part of the original group of trainers at the Georgetown Kentucky Toyota plant charged with developing an A3 curriculum that would be used to educate team members at all levels of the organization. While working for Toyota he became an experienced Training Within Industry (TWI) instructor.
Related Podcast and Transcription: Unlock Your Mind With A3 Thinking
Excerpt from the Podcast:
Joe: What’s different about an A3?
Daniel: I guess, from my perspective, and this is something that I’ve actually been working on. It’s something that I take managers through when I first introduce them to the A3 process. But as you said, there are many different types of problem-solving methods out there. From 8D to the problem solving that was created after World War II put in conjunction with TWI program.
I guess the reason I picked A3, one obviously is because I worked for Toyota and that’s what I’m very familiar with. But the other thing is, is that those other problem-solving methods are typically, for the most part, from what I’ve seen are isolated to small areas.
What I mean by that is, 8D is a very good problem-solving method and it has a format that you follow to document that, but it’s typically multiple pages. It also is typically for a corrective action process.
Whereas A3 can be used for quality circles, it can be used for individual problem-solving efforts by the operator. It can be used at a strategic level, to define the conditions of the organization and what direction the organization needs to go in.
The things like the problem-solving format for TWI, it really limits you in terms of the focus. It’s really focused at that supervisor level and it’s not really an organizational type problem-solving method. It really forces you to kind of use job methods, job instructions and job relations as your solutions to the problem.
So it, to me, limits your ability to be creative and come up with some really innovative ideas to improve situations.
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