Points of Contact

(Courtesy: tidigitalsoltion.it)

In any operation it is essential to know who is the contact person in a different group than your own.  The bigger the company, the more important it is to know who to go find if you need help or have a question.  Otherwise you can spend many hours calling and asking around to find an answer to your question.

One of the best work features Boeing used was a making a points of contact list available for groups. Many work tasks or projects were  often specialized by one or two key individuals within a group.  These subject matter experts (SMEs) would often be the best sources for information available to others within a group.  So it benefited the entire organization to have contact information published in an easily accessible place, usually online.  If you had a question particular to that topic, all you had to do was call or e-mail the expert and could expect an answer in several hours at most.  Effective  groups would make sure the points of contacts name an contact information was current, since many people often shifted work assignments.

(Courtesy: www.greetvectors.com)

I have also been in groups where there is no contact information published.  It is extremely frustrating and time consuming to have to try to find  the right person to talk to.  Many people often gave up in their search and would simply try it on their own.  Not a good way to run a business!

5 Whys

(Courtesy: www.startofhapiness.com)

The hardest part of fixing a problem is usually the root cause analysis.  It is the "Why?" that so many operational leaders and engineers fail to ask once a problem becomes apparent.  Instead they jump to the "How to fix it" step.  This is like treating the symptoms instead of identifying and correcting the cause of the issue.

The 5 Whys is a systematic approach to root cause analysis
(courtesy: www.presentationeze.com)

Fortunately using a structured root cause analysis, the 5 Whys method is what can quickly get you to identify the cause of the issue and take the necessary corrective steps.  It is simply a cause and effect diagram, Pareto chart or any other type of graphical representation.  Starting on the left side of the chart, you ask the question, "Why did this problem happen?".  You then answer the question to the best of your ability.  You keep asking "why?" until a root cause is determined.  It may no take asking Why 5 times (hence the title).  You may find an answer in 2 or 3 Whys.  But it forces you to dig into the analysis and really understand what happened and not just assume you can fix the problem.


An exmple of 5 Whys:

(Courtesy: leanman.hubpages.com)

One of the biggest problems I faced at Boeing was a high number of passenger seat  rejections on the 787 program.  After starting a formal root cause analysis program involving the entire operation, we determined there was not enough engineering checking in the process.  We recommended that management approve a more rigorous  checking process to help catch the errors earlier rather than later.  However the management  said this would be too costly and didn't approve the recommendation.  

So even though management's view  was short sided, the tools are valuable to really get to the heart of the issue. It can save a great deal of time and money if everyone is on board and understands what is going on.