The Ability to See Differences is Key to Solving Problems

Our minds can get easily confused when given multiple choices and alternative paths.  The key to solving problems is being able to see differences that exist in data and being able to quickly identify major sources of variation in a process.

Here is an example of where I used this simple concept to solve a major customer issue. Several years ago a client called and told me they had a customer problem where they were finding "lumps" in the product they provided. The customer was using the product to provide a seal between two metal parts. My client invited me to attend a phone meeting to determine whether the direction their team was going in seemed logical. As I listened to the discussion, I heard a lot of bickering and finger pointing and not much emphasis on the actual problem itself. They invited me to come to their manufacturing plant. When I got there they took me for a plant tour and we observed their mixing process. As we walked around I mentally went through my 6M checklist and I was able to rule out Man, Machine, and Method because everything seemed fairly well controlled. That night at my hotel, using some data they provided me I did a simple comparison between mixture ingredients from good batches of product (no lumps) vs those from bad batches of product (with lumps). To my delight, moisture level of a simple filler jumped out. When product had no lumps, the moisture level in the filler was low and when product had lumps the moisture level was high. The next day we made a batch of product using the filler with high moisture content and the finished product had lumps. We took the same filler and dried it overnight. The next day we made a batch using the dried filler and the result was no lumps in the product. The solution to the "lump problem" was to dry any filler that had a moisture content over a certain number.

I've used this same technique of looking for differences# when I'm faced with reducing scrap or defects. Comparing good and bad product can often lead to clues as to where in the process the problem is occurring. Then its a matter of going to the "gemba" and observing what's really going on and seeing for yourself.