7 tools of problem solving

What are the 7 basic quality tools, and how can they change your business for the better?

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What are the 7 basic quality tools?

Stratification
Check sheet (tally sheet)
Cause and effect diagram (fishbone or Ishikawa diagram)
Pareto chart (80-20 rule)
Scatter diagram
Control chart (Shewhart chart)

The ability to identify and resolve quality-related issues quickly and efficiently is essential to anyone working in quality assurance or process improvement. But statistical quality control can quickly get complex and unwieldy for the average person, making training and quality assurance more difficult to scale.

Thankfully, engineers have discovered that most quality control problems can be solved by following a few key fundamentals. These fundamentals are called the seven basic tools of quality.

With these basic quality tools in your arsenal, you can easily manage the quality of your product or process, no matter what industry you serve.

Learn about these quality management tools and find templates to start using them quickly.

Where did the quality tools originate?

Kaoru Ishikawa, a Japanese professor of engineering, originally developed the seven quality tools (sometimes called the 7 QC tools) in the 1950s to help workers of various technical backgrounds implement effective quality control measures.

At the time, training programs in statistical quality control were complex and intimidating to workers with non-technical backgrounds. This made it difficult to standardize effective quality control across operations. Companies found that simplifying the training to user-friendly fundamentals—or seven quality tools—ensured better performance at scale

7 quality tools

1. stratification.

Stratification analysis is a quality assurance tool used to sort data, objects, and people into separate and distinct groups. Separating your data using stratification can help you determine its meaning, revealing patterns that might not otherwise be visible when it’s been lumped together.

Whether you’re looking at equipment, products, shifts, materials, or even days of the week, stratification analysis lets you make sense of your data before, during, and after its collection.

To get the most out of the stratification process, consider which information about your data’s sources may affect the end results of your data analysis. Make sure to set up your data collection so that that information is included.

2. Histogram

Quality professionals are often tasked with analyzing and interpreting the behavior of different groups of data in an effort to manage quality. This is where quality control tools like the histogram come into play.

The histogram represents frequency distribution of data clearly and concisely amongst different groups of a sample, allowing you to quickly and easily identify areas of improvement within your processes. With a structure similar to a bar graph, each bar within a histogram represents a group, while the height of the bar represents the frequency of data within that group.

Histograms are particularly helpful when breaking down the frequency of your data into categories such as age, days of the week, physical measurements, or any other category that can be listed in chronological or numerical order.

3. Check sheet (or tally sheet)

Check sheets can be used to collect quantitative or qualitative data. When used to collect quantitative data, they can be called a tally sheet. A check sheet collects data in the form of check or tally marks that indicate how many times a particular value has occurred, allowing you to quickly zero in on defects or errors within your process or product, defect patterns, and even causes of specific defects.

With its simple setup and easy-to-read graphics, check sheets make it easy to record preliminary frequency distribution data when measuring out processes. This particular graphic can be used as a preliminary data collection tool when creating histograms, bar graphs, and other quality tools.

4. Cause-and-effect diagram (also known as a fishbone or Ishikawa diagram)

Introduced by Kaoru Ishikawa, the fishbone diagram helps users identify the various factors (or causes) leading to an effect, usually depicted as a problem to be solved. Named for its resemblance to a fishbone, this quality management tool works by defining a quality-related problem on the right-hand side of the diagram, with individual root causes and sub-causes branching off to its left.

A fishbone diagram’s causes and subcauses are usually grouped into six main groups, including measurements, materials, personnel, environment, methods, and machines. These categories can help you identify the probable source of your problem while keeping your diagram structured and orderly.

5. Pareto chart (80-20 rule)

As a quality control tool, the Pareto chart operates according to the 80-20 rule. This rule assumes that in any process, 80% of a process’s or system’s problems are caused by 20% of major factors, often referred to as the “vital few.” The remaining 20% of problems are caused by 80% of minor factors.

A combination of a bar and line graph, the Pareto chart depicts individual values in descending order using bars, while the cumulative total is represented by the line.

The goal of the Pareto chart is to highlight the relative importance of a variety of parameters, allowing you to identify and focus your efforts on the factors with the biggest impact on a specific part of a process or system.

6. Scatter diagram

Out of the seven quality tools, the scatter diagram is most useful in depicting the relationship between two variables, which is ideal for quality assurance professionals trying to identify cause and effect relationships.

With dependent values on the diagram’s Y-axis and independent values on the X-axis, each dot represents a common intersection point. When joined, these dots can highlight the relationship between the two variables. The stronger the correlation in your diagram, the stronger the relationship between variables.

Scatter diagrams can prove useful as a quality control tool when used to define relationships between quality defects and possible causes such as environment, activity, personnel, and other variables. Once the relationship between a particular defect and its cause has been established, you can implement focused solutions with (hopefully) better outcomes.

7. Control chart (also called a Shewhart chart)

Named after Walter A. Shewhart, this quality improvement tool can help quality assurance professionals determine whether or not a process is stable and predictable, making it easy for you to identify factors that might lead to variations or defects.

Control charts use a central line to depict an average or mean, as well as an upper and lower line to depict upper and lower control limits based on historical data. By comparing historical data to data collected from your current process, you can determine whether your current process is controlled or affected by specific variations.

Using a control chart can save your organization time and money by predicting process performance, particularly in terms of what your customer or organization expects in your final product.

Bonus: Flowcharts

Some sources will swap out stratification to instead include flowcharts as one of the seven basic QC tools. Flowcharts are most commonly used to document organizational structures and process flows, making them ideal for identifying bottlenecks and unnecessary steps within your process or system.

Mapping out your current process can help you to more effectively pinpoint which activities are completed when and by whom, how processes flow from one department or task to another, and which steps can be eliminated to streamline your process.

Learn how to create a process improvement plan in seven steps.

Lucidchart, a cloud-based intelligent diagramming application, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This intuitive, cloud-based solution empowers teams to collaborate in real-time to build flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, customer journey maps, and more. Lucidchart propels teams forward to build the future faster. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidchart.com.

In this article we’ll talk about how to improve visualization, even if you are not a visual presentation expert.

Struggling to decide which process improvement methodology to use? Learn about the top approaches—Six Sigma, Lean, TQM, Just-in-time, and others—and the diagrams that can help you implement these techniques starting today.

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7 Basic Tools of Quality for Process Improvement

Japan is known worldwide for its quality products and services. One of the many reasons for this is its excellent quality management. How did it become so? Japan has Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa to thank for that.

Postwar Japan underwent a major quality revolution. Companies were focused on training their employees in statistical quality control. But soon they realized that the complexity of the subject itself could intimidate most of the workers; so they wanted more basic tools.

Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, a member of the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE), took it to his hands to make quality control easier for everyone – even those with little knowledge of statistics – to understand. He introduced the 7 basic tools of quality. They were soon adopted by most companies and became the foundation of Japan’s astonishing industrial resurgence after World War 2.

This post will describe the 7 basic quality tools, how to use them and give you access to templates that you can use right away.

Quality Tools: What Are They?

How can teams and organizations use the 7 basic quality tools, cause and effect diagram, scatter diagram, check sheets.

Control chart
Pareto chart

The 7 basic tools of quality, sometimes also referred to as 7 QC tools – represent a fixed set of graphical tools used for troubleshooting issues that are related to quality.

They are called basic quality tools because they can be easily learned by anyone even without any formal training in statistics. Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa played the leading role in the development and advocacy of using the 7 quality tools in organizations for problem-solving and process improvement.

The 7 basic quality tools include;

Cause-and-effect diagram
Scatter diagram
Check sheet

The 7 quality tools were first emphasized by Kaoru Ishikawa a professor of engineering at the University of Tokyo, who is also known as the father of “Quality Circles” for the role he played in launching Japan’s quality movement in the 1960s. During this time, companies were focused on training their employees in statistical quality control realized that the complexity of the subject could intimidate most of the workers; hence they opted for simpler methods that are easy to learn and use. 7 basic tools of quality were thus incorporated company-wide.

Quality tools are used to collect data, analyze data, identify root causes, and measure results in problem-solving and process improvement. The use of these tools helps people involved easily generate new ideas, solve problems, and do proper planning.

Structured approach: They provide a systematic approach to problem-solving and process improvement, ensuring that efforts are well-organized and focused.
Data-driven decision making: The tools enable data collection, analysis, and visualization, empowering teams to make informed decisions based on evidence.
Improved communication and collaboration: Visual representations and structured tools facilitate effective communication and collaboration among team members, leading to shared understanding and alignment.
Problem identification and prioritization: The tools help identify and prioritize problems or improvement opportunities, enabling teams to allocate resources efficiently and address critical issues first.
Continuous improvement: By using these tools, teams can establish a culture of continuous improvement, as they provide a framework for ongoing monitoring, analysis, and refinement of processes.

7 Basic Quality Tools Explained with Templates

The 7 quality tools can be applied across any industry. They help teams and individuals analyze and interpret the data they gather and derive maximum information from it.

Flowcharts are perhaps the most popular out of the 7 quality tools. This tool is used to visualize the sequence of steps in a process, event, workflow, system, etc. In addition to showing the process as a whole, a flowchart also highlights the relationship between steps and the process boundaries (start and end).

Flowcharts use a standard set of symbols, and it’s important to standardize the use of these symbols so anyone can understand and use them easily. Here’s a roundup of all the key flowchart symbols .

To build a common understanding of a process.
To analyze processes and discover areas of issues, inefficiencies, blockers, etc.
To standardize processes by leading everyone to follow the same steps.

Real-world examples of usage

Documenting and analyzing the steps involved in a customer order fulfillment process.
Mapping out the workflow of a software development lifecycle.
Visualizing the process flow of patient admissions in a hospital.

Enhances process understanding, highlights bottlenecks or inefficiencies, and supports process optimization and standardization efforts.

How to use a flowchart

Gather a team of employees involved in carrying out the process for analyzing it.
List down the steps involved in the process from its start to end.
If you are using an online tool like Creately , you can first write down the process steps and rearrange them later on the canvas as you identify the flow.
Identify the sequence of steps; when representing the flow with your flowchart, show it from left to write or from top to bottom.
Connect the shapes with arrows to indicate the flow.

Who can use it?

Process improvement teams mapping and documenting existing processes for analysis.
Business analysts or consultants analyzing workflow and process optimization opportunities.
Software developers or system designers documenting the flow of information or interactions in a system.

To learn more about flowcharts, refer to our Ultimate Flowchart Tutorial .

Flowchart Template 7 Basic Quality Tools

A histogram is a type of bar chart that visualizes the distribution of numerical data. It groups numbers into ranges and the height of the bar indicates how many fall into each range.

It’s a powerful quality planning and control tool that helps you understand preventive and corrective actions.

To easily interpret a large amount of data and identify patterns.
To make predictions of process performance.
To identify the different causes of a quality problem.
Analyzing the distribution of call wait times in a call center.
Assessing the distribution of product weights in a manufacturing process.
Examining the variation in delivery times for an e-commerce business.

Provides insights into process performance and variation, enabling teams to target areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions.

How to make a histogram

Collect data for analysis. Record occurrences of specific ranges using a tally chart.
Analyze the data at hand and split the data into intervals or bins.
Count how many values fall into each bin.
On the graph, indicate the frequency of occurrences for each bin with the area (height) of the bar.
Process engineers or data analysts examining process performance metrics.
Financial analysts analyzing expenditure patterns or budget variances.
Supply chain managers assessing supplier performance or delivery times.

Here’s a useful article to learn more about using a histogram for quality improvement in more detail.

This tool is devised by Kaoru Ishikawa himself and is also known as the fishbone diagram (for it’s shaped like the skeleton of a fish) and Ishikawa diagram.

They are used for identifying the various factors (causes) leading to an issue (effect). It ultimately helps discover the root cause of the problem allowing you to find the correct solution effectively.

Problem-solving; finding root causes of a problem.
Uncovering the relationships between different causes leading to a problem.
During group brainstorming sessions to gather different perspectives on the matter.
Investigating the potential causes of low employee morale or high turnover rates.
Analyzing the factors contributing to product defects in a manufacturing process.
Identifying the root causes of customer complaints in a service industry.

Enhances problem-solving by systematically identifying and organizing possible causes, allowing teams to address root causes rather than symptoms.

How to use the cause and effect diagram

Identify the problem area that needs to be analyzed and write it down at the head of the diagram.
Identify the main causes of the problem. These are the labels for the main branches of the fishbone diagram. These main categories can include methods, material, machinery, people, policies, procedures, etc.
Identify plausible sub-causes of the main causes and attach them as sub-branches to the main branches.
Referring to the diagram you have created, do a deeper investigation of the major and minor causes.
Once you have identified the root cause, create an action plan outlining your strategy to overcome the problem.
Cross-functional improvement teams working on complex problems or process improvement projects.
Quality engineers investigating the root causes of quality issues.
Product designers or engineers seeking to understand the factors affecting product performance.

Fishbone Diagram 7 Basic Tools of Quality

The scatter diagram (scatter charts, scatter plots, scattergrams, scatter graphs) is a chart that helps you identify how two variables are related.

The scatter diagram shows the values of the two variables plotted along the two axes of the graph. The pattern of the resulting points will reveal the correlation.

To validate the relationship between causes and effects.
To understand the causes of poor performance.
To understand the influence of the independent variable over the dependent variable.
Exploring the relationship between advertising expenditure and sales revenue.
Analyzing the correlation between employee training hours and performance metrics.
Investigating the connection between temperature and product quality in a production line.

Helps identify correlations or patterns between variables, facilitating the understanding of cause-and-effect relationships and aiding in decision-making.

How to make a scatter diagram

Start with collecting data needed for validation. Understand the cause and effect relationship between the two variables.
Identify dependent and independent variables. The dependent variable plotted along the vertical axis is called the measures parameter. The independent variable plotted along the horizontal axis is called the control parameter.
Draw the graph based on the collected data. Add horizontal axis and vertical axis name and draw the trend line.
Based on the trend line, analyze the diagram to understand the correlation which can be categorized as Strong, Moderate and No Relation.
Data analysts exploring relationships between variables in research or analytics projects.
Manufacturing engineers investigating the correlation between process parameters and product quality.
Sales or marketing teams analyzing the relationship between marketing efforts and sales performance.

Check sheets provide a systematic way to collect, record and present quantitative and qualitative data about quality problems. A check sheet used to collect quantitative data is known as a tally sheet.

It is one of the most popular QC tools and it makes data gathering much simpler.

To check the shape of the probability distribution of a process
To quantify defects by type, by location or by cause
To keep track of the completion of steps in a multistep procedure (as a checklist )
Tracking the number of defects or errors in a manufacturing process.
Recording customer complaints or inquiries to identify common issues.
Monitoring the frequency of equipment breakdowns or maintenance needs.

Provides a structured approach for data collection, making it easier to identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement.

How to make a checksheet

Identify the needed information.
Why do you need to collect the data?
What type of information should you collect?
Where should you collect the data from?
Who should collect the data?
When should you collect the data?
How should you measure the data?
How much data is essential?

Construct your sheet based on the title, source information and content information (refer to the example below).

Test the sheets. Make sure that all the rows and columns in it are required and relevant and that the sheet is easy to refer to and use. Test it with other collectors and make adjustments based on feedback.

Quality inspectors or auditors who need to collect data on defects or issues.
Process operators or technicians responsible for tracking process parameters or measurements.
Customer service representatives who record customer complaints or inquiries.

Control Chart

The control chart is a type of run chart used to observe and study process variation resulting from a common or special cause over a period of time.

The chart helps measure the variations and visualize it to show whether the change is within an acceptable limit or not. It helps track metrics such as defects, cost per unit, production time, inventory on hand , etc.

Control charts are generally used in manufacturing, process improvement methodologies like Six Sigma and stock trading algorithms.

To determine whether a process is stable.
To monitor processes and learn how to improve poor performance.
To recognize abnormal changes in a process.
Monitoring the variation in product dimensions during a manufacturing process.
Tracking the number of customer complaints received per day.
Monitoring the average response time of a customer support team.

Enables real-time monitoring of process stability, early detection of deviations or abnormalities, and prompt corrective actions to maintain consistent quality.

How to create a control chart

Gather data on the characteristic of interest.
Calculate mean and upper/lower control limits.
Create a graph and plot the collected data.
Add lines representing the mean and control limits to the graph.
Look for patterns, trends, or points beyond control limits.
Determine if the process is in control or out of control.
Investigate and address causes of out-of-control points.
Regularly update the chart with new data and analyze for ongoing improvement.
Production supervisors or operators monitoring process performance on the shop floor.
Quality control or assurance personnel tracking variation in product quality over time.
Service managers observing customer satisfaction levels and service performance metrics.

Pareto Chart

The Pareto chart is a combination of a bar graph and a line graph. It helps identify the facts needed to set priorities.

The Pareto chart organizes and presents information in such a way that makes it easier to understand the relative importance of various problems or causes of problems. It comes in the shape of a vertical bar chart and displays the defects in order (from the highest to the lowest) while the line graph shows the cumulative percentage of the defect.

To identify the relative importance of the causes of a problem.
To help teams identify the causes that will have the highest impact when solved.
To easily calculate the impact of a defect on the production.
Analyzing customer feedback to identify the most common product or service issues.
Prioritizing improvement efforts based on the frequency of quality incidents.
Identifying the major causes of delays in project management.

Helps focus improvement efforts on the most significant factors or problems, leading to effective allocation of resources and improved outcomes.

How to create a Pareto chart

Select the problem for investigation. Also, select a method and time for collecting information. If necessary create a check sheet for recording information.
Once you have collected the data, go through them and sort them out to calculate the cumulative percentage.
Draw the graph, bars, cumulative percentage line and add labels (refer to the example below).
Analyze the chart to identify the vital few problems from the trivial many by using the 80/20 rule . Plan further actions to eliminate the identified defects by finding their root causes.
Quality managers or improvement teams looking to prioritize improvement initiatives.
Project managers seeking to identify and address the most critical project risks.
Sales or marketing teams analyzing customer feedback or product issues.

Pareto Chart 7 Quality ToolsControl Chart Seven Basic Quality Tools

What’s Your Favorite Out of the 7 Basic Quality Tools?

You can use these 7 basic quality tools individually or together to effectively investigate processes and identify areas for improvement. According to Ishikawa, it’s important that all employees learn how to use these tools to ensure the achievement of excellent performance throughout the organization.

Got anything to add to our guide? Let us know in the comments section below.

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FAQs about 7 Basic Quality Tools

Quality problems in an organization can manifest in various forms and affect different areas of operations.

Product defects: Products may have defects or non-conformities that deviate from quality specifications, leading to customer dissatisfaction, returns, or warranty claims.
Service errors: Service errors can occur when services do not meet customer expectations, such as incorrect billing, delays in delivery, or inadequate customer support.
Process inefficiencies: Inefficient processes can lead to delays, errors, or rework, resulting in increased costs, decreased productivity, and customer dissatisfaction.
Poor design or innovation: Inadequate product design or lack of innovation can lead to products that do not meet customer needs, lack competitive features, or have usability issues.
Supplier quality issues: Poor quality materials or components from suppliers can affect the overall quality of the final product or service.
Ineffective quality management systems: Inadequate quality management systems, such as lack of quality standards, processes, or documentation, can contribute to quality problems throughout the organization.

The basic quality improvement steps typically follow a systematic approach to identify, analyze, implement, and monitor improvements in processes or products.

Clearly articulate the problem or identify the area for improvement.
Collect relevant data and information related to the problem.
Analyze the collected data to identify patterns, root causes, and opportunities for improvement.
Brainstorm and generate potential improvement ideas or solutions.
Assess the feasibility, impact, and effectiveness of the generated improvement ideas.
Develop an action plan to implement the chosen solution.
Continuously monitor and measure the results of the implemented solution.
Based on the monitoring results, evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented solution.
Once the improvement is successful, document the new processes, best practices, or standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Iterate through the steps to continuously improve processes and products.

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Nine essential problem solving tools: The ultimate guide to finding a solution

October 26, 2023 by MindManager Blog

Problem solving may unfold differently depending on the industry, or even the department you work in. However, most agree that before you can fix any issue, you need to be clear on what it is, why it’s happening, and what your ideal long-term solution will achieve.

Understanding both the nature and the cause of a problem is the only way to figure out which actions will help you resolve it.

Given that most problem-solving processes are part inspiration and part perspiration, you’ll be more successful if you can reach for a problem solving tool that facilitates collaboration, encourages creative thinking, and makes it easier to implement the fix you devise.

The problem solving tools include three unique categories: problem solving diagrams, problem solving mind maps, and problem solving software solutions.

They include:

Fishbone diagrams
Strategy maps
Mental maps
Concept maps
Layered process audit software
Charting software
MindManager

In this article, we’ve put together a roundup of versatile problem solving tools and software to help you and your team map out and repair workplace issues as efficiently as possible.

Let’s get started!

Problem solving diagrams

Mapping your way out of a problem is the simplest way to see where you are, and where you need to end up.

Not only do visual problem maps let you plot the most efficient route from Point A (dysfunctional situation) to Point B (flawless process), problem mapping diagrams make it easier to see:

The root cause of a dilemma.
The steps, resources, and personnel associated with each possible solution.
The least time-consuming, most cost-effective options.

A visual problem solving process help to solidify understanding. Furthermore, it’s a great way for you and your team to transform abstract ideas into a practical, reconstructive plan.

Here are three examples of common problem mapping diagrams you can try with your team:

1. Fishbone diagrams

Fishbone diagrams are a common problem solving tool so-named because, once complete, they resemble the skeleton of a fish.

With the possible root causes of an issue (the ribs) branching off from either side of a spine line attached to the head (the problem), dynamic fishbone diagrams let you:

Lay out a related set of possible reasons for an existing problem
Investigate each possibility by breaking it out into sub-causes
See how contributing factors relate to one another

Fishbone diagrams are also known as cause and effect or Ishikawa diagrams.

2. Flowcharts

A flowchart is an easy-to-understand diagram with a variety of applications. But you can use it to outline and examine how the steps of a flawed process connect.

Made up of a few simple symbols linked with arrows indicating workflow direction, flowcharts clearly illustrate what happens at each stage of a process – and how each event impacts other events and decisions.

3. Strategy maps

Frequently used as a strategic planning tool, strategy maps also work well as problem mapping diagrams. Based on a hierarchal system, thoughts and ideas can be arranged on a single page to flesh out a potential resolution.

Once you’ve got a few tactics you feel are worth exploring as possible ways to overcome a challenge, a strategy map will help you establish the best route to your problem-solving goal.

Problem solving mind maps

Problem solving mind maps are especially valuable in visualization. Because they facilitate the brainstorming process that plays a key role in both root cause analysis and the identification of potential solutions, they help make problems more solvable.

Mind maps are diagrams that represent your thinking. Since many people struggle taking or working with hand-written or typed notes, mind maps were designed to let you lay out and structure your thoughts visually so you can play with ideas, concepts, and solutions the same way your brain does.

By starting with a single notion that branches out into greater detail, problem solving mind maps make it easy to:

Explain unfamiliar problems or processes in less time
Share and elaborate on novel ideas
Achieve better group comprehension that can lead to more effective solutions

Mind maps are a valuable problem solving tool because they’re geared toward bringing out the flexible thinking that creative solutions require. Here are three types of problem solving mind maps you can use to facilitate the brainstorming process.

4. Mental maps

A mental map helps you get your thoughts about what might be causing a workplace issue out of your head and onto a shared digital space.

Because mental maps mirror the way our brains take in and analyze new information, using them to describe your theories visually will help you and your team work through and test those thought models.

5. Idea maps

Idea maps let you take advantage of a wide assortment of colors and images to lay down and organize your scattered thought process. Idea maps are ideal brainstorming tools because they allow you to present and explore ideas about the best way to solve a problem collaboratively, and with a shared sense of enthusiasm for outside-the-box thinking.

6. Concept maps

Concept maps are one of the best ways to shape your thoughts around a potential solution because they let you create interlinked, visual representations of intricate concepts.

By laying out your suggested problem-solving process digitally – and using lines to form and define relationship connections – your group will be able to see how each piece of the solution puzzle connects with another.

Problem solving software solutions

Problem solving software is the best way to take advantage of multiple problem solving tools in one platform. While some software programs are geared toward specific industries or processes – like manufacturing or customer relationship management, for example – others, like MindManager , are purpose-built to work across multiple trades, departments, and teams.

Here are three problem-solving software examples.

7. Layered process audit software

Layered process audits (LPAs) help companies oversee production processes and keep an eye on the cost and quality of the goods they create. Dedicated LPA software makes problem solving easier for manufacturers because it helps them see where costly leaks are occurring and allows all levels of management to get involved in repairing those leaks.

8. Charting software

Charting software comes in all shapes and sizes to fit a variety of business sectors. Pareto charts, for example, combine bar charts with line graphs so companies can compare different problems or contributing factors to determine their frequency, cost, and significance. Charting software is often used in marketing, where a variety of bar charts and X-Y axis diagrams make it possible to display and examine competitor profiles, customer segmentation, and sales trends.

9. MindManager

No matter where you work, or what your problem-solving role looks like, MindManager is a problem solving software that will make your team more productive in figuring out why a process, plan, or project isn’t working the way it should.

Once you know why an obstruction, shortfall, or difficulty exists, you can use MindManager’s wide range of brainstorming and problem mapping diagrams to:

Find the most promising way to correct the situation
Activate your chosen solution, and
Conduct regular checks to make sure your repair work is sustainable

MindManager is the ultimate problem solving software.

Not only is it versatile enough to use as your go-to system for puzzling out all types of workplace problems, MindManager’s built-in forecasting tools, timeline charts, and warning indicators let you plan, implement, and monitor your solutions.

By allowing your group to work together more effectively to break down problems, uncover solutions, and rebuild processes and workflows, MindManager’s versatile collection of problem solving tools will help make everyone on your team a more efficient problem solver.

Download a free trial today to get started!

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35 problem-solving techniques and methods for solving complex problems

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How do you identify problems?

How do you identify the right solution.

Tips for more effective problem-solving

Complete problem-solving methods

Problem-solving techniques to identify and analyze problems
Problem-solving techniques for developing solutions

Problem-solving warm-up activities

Closing activities for a problem-solving process.

Before you can move towards finding the right solution for a given problem, you first need to identify and define the problem you wish to solve.

Here, you want to clearly articulate what the problem is and allow your group to do the same. Remember that everyone in a group is likely to have differing perspectives and alignment is necessary in order to help the group move forward.

Identifying a problem accurately also requires that all members of a group are able to contribute their views in an open and safe manner. It can be scary for people to stand up and contribute, especially if the problems or challenges are emotive or personal in nature. Be sure to try and create a psychologically safe space for these kinds of discussions.

Remember that problem analysis and further discussion are also important. Not taking the time to fully analyze and discuss a challenge can result in the development of solutions that are not fit for purpose or do not address the underlying issue.

Successfully identifying and then analyzing a problem means facilitating a group through activities designed to help them clearly and honestly articulate their thoughts and produce usable insight.

With this data, you might then produce a problem statement that clearly describes the problem you wish to be addressed and also state the goal of any process you undertake to tackle this issue.

Finding solutions is the end goal of any process. Complex organizational challenges can only be solved with an appropriate solution but discovering them requires using the right problem-solving tool.

After you’ve explored a problem and discussed ideas, you need to help a team discuss and choose the right solution. Consensus tools and methods such as those below help a group explore possible solutions before then voting for the best. They’re a great way to tap into the collective intelligence of the group for great results!

Remember that the process is often iterative. Great problem solvers often roadtest a viable solution in a measured way to see what works too. While you might not get the right solution on your first try, the methods below help teams land on the most likely to succeed solution while also holding space for improvement.

Every effective problem solving process begins with an agenda . A well-structured workshop is one of the best methods for successfully guiding a group from exploring a problem to implementing a solution.

In SessionLab, it’s easy to go from an idea to a complete agenda . Start by dragging and dropping your core problem solving activities into place . Add timings, breaks and necessary materials before sharing your agenda with your colleagues.

The resulting agenda will be your guide to an effective and productive problem solving session that will also help you stay organized on the day!

Tips for more effective problem solving

Problem-solving activities are only one part of the puzzle. While a great method can help unlock your team’s ability to solve problems, without a thoughtful approach and strong facilitation the solutions may not be fit for purpose.

Let’s take a look at some problem-solving tips you can apply to any process to help it be a success!

Clearly define the problem

Jumping straight to solutions can be tempting, though without first clearly articulating a problem, the solution might not be the right one. Many of the problem-solving activities below include sections where the problem is explored and clearly defined before moving on.

This is a vital part of the problem-solving process and taking the time to fully define an issue can save time and effort later. A clear definition helps identify irrelevant information and it also ensures that your team sets off on the right track.

Don’t jump to conclusions

It’s easy for groups to exhibit cognitive bias or have preconceived ideas about both problems and potential solutions. Be sure to back up any problem statements or potential solutions with facts, research, and adequate forethought.

The best techniques ask participants to be methodical and challenge preconceived notions. Make sure you give the group enough time and space to collect relevant information and consider the problem in a new way. By approaching the process with a clear, rational mindset, you’ll often find that better solutions are more forthcoming.

Try different approaches

Problems come in all shapes and sizes and so too should the methods you use to solve them. If you find that one approach isn’t yielding results and your team isn’t finding different solutions, try mixing it up. You’ll be surprised at how using a new creative activity can unblock your team and generate great solutions.

Don’t take it personally

Depending on the nature of your team or organizational problems, it’s easy for conversations to get heated. While it’s good for participants to be engaged in the discussions, ensure that emotions don’t run too high and that blame isn’t thrown around while finding solutions.

You’re all in it together, and even if your team or area is seeing problems, that isn’t necessarily a disparagement of you personally. Using facilitation skills to manage group dynamics is one effective method of helping conversations be more constructive.

Get the right people in the room

Your problem-solving method is often only as effective as the group using it. Getting the right people on the job and managing the number of people present is important too!

If the group is too small, you may not get enough different perspectives to effectively solve a problem. If the group is too large, you can go round and round during the ideation stages.

Creating the right group makeup is also important in ensuring you have the necessary expertise and skillset to both identify and follow up on potential solutions. Carefully consider who to include at each stage to help ensure your problem-solving method is followed and positioned for success.

Document everything

The best solutions can take refinement, iteration, and reflection to come out. Get into a habit of documenting your process in order to keep all the learnings from the session and to allow ideas to mature and develop. Many of the methods below involve the creation of documents or shared resources. Be sure to keep and share these so everyone can benefit from the work done!

Bring a facilitator

Facilitation is all about making group processes easier. With a subject as potentially emotive and important as problem-solving, having an impartial third party in the form of a facilitator can make all the difference in finding great solutions and keeping the process moving. Consider bringing a facilitator to your problem-solving session to get better results and generate meaningful solutions!

Develop your problem-solving skills

It takes time and practice to be an effective problem solver. While some roles or participants might more naturally gravitate towards problem-solving, it can take development and planning to help everyone create better solutions.

You might develop a training program, run a problem-solving workshop or simply ask your team to practice using the techniques below. Check out our post on problem-solving skills to see how you and your group can develop the right mental process and be more resilient to issues too!

Design a great agenda

Workshops are a great format for solving problems. With the right approach, you can focus a group and help them find the solutions to their own problems. But designing a process can be time-consuming and finding the right activities can be difficult.

Check out our workshop planning guide to level-up your agenda design and start running more effective workshops. Need inspiration? Check out templates designed by expert facilitators to help you kickstart your process!

In this section, we’ll look at in-depth problem-solving methods that provide a complete end-to-end process for developing effective solutions. These will help guide your team from the discovery and definition of a problem through to delivering the right solution.

If you’re looking for an all-encompassing method or problem-solving model, these processes are a great place to start. They’ll ask your team to challenge preconceived ideas and adopt a mindset for solving problems more effectively.

Six Thinking Hats
Lightning Decision Jam
Problem Definition Process
Discovery & Action Dialogue

Design Sprint 2.0

Open Space Technology

1. Six Thinking Hats

Individual approaches to solving a problem can be very different based on what team or role an individual holds. It can be easy for existing biases or perspectives to find their way into the mix, or for internal politics to direct a conversation.

Six Thinking Hats is a classic method for identifying the problems that need to be solved and enables your team to consider them from different angles, whether that is by focusing on facts and data, creative solutions, or by considering why a particular solution might not work.

Like all problem-solving frameworks, Six Thinking Hats is effective at helping teams remove roadblocks from a conversation or discussion and come to terms with all the aspects necessary to solve complex problems.

2. Lightning Decision Jam

Featured courtesy of Jonathan Courtney of AJ&Smart Berlin, Lightning Decision Jam is one of those strategies that should be in every facilitation toolbox. Exploring problems and finding solutions is often creative in nature, though as with any creative process, there is the potential to lose focus and get lost.

Unstructured discussions might get you there in the end, but it’s much more effective to use a method that creates a clear process and team focus.

In Lightning Decision Jam, participants are invited to begin by writing challenges, concerns, or mistakes on post-its without discussing them before then being invited by the moderator to present them to the group.

From there, the team vote on which problems to solve and are guided through steps that will allow them to reframe those problems, create solutions and then decide what to execute on.

By deciding the problems that need to be solved as a team before moving on, this group process is great for ensuring the whole team is aligned and can take ownership over the next stages.

Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ) #action #decision making #problem solving #issue analysis #innovation #design #remote-friendly The problem with anything that requires creative thinking is that it’s easy to get lost—lose focus and fall into the trap of having useless, open-ended, unstructured discussions. Here’s the most effective solution I’ve found: Replace all open, unstructured discussion with a clear process. What to use this exercise for: Anything which requires a group of people to make decisions, solve problems or discuss challenges. It’s always good to frame an LDJ session with a broad topic, here are some examples: The conversion flow of our checkout Our internal design process How we organise events Keeping up with our competition Improving sales flow

3. Problem Definition Process

While problems can be complex, the problem-solving methods you use to identify and solve those problems can often be simple in design.

By taking the time to truly identify and define a problem before asking the group to reframe the challenge as an opportunity, this method is a great way to enable change.

Begin by identifying a focus question and exploring the ways in which it manifests before splitting into five teams who will each consider the problem using a different method: escape, reversal, exaggeration, distortion or wishful. Teams develop a problem objective and create ideas in line with their method before then feeding them back to the group.

This method is great for enabling in-depth discussions while also creating space for finding creative solutions too!

Problem Definition #problem solving #idea generation #creativity #online #remote-friendly A problem solving technique to define a problem, challenge or opportunity and to generate ideas.

4. The 5 Whys

Sometimes, a group needs to go further with their strategies and analyze the root cause at the heart of organizational issues. An RCA or root cause analysis is the process of identifying what is at the heart of business problems or recurring challenges.

The 5 Whys is a simple and effective method of helping a group go find the root cause of any problem or challenge and conduct analysis that will deliver results.

By beginning with the creation of a problem statement and going through five stages to refine it, The 5 Whys provides everything you need to truly discover the cause of an issue.

The 5 Whys #hyperisland #innovation This simple and powerful method is useful for getting to the core of a problem or challenge. As the title suggests, the group defines a problems, then asks the question “why” five times, often using the resulting explanation as a starting point for creative problem solving.

5. World Cafe

World Cafe is a simple but powerful facilitation technique to help bigger groups to focus their energy and attention on solving complex problems.

World Cafe enables this approach by creating a relaxed atmosphere where participants are able to self-organize and explore topics relevant and important to them which are themed around a central problem-solving purpose. Create the right atmosphere by modeling your space after a cafe and after guiding the group through the method, let them take the lead!

Making problem-solving a part of your organization’s culture in the long term can be a difficult undertaking. More approachable formats like World Cafe can be especially effective in bringing people unfamiliar with workshops into the fold.

World Cafe #hyperisland #innovation #issue analysis World Café is a simple yet powerful method, originated by Juanita Brown, for enabling meaningful conversations driven completely by participants and the topics that are relevant and important to them. Facilitators create a cafe-style space and provide simple guidelines. Participants then self-organize and explore a set of relevant topics or questions for conversation.

6. Discovery & Action Dialogue (DAD)

One of the best approaches is to create a safe space for a group to share and discover practices and behaviors that can help them find their own solutions.

With DAD, you can help a group choose which problems they wish to solve and which approaches they will take to do so. It’s great at helping remove resistance to change and can help get buy-in at every level too!

This process of enabling frontline ownership is great in ensuring follow-through and is one of the methods you will want in your toolbox as a facilitator.

Discovery & Action Dialogue (DAD) #idea generation #liberating structures #action #issue analysis #remote-friendly DADs make it easy for a group or community to discover practices and behaviors that enable some individuals (without access to special resources and facing the same constraints) to find better solutions than their peers to common problems. These are called positive deviant (PD) behaviors and practices. DADs make it possible for people in the group, unit, or community to discover by themselves these PD practices. DADs also create favorable conditions for stimulating participants’ creativity in spaces where they can feel safe to invent new and more effective practices. Resistance to change evaporates as participants are unleashed to choose freely which practices they will adopt or try and which problems they will tackle. DADs make it possible to achieve frontline ownership of solutions.

7. Design Sprint 2.0

Want to see how a team can solve big problems and move forward with prototyping and testing solutions in a few days? The Design Sprint 2.0 template from Jake Knapp, author of Sprint, is a complete agenda for a with proven results.

Developing the right agenda can involve difficult but necessary planning. Ensuring all the correct steps are followed can also be stressful or time-consuming depending on your level of experience.

Use this complete 4-day workshop template if you are finding there is no obvious solution to your challenge and want to focus your team around a specific problem that might require a shortcut to launching a minimum viable product or waiting for the organization-wide implementation of a solution.

8. Open space technology

Open space technology- developed by Harrison Owen – creates a space where large groups are invited to take ownership of their problem solving and lead individual sessions. Open space technology is a great format when you have a great deal of expertise and insight in the room and want to allow for different takes and approaches on a particular theme or problem you need to be solved.

Start by bringing your participants together to align around a central theme and focus their efforts. Explain the ground rules to help guide the problem-solving process and then invite members to identify any issue connecting to the central theme that they are interested in and are prepared to take responsibility for.

Once participants have decided on their approach to the core theme, they write their issue on a piece of paper, announce it to the group, pick a session time and place, and post the paper on the wall. As the wall fills up with sessions, the group is then invited to join the sessions that interest them the most and which they can contribute to, then you’re ready to begin!

Everyone joins the problem-solving group they’ve signed up to, record the discussion and if appropriate, findings can then be shared with the rest of the group afterward.

Open Space Technology #action plan #idea generation #problem solving #issue analysis #large group #online #remote-friendly Open Space is a methodology for large groups to create their agenda discerning important topics for discussion, suitable for conferences, community gatherings and whole system facilitation

Techniques to identify and analyze problems

Using a problem-solving method to help a team identify and analyze a problem can be a quick and effective addition to any workshop or meeting.

While further actions are always necessary, you can generate momentum and alignment easily, and these activities are a great place to get started.

We’ve put together this list of techniques to help you and your team with problem identification, analysis, and discussion that sets the foundation for developing effective solutions.

Let’s take a look!

The Creativity Dice
Fishbone Analysis
Problem Tree
SWOT Analysis
Agreement-Certainty Matrix
The Journalistic Six
LEGO Challenge
What, So What, Now What?
Journalists

Individual and group perspectives are incredibly important, but what happens if people are set in their minds and need a change of perspective in order to approach a problem more effectively?

Flip It is a method we love because it is both simple to understand and run, and allows groups to understand how their perspectives and biases are formed.

Participants in Flip It are first invited to consider concerns, issues, or problems from a perspective of fear and write them on a flip chart. Then, the group is asked to consider those same issues from a perspective of hope and flip their understanding.

No problem and solution is free from existing bias and by changing perspectives with Flip It, you can then develop a problem solving model quickly and effectively.

Flip It! #gamestorming #problem solving #action Often, a change in a problem or situation comes simply from a change in our perspectives. Flip It! is a quick game designed to show players that perspectives are made, not born.

10. The Creativity Dice

One of the most useful problem solving skills you can teach your team is of approaching challenges with creativity, flexibility, and openness. Games like The Creativity Dice allow teams to overcome the potential hurdle of too much linear thinking and approach the process with a sense of fun and speed.

In The Creativity Dice, participants are organized around a topic and roll a dice to determine what they will work on for a period of 3 minutes at a time. They might roll a 3 and work on investigating factual information on the chosen topic. They might roll a 1 and work on identifying the specific goals, standards, or criteria for the session.

Encouraging rapid work and iteration while asking participants to be flexible are great skills to cultivate. Having a stage for idea incubation in this game is also important. Moments of pause can help ensure the ideas that are put forward are the most suitable.

The Creativity Dice #creativity #problem solving #thiagi #issue analysis Too much linear thinking is hazardous to creative problem solving. To be creative, you should approach the problem (or the opportunity) from different points of view. You should leave a thought hanging in mid-air and move to another. This skipping around prevents premature closure and lets your brain incubate one line of thought while you consciously pursue another.

11. Fishbone Analysis

Organizational or team challenges are rarely simple, and it’s important to remember that one problem can be an indication of something that goes deeper and may require further consideration to be solved.

Fishbone Analysis helps groups to dig deeper and understand the origins of a problem. It’s a great example of a root cause analysis method that is simple for everyone on a team to get their head around.

Participants in this activity are asked to annotate a diagram of a fish, first adding the problem or issue to be worked on at the head of a fish before then brainstorming the root causes of the problem and adding them as bones on the fish.

Using abstractions such as a diagram of a fish can really help a team break out of their regular thinking and develop a creative approach.

Fishbone Analysis #problem solving ##root cause analysis #decision making #online facilitation A process to help identify and understand the origins of problems, issues or observations.

12. Problem Tree

Encouraging visual thinking can be an essential part of many strategies. By simply reframing and clarifying problems, a group can move towards developing a problem solving model that works for them.

In Problem Tree, groups are asked to first brainstorm a list of problems – these can be design problems, team problems or larger business problems – and then organize them into a hierarchy. The hierarchy could be from most important to least important or abstract to practical, though the key thing with problem solving games that involve this aspect is that your group has some way of managing and sorting all the issues that are raised.

Once you have a list of problems that need to be solved and have organized them accordingly, you’re then well-positioned for the next problem solving steps.

Problem tree #define intentions #create #design #issue analysis A problem tree is a tool to clarify the hierarchy of problems addressed by the team within a design project; it represents high level problems or related sublevel problems.

13. SWOT Analysis

Chances are you’ve heard of the SWOT Analysis before. This problem-solving method focuses on identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is a tried and tested method for both individuals and teams.

Start by creating a desired end state or outcome and bare this in mind – any process solving model is made more effective by knowing what you are moving towards. Create a quadrant made up of the four categories of a SWOT analysis and ask participants to generate ideas based on each of those quadrants.

Once you have those ideas assembled in their quadrants, cluster them together based on their affinity with other ideas. These clusters are then used to facilitate group conversations and move things forward.

SWOT analysis #gamestorming #problem solving #action #meeting facilitation The SWOT Analysis is a long-standing technique of looking at what we have, with respect to the desired end state, as well as what we could improve on. It gives us an opportunity to gauge approaching opportunities and dangers, and assess the seriousness of the conditions that affect our future. When we understand those conditions, we can influence what comes next.

14. Agreement-Certainty Matrix

Not every problem-solving approach is right for every challenge, and deciding on the right method for the challenge at hand is a key part of being an effective team.

The Agreement Certainty matrix helps teams align on the nature of the challenges facing them. By sorting problems from simple to chaotic, your team can understand what methods are suitable for each problem and what they can do to ensure effective results.

If you are already using Liberating Structures techniques as part of your problem-solving strategy, the Agreement-Certainty Matrix can be an invaluable addition to your process. We’ve found it particularly if you are having issues with recurring problems in your organization and want to go deeper in understanding the root cause.

Agreement-Certainty Matrix #issue analysis #liberating structures #problem solving You can help individuals or groups avoid the frequent mistake of trying to solve a problem with methods that are not adapted to the nature of their challenge. The combination of two questions makes it possible to easily sort challenges into four categories: simple, complicated, complex , and chaotic . A problem is simple when it can be solved reliably with practices that are easy to duplicate. It is complicated when experts are required to devise a sophisticated solution that will yield the desired results predictably. A problem is complex when there are several valid ways to proceed but outcomes are not predictable in detail. Chaotic is when the context is too turbulent to identify a path forward. A loose analogy may be used to describe these differences: simple is like following a recipe, complicated like sending a rocket to the moon, complex like raising a child, and chaotic is like the game “Pin the Tail on the Donkey.” The Liberating Structures Matching Matrix in Chapter 5 can be used as the first step to clarify the nature of a challenge and avoid the mismatches between problems and solutions that are frequently at the root of chronic, recurring problems.

Organizing and charting a team’s progress can be important in ensuring its success. SQUID (Sequential Question and Insight Diagram) is a great model that allows a team to effectively switch between giving questions and answers and develop the skills they need to stay on track throughout the process.

Begin with two different colored sticky notes – one for questions and one for answers – and with your central topic (the head of the squid) on the board. Ask the group to first come up with a series of questions connected to their best guess of how to approach the topic. Ask the group to come up with answers to those questions, fix them to the board and connect them with a line. After some discussion, go back to question mode by responding to the generated answers or other points on the board.

It’s rewarding to see a diagram grow throughout the exercise, and a completed SQUID can provide a visual resource for future effort and as an example for other teams.

SQUID #gamestorming #project planning #issue analysis #problem solving When exploring an information space, it’s important for a group to know where they are at any given time. By using SQUID, a group charts out the territory as they go and can navigate accordingly. SQUID stands for Sequential Question and Insight Diagram.

16. Speed Boat

To continue with our nautical theme, Speed Boat is a short and sweet activity that can help a team quickly identify what employees, clients or service users might have a problem with and analyze what might be standing in the way of achieving a solution.

Methods that allow for a group to make observations, have insights and obtain those eureka moments quickly are invaluable when trying to solve complex problems.

In Speed Boat, the approach is to first consider what anchors and challenges might be holding an organization (or boat) back. Bonus points if you are able to identify any sharks in the water and develop ideas that can also deal with competitors!

Speed Boat #gamestorming #problem solving #action Speedboat is a short and sweet way to identify what your employees or clients don’t like about your product/service or what’s standing in the way of a desired goal.

17. The Journalistic Six

Some of the most effective ways of solving problems is by encouraging teams to be more inclusive and diverse in their thinking.

Based on the six key questions journalism students are taught to answer in articles and news stories, The Journalistic Six helps create teams to see the whole picture. By using who, what, when, where, why, and how to facilitate the conversation and encourage creative thinking, your team can make sure that the problem identification and problem analysis stages of the are covered exhaustively and thoughtfully. Reporter’s notebook and dictaphone optional.

The Journalistic Six – Who What When Where Why How #idea generation #issue analysis #problem solving #online #creative thinking #remote-friendly A questioning method for generating, explaining, investigating ideas.

18. LEGO Challenge

Now for an activity that is a little out of the (toy) box. LEGO Serious Play is a facilitation methodology that can be used to improve creative thinking and problem-solving skills.

The LEGO Challenge includes giving each member of the team an assignment that is hidden from the rest of the group while they create a structure without speaking.

What the LEGO challenge brings to the table is a fun working example of working with stakeholders who might not be on the same page to solve problems. Also, it’s LEGO! Who doesn’t love LEGO!

LEGO Challenge #hyperisland #team A team-building activity in which groups must work together to build a structure out of LEGO, but each individual has a secret “assignment” which makes the collaborative process more challenging. It emphasizes group communication, leadership dynamics, conflict, cooperation, patience and problem solving strategy.

19. What, So What, Now What?

If not carefully managed, the problem identification and problem analysis stages of the problem-solving process can actually create more problems and misunderstandings.

The What, So What, Now What? problem-solving activity is designed to help collect insights and move forward while also eliminating the possibility of disagreement when it comes to identifying, clarifying, and analyzing organizational or work problems.

Facilitation is all about bringing groups together so that might work on a shared goal and the best problem-solving strategies ensure that teams are aligned in purpose, if not initially in opinion or insight.

Throughout the three steps of this game, you give everyone on a team to reflect on a problem by asking what happened, why it is important, and what actions should then be taken.

This can be a great activity for bringing our individual perceptions about a problem or challenge and contextualizing it in a larger group setting. This is one of the most important problem-solving skills you can bring to your organization.

W³ – What, So What, Now What? #issue analysis #innovation #liberating structures You can help groups reflect on a shared experience in a way that builds understanding and spurs coordinated action while avoiding unproductive conflict. It is possible for every voice to be heard while simultaneously sifting for insights and shaping new direction. Progressing in stages makes this practical—from collecting facts about What Happened to making sense of these facts with So What and finally to what actions logically follow with Now What . The shared progression eliminates most of the misunderstandings that otherwise fuel disagreements about what to do. Voila!

20. Journalists

Problem analysis can be one of the most important and decisive stages of all problem-solving tools. Sometimes, a team can become bogged down in the details and are unable to move forward.

Journalists is an activity that can avoid a group from getting stuck in the problem identification or problem analysis stages of the process.

In Journalists, the group is invited to draft the front page of a fictional newspaper and figure out what stories deserve to be on the cover and what headlines those stories will have. By reframing how your problems and challenges are approached, you can help a team move productively through the process and be better prepared for the steps to follow.

Journalists #vision #big picture #issue analysis #remote-friendly This is an exercise to use when the group gets stuck in details and struggles to see the big picture. Also good for defining a vision.

Problem-solving techniques for developing solutions

The success of any problem-solving process can be measured by the solutions it produces. After you’ve defined the issue, explored existing ideas, and ideated, it’s time to narrow down to the correct solution.

Use these problem-solving techniques when you want to help your team find consensus, compare possible solutions, and move towards taking action on a particular problem.

Improved Solutions
Four-Step Sketch
15% Solutions
How-Now-Wow matrix
Impact Effort Matrix

21. Mindspin

Brainstorming is part of the bread and butter of the problem-solving process and all problem-solving strategies benefit from getting ideas out and challenging a team to generate solutions quickly.

With Mindspin, participants are encouraged not only to generate ideas but to do so under time constraints and by slamming down cards and passing them on. By doing multiple rounds, your team can begin with a free generation of possible solutions before moving on to developing those solutions and encouraging further ideation.

This is one of our favorite problem-solving activities and can be great for keeping the energy up throughout the workshop. Remember the importance of helping people become engaged in the process – energizing problem-solving techniques like Mindspin can help ensure your team stays engaged and happy, even when the problems they’re coming together to solve are complex.

MindSpin #teampedia #idea generation #problem solving #action A fast and loud method to enhance brainstorming within a team. Since this activity has more than round ideas that are repetitive can be ruled out leaving more creative and innovative answers to the challenge.

22. Improved Solutions

After a team has successfully identified a problem and come up with a few solutions, it can be tempting to call the work of the problem-solving process complete. That said, the first solution is not necessarily the best, and by including a further review and reflection activity into your problem-solving model, you can ensure your group reaches the best possible result.

One of a number of problem-solving games from Thiagi Group, Improved Solutions helps you go the extra mile and develop suggested solutions with close consideration and peer review. By supporting the discussion of several problems at once and by shifting team roles throughout, this problem-solving technique is a dynamic way of finding the best solution.

Improved Solutions #creativity #thiagi #problem solving #action #team You can improve any solution by objectively reviewing its strengths and weaknesses and making suitable adjustments. In this creativity framegame, you improve the solutions to several problems. To maintain objective detachment, you deal with a different problem during each of six rounds and assume different roles (problem owner, consultant, basher, booster, enhancer, and evaluator) during each round. At the conclusion of the activity, each player ends up with two solutions to her problem.

23. Four Step Sketch

Creative thinking and visual ideation does not need to be confined to the opening stages of your problem-solving strategies. Exercises that include sketching and prototyping on paper can be effective at the solution finding and development stage of the process, and can be great for keeping a team engaged.

By going from simple notes to a crazy 8s round that involves rapidly sketching 8 variations on their ideas before then producing a final solution sketch, the group is able to iterate quickly and visually. Problem-solving techniques like Four-Step Sketch are great if you have a group of different thinkers and want to change things up from a more textual or discussion-based approach.

Four-Step Sketch #design sprint #innovation #idea generation #remote-friendly The four-step sketch is an exercise that helps people to create well-formed concepts through a structured process that includes: Review key information Start design work on paper, Consider multiple variations , Create a detailed solution . This exercise is preceded by a set of other activities allowing the group to clarify the challenge they want to solve. See how the Four Step Sketch exercise fits into a Design Sprint

24. 15% Solutions

Some problems are simpler than others and with the right problem-solving activities, you can empower people to take immediate actions that can help create organizational change.

Part of the liberating structures toolkit, 15% solutions is a problem-solving technique that focuses on finding and implementing solutions quickly. A process of iterating and making small changes quickly can help generate momentum and an appetite for solving complex problems.

Problem-solving strategies can live and die on whether people are onboard. Getting some quick wins is a great way of getting people behind the process.

It can be extremely empowering for a team to realize that problem-solving techniques can be deployed quickly and easily and delineate between things they can positively impact and those things they cannot change.

15% Solutions #action #liberating structures #remote-friendly You can reveal the actions, however small, that everyone can do immediately. At a minimum, these will create momentum, and that may make a BIG difference. 15% Solutions show that there is no reason to wait around, feel powerless, or fearful. They help people pick it up a level. They get individuals and the group to focus on what is within their discretion instead of what they cannot change. With a very simple question, you can flip the conversation to what can be done and find solutions to big problems that are often distributed widely in places not known in advance. Shifting a few grains of sand may trigger a landslide and change the whole landscape.

25. How-Now-Wow Matrix

The problem-solving process is often creative, as complex problems usually require a change of thinking and creative response in order to find the best solutions. While it’s common for the first stages to encourage creative thinking, groups can often gravitate to familiar solutions when it comes to the end of the process.

When selecting solutions, you don’t want to lose your creative energy! The How-Now-Wow Matrix from Gamestorming is a great problem-solving activity that enables a group to stay creative and think out of the box when it comes to selecting the right solution for a given problem.

Problem-solving techniques that encourage creative thinking and the ideation and selection of new solutions can be the most effective in organisational change. Give the How-Now-Wow Matrix a go, and not just for how pleasant it is to say out loud.

How-Now-Wow Matrix #gamestorming #idea generation #remote-friendly When people want to develop new ideas, they most often think out of the box in the brainstorming or divergent phase. However, when it comes to convergence, people often end up picking ideas that are most familiar to them. This is called a ‘creative paradox’ or a ‘creadox’. The How-Now-Wow matrix is an idea selection tool that breaks the creadox by forcing people to weigh each idea on 2 parameters.

26. Impact and Effort Matrix

All problem-solving techniques hope to not only find solutions to a given problem or challenge but to find the best solution. When it comes to finding a solution, groups are invited to put on their decision-making hats and really think about how a proposed idea would work in practice.

The Impact and Effort Matrix is one of the problem-solving techniques that fall into this camp, empowering participants to first generate ideas and then categorize them into a 2×2 matrix based on impact and effort.

Activities that invite critical thinking while remaining simple are invaluable. Use the Impact and Effort Matrix to move from ideation and towards evaluating potential solutions before then committing to them.

Impact and Effort Matrix #gamestorming #decision making #action #remote-friendly In this decision-making exercise, possible actions are mapped based on two factors: effort required to implement and potential impact. Categorizing ideas along these lines is a useful technique in decision making, as it obliges contributors to balance and evaluate suggested actions before committing to them.

27. Dotmocracy

If you’ve followed each of the problem-solving steps with your group successfully, you should move towards the end of your process with heaps of possible solutions developed with a specific problem in mind. But how do you help a group go from ideation to putting a solution into action?

Dotmocracy – or Dot Voting -is a tried and tested method of helping a team in the problem-solving process make decisions and put actions in place with a degree of oversight and consensus.

One of the problem-solving techniques that should be in every facilitator’s toolbox, Dot Voting is fast and effective and can help identify the most popular and best solutions and help bring a group to a decision effectively.

Dotmocracy #action #decision making #group prioritization #hyperisland #remote-friendly Dotmocracy is a simple method for group prioritization or decision-making. It is not an activity on its own, but a method to use in processes where prioritization or decision-making is the aim. The method supports a group to quickly see which options are most popular or relevant. The options or ideas are written on post-its and stuck up on a wall for the whole group to see. Each person votes for the options they think are the strongest, and that information is used to inform a decision.

All facilitators know that warm-ups and icebreakers are useful for any workshop or group process. Problem-solving workshops are no different.

Use these problem-solving techniques to warm up a group and prepare them for the rest of the process. Activating your group by tapping into some of the top problem-solving skills can be one of the best ways to see great outcomes from your session.

Check-in/Check-out
Doodling Together
Show and Tell
Constellations
Draw a Tree

28. Check-in / Check-out

Solid processes are planned from beginning to end, and the best facilitators know that setting the tone and establishing a safe, open environment can be integral to a successful problem-solving process.

Check-in / Check-out is a great way to begin and/or bookend a problem-solving workshop. Checking in to a session emphasizes that everyone will be seen, heard, and expected to contribute.

If you are running a series of meetings, setting a consistent pattern of checking in and checking out can really help your team get into a groove. We recommend this opening-closing activity for small to medium-sized groups though it can work with large groups if they’re disciplined!

Check-in / Check-out #team #opening #closing #hyperisland #remote-friendly Either checking-in or checking-out is a simple way for a team to open or close a process, symbolically and in a collaborative way. Checking-in/out invites each member in a group to be present, seen and heard, and to express a reflection or a feeling. Checking-in emphasizes presence, focus and group commitment; checking-out emphasizes reflection and symbolic closure.

29. Doodling Together

Thinking creatively and not being afraid to make suggestions are important problem-solving skills for any group or team, and warming up by encouraging these behaviors is a great way to start.

Doodling Together is one of our favorite creative ice breaker games – it’s quick, effective, and fun and can make all following problem-solving steps easier by encouraging a group to collaborate visually. By passing cards and adding additional items as they go, the workshop group gets into a groove of co-creation and idea development that is crucial to finding solutions to problems.

Doodling Together #collaboration #creativity #teamwork #fun #team #visual methods #energiser #icebreaker #remote-friendly Create wild, weird and often funny postcards together & establish a group’s creative confidence.

30. Show and Tell

You might remember some version of Show and Tell from being a kid in school and it’s a great problem-solving activity to kick off a session.

Asking participants to prepare a little something before a workshop by bringing an object for show and tell can help them warm up before the session has even begun! Games that include a physical object can also help encourage early engagement before moving onto more big-picture thinking.

By asking your participants to tell stories about why they chose to bring a particular item to the group, you can help teams see things from new perspectives and see both differences and similarities in the way they approach a topic. Great groundwork for approaching a problem-solving process as a team!

Show and Tell #gamestorming #action #opening #meeting facilitation Show and Tell taps into the power of metaphors to reveal players’ underlying assumptions and associations around a topic The aim of the game is to get a deeper understanding of stakeholders’ perspectives on anything—a new project, an organizational restructuring, a shift in the company’s vision or team dynamic.

31. Constellations

Who doesn’t love stars? Constellations is a great warm-up activity for any workshop as it gets people up off their feet, energized, and ready to engage in new ways with established topics. It’s also great for showing existing beliefs, biases, and patterns that can come into play as part of your session.

Using warm-up games that help build trust and connection while also allowing for non-verbal responses can be great for easing people into the problem-solving process and encouraging engagement from everyone in the group. Constellations is great in large spaces that allow for movement and is definitely a practical exercise to allow the group to see patterns that are otherwise invisible.

Constellations #trust #connection #opening #coaching #patterns #system Individuals express their response to a statement or idea by standing closer or further from a central object. Used with teams to reveal system, hidden patterns, perspectives.

32. Draw a Tree

Problem-solving games that help raise group awareness through a central, unifying metaphor can be effective ways to warm-up a group in any problem-solving model.

Draw a Tree is a simple warm-up activity you can use in any group and which can provide a quick jolt of energy. Start by asking your participants to draw a tree in just 45 seconds – they can choose whether it will be abstract or realistic.

Once the timer is up, ask the group how many people included the roots of the tree and use this as a means to discuss how we can ignore important parts of any system simply because they are not visible.

All problem-solving strategies are made more effective by thinking of problems critically and by exposing things that may not normally come to light. Warm-up games like Draw a Tree are great in that they quickly demonstrate some key problem-solving skills in an accessible and effective way.

Draw a Tree #thiagi #opening #perspectives #remote-friendly With this game you can raise awarness about being more mindful, and aware of the environment we live in.

Each step of the problem-solving workshop benefits from an intelligent deployment of activities, games, and techniques. Bringing your session to an effective close helps ensure that solutions are followed through on and that you also celebrate what has been achieved.

Here are some problem-solving activities you can use to effectively close a workshop or meeting and ensure the great work you’ve done can continue afterward.

One Breath Feedback
Who What When Matrix
Response Cards

How do I conclude a problem-solving process?

All good things must come to an end. With the bulk of the work done, it can be tempting to conclude your workshop swiftly and without a moment to debrief and align. This can be problematic in that it doesn’t allow your team to fully process the results or reflect on the process.

At the end of an effective session, your team will have gone through a process that, while productive, can be exhausting. It’s important to give your group a moment to take a breath, ensure that they are clear on future actions, and provide short feedback before leaving the space.

The primary purpose of any problem-solving method is to generate solutions and then implement them. Be sure to take the opportunity to ensure everyone is aligned and ready to effectively implement the solutions you produced in the workshop.

Remember that every process can be improved and by giving a short moment to collect feedback in the session, you can further refine your problem-solving methods and see further success in the future too.

33. One Breath Feedback

Maintaining attention and focus during the closing stages of a problem-solving workshop can be tricky and so being concise when giving feedback can be important. It’s easy to incur “death by feedback” should some team members go on for too long sharing their perspectives in a quick feedback round.

One Breath Feedback is a great closing activity for workshops. You give everyone an opportunity to provide feedback on what they’ve done but only in the space of a single breath. This keeps feedback short and to the point and means that everyone is encouraged to provide the most important piece of feedback to them.

One breath feedback #closing #feedback #action This is a feedback round in just one breath that excels in maintaining attention: each participants is able to speak during just one breath … for most people that’s around 20 to 25 seconds … unless of course you’ve been a deep sea diver in which case you’ll be able to do it for longer.

34. Who What When Matrix

Matrices feature as part of many effective problem-solving strategies and with good reason. They are easily recognizable, simple to use, and generate results.

The Who What When Matrix is a great tool to use when closing your problem-solving session by attributing a who, what and when to the actions and solutions you have decided upon. The resulting matrix is a simple, easy-to-follow way of ensuring your team can move forward.

Great solutions can’t be enacted without action and ownership. Your problem-solving process should include a stage for allocating tasks to individuals or teams and creating a realistic timeframe for those solutions to be implemented or checked out. Use this method to keep the solution implementation process clear and simple for all involved.

Who/What/When Matrix #gamestorming #action #project planning With Who/What/When matrix, you can connect people with clear actions they have defined and have committed to.

35. Response cards

Group discussion can comprise the bulk of most problem-solving activities and by the end of the process, you might find that your team is talked out!

Providing a means for your team to give feedback with short written notes can ensure everyone is head and can contribute without the need to stand up and talk. Depending on the needs of the group, giving an alternative can help ensure everyone can contribute to your problem-solving model in the way that makes the most sense for them.

Response Cards is a great way to close a workshop if you are looking for a gentle warm-down and want to get some swift discussion around some of the feedback that is raised.

Response Cards #debriefing #closing #structured sharing #questions and answers #thiagi #action It can be hard to involve everyone during a closing of a session. Some might stay in the background or get unheard because of louder participants. However, with the use of Response Cards, everyone will be involved in providing feedback or clarify questions at the end of a session.

Save time and effort discovering the right solutions

A structured problem solving process is a surefire way of solving tough problems, discovering creative solutions and driving organizational change. But how can you design for successful outcomes?

With SessionLab, it’s easy to design engaging workshops that deliver results. Drag, drop and reorder blocks to build your agenda. When you make changes or update your agenda, your session timing adjusts automatically , saving you time on manual adjustments.

Collaborating with stakeholders or clients? Share your agenda with a single click and collaborate in real-time. No more sending documents back and forth over email.

Explore how to use SessionLab to design effective problem solving workshops or watch this five minute video to see the planner in action!

Over to you

The problem-solving process can often be as complicated and multifaceted as the problems they are set-up to solve. With the right problem-solving techniques and a mix of creative exercises designed to guide discussion and generate purposeful ideas, we hope we’ve given you the tools to find the best solutions as simply and easily as possible.

Is there a problem-solving technique that you are missing here? Do you have a favorite activity or method you use when facilitating? Let us know in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you!

thank you very much for these excellent techniques

Certainly wonderful article, very detailed. Shared!

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Streamlining Six Sigma Projects with The 7 QC Tools

Updated: September 26, 2023 by Ken Feldman

As in any tool chest, you can have dozens, if not hundreds, of different tools for all types of specialized tasks. Such is the case with Six Sigma. There are many tools available for your use depending on what you want to accomplish. However, like your home tool chest, there are a small set of basic tools that are your go-to tools you will use most often and on most projects.

Let’s review the 7 QC tools that are most commonly used in Six Sigma , the benefits of those tools, and some best practices for using them.

Overview: What are the 7 QC tools?

It is believed that the 7 QC tools were introduced by Kaoru Ishikawa in postwar Japan, inspired by the seven famous weapons of Benkei. Benkei was a Japanese warrior monk who armed himself with seven weapons and was on a personal quest to take 1,000 swords from samurai warriors who he believed were arrogant and unworthy.

Ishikawa was influenced by a series of lectures on statistical quality control given by Dr. W. Edwards Deming in 1950 to a group of Japanese scientists and engineers. Unfortunately, the complexity of the subject intimidated most workers, so Ishikawa focused primarily on a reduced set of tools that would suffice for most quality-related issues.

The 7 QC tools are:

Check sheet
Fishbone diagram (cause and effect diagram, or Ishikawa diagram)
Pareto chart
Control chart
Scatter diagram
Stratification

Let’s explore each in a little more detail.

Check sheet: A form to collect and tally data for further analysis.

Image source: techqualitypedia.com .

Fishbone diagram: Fishbone diagrams are used to drill down to find the root cause of a problem. As the name implies, the diagram looks like the bones of a fish, where each main bone represents a specific category of possible root cause, and the subsequent drilling down is shown as smaller and smaller bones.

Image source: asq.org .

Histogram: This is a bar graph showing the frequency of a set of data, usually continuous data. The histogram allows you to see the center of the data, the range of the data, and the distribution of the data. It is a very useful snapshot. The downside is that you can’t see the sequence or order of the data.

Image source: statisticsbyjim.com .

Pareto chart: This chart is based on the 80/20 principle that says 80% of your effect is caused by 20% of your causes. For example, 80% of your sales comes from 20% of your customers. Dr. Joseph Juran, who developed this chart, often referred to this principle as the vital few and trivial many . He later revised that to the vital few and useful many . The Pareto chart lists the causes in descending order of frequency or magnitude. It is used to prioritize what you should look at first to improve your process.

Image source: www.automateexcel.com .

Control chart: A control chart is a statistical tool that looks at your process data over time for the purpose of distinguishing between special cause and common cause variation.

Image source: www.spcforexcel.com .

Scatter diagram: These are also known as scatter plots. They’re used to show a graphical correlation between a set of paired data on an X and Y axis. It is the graphical representation of what you would use for regression analysis.

Image source: www.spcforexcel.com .

Stratification: This is a graph that shows data that has been stratified when the data comes from different sources. It is useful to view the data by certain strata such as shift, gender, geographic location, machines, or suppliers.

Image source: www.systems2win.com .

3 benefits of the 7 QC tools

These seven tools are easy to understand and apply and will help you understand what is going on in your process.

1. Easy

These 7 QC tools are easy to understand and implement yet powerful in identifying root causes, in discriminating between types of variation, and as a visual description of your data. A picture is truly worth 10,000 words (or statistical calculations).

2. Software-driven

Gone are the days when you had to draw all of your graphs by hand. There are many simple and cost-effective software packages that will take your data and quickly produce graphs.

3. 80/20

The Pareto principle applies to the 7 QC tools as well. 80% of your quality issues can be addressed by using 20% of the most common tools.

Why are the 7 QC tools important to understand?

The key thing to understand is when to use each tool — which one is appropriate for your specific situation?

Tools address different issues

The more familiar you are with these common tools, the quicker you’ll be able to select the right one to help you solve your problem or answer your question. The Fishbone diagram is used to search for root causes of your problem. A control chart is used to distinguish between common and special cause variation. A scatter diagram is used to look for correlation or relationship between an X and Y variable.

Graphs don’t tell the whole story

Graphs and diagrams are useful for providing an overview and directional indicator of your process, but statistical analysis will provide greater confidence than a graph alone.

Flexibility

These seven tools can be used for different types of data and across any type of function. Their flexibility makes them useful in myriad situations and industries, so becoming familiar with them can be a wise investment.

3 best practices when thinking about the 7 QC tools

Use these tools for as many applications as is feasible. Keep it simple, and only use the more sophisticated and complex tools if you need the additional information and analysis.

1. Have a clear idea of what question you’re trying to answer

Since each of the tools can be used to answer different data and process questions, be sure you’ve clearly defined the question you’re trying to answer.

2. Use them as your primary presentation

Use the 7 QC tools and their accompanying graphs and diagrams as your primary presentation format. Reserve the statistical analysis for questions that go beyond what’s answered in the graphs.

3. Make sure they’re self-explanatory

Be sure your graphs are succinct and self-explanatory so people can understand what you’re trying to tell them without the need for a long-winded explanation.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the 7 QC tools

What is meant by stratification .

If you collected production data throughout the day across all three shifts and five machines, you might want to stratify or separate your data and look at it by shift and by machine. This would allow you to understand whether there were any differences between the strata. This might indicate the source of a root cause or an opportunity to improve the other shifts if one is found to be doing better than the others.

What are the 7 basic QC tools?

Scatter diagrams, Pareto charts, control charts, histograms, stratification, fishbone diagrams and check sheets.

Do I have to draw the graphs and diagrams for the 7 QC tools by hand?

With the use of current software and computer technology, you will rarely be required to create the graphs by hand. Still, it might be interesting to do it by hand once to fully appreciate the tools and software available to us.

Let’s review what’s in your tool belt

The 7 QC tools are basic graphical representations of your data. They can be used to answer a wide variety of questions about your data and your process. Use them as your primary presentation format when talking about what your data is telling you. While they are not a complete list of tools, they should be robust enough to address many of your improvement issues.

The 7 QC tools, while basic, are foundational to the Six Sigma methodology and have stood the test of time. Their simplicity and versatility make them indispensable for professionals across industries. As businesses evolve and data becomes more integral to decision-making, the importance of these tools only grows. They bridge the gap between raw data and actionable insights, allowing teams to make informed decisions. Moreover, in today’s digital age, with the integration of AI and machine learning, these tools can be further enhanced to provide even deeper insights. However, the essence remains the same: understanding and improving processes through data visualization.

Key Points About The 7 QC Tools:

Origin and Influence: Introduced by Kaoru Ishikawa, inspired by Benkei’s seven weapons and influenced by Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s lectures on statistical quality control.

List of 7 QC Tools: Check sheet, Fishbone diagram, Histogram, Pareto chart, Control chart, Scatter diagram, and Stratification.

Benefits: These tools are easy to understand, software-driven, and adhere to the 80/20 principle, addressing 80% of quality issues with 20% of the most common tools.

Importance: They address different issues, provide an overview of processes, and offer flexibility across data types and functions.

Best Practices: Clearly define the question, use the tools as the primary presentation format, and ensure graphs are self-explanatory.

About the Author

Ken Feldman

Green Belt Academy

Helping You become a Certified Six Sigma Green Belt as Quickly and Painlessly as Possible!!

“A man and his tools make a man and his trade” – Vita Sackville-West

As a Six Sigma Green Belt, one of the most important skills you need is the ability to solve a problem or improve a process .

To do this successfully, you need the proper tools. In fact, there are 7 specific tools that you must know.

Kaoru Ishikawa once said “ As much as 95% of quality problems can be solved with seven fundamental quantitative tools ”.

These tools were first categorized as Quality Control Tools by Ishikawa in his book Introduction to Quality Control .

Improvements happen when we solve problems.

So, what are these 7 fundamental tools for problem solving & continuous improvement? Flow Chart

Check Sheet
Pareto Chart
Cause & Effect Diagram
Control Chart
Scatter Diagram

Get The Free Quiz For The 7 QC Tools

So why are these seven tools so effective?

They all share two characteristics that make them very effective in problem solving (and continuous improvement).

First – they are all visual tools . You’ve heard the saying – a picture is worth a thousand words . These tools prove that point.

Second – they all deal with facts or data , not opinions or conjecture.

Problems are solved with facts and data .

Improvements are made with facts and data .

When we combine a fact-based approach with a visual tool, we are able to solve problems more easily .

The other comment I’ll make about these tools is that they are often used in combination with each other, and I’ll provide examples of that as we go through each tool.

Let’s get started with the flow diagram.

1. Flow Chart

A Flow Chart is a visual tool that depicts the flow or sequence of a process . This can include the flow of information, tasks, people, material or decision .

The Flow Chart’s value lies in its ability to visually communicate the steps and sequence of a process.

The Flow Chart makes the complex become simple, and promotes a common understanding of a process, which is the foundation for improvement.

The Flowchart is an excellent starting point in the Problem-Solving Process , as it allows your problem-solving team to see the entire process and identify improvements.

Flow Chart Example:

Let’s say we’re a manufacturer of toasters, and we’ve been asked to put together a high-level flow diagram of the entire manufacturing process.

Remember, each of these steps in the process could have its own more detailed flow chart.

2. Check Sheet

Solving problems and making improvements requires data . Period.

The check sheet is a simple tool for collecting, organizing and analyzing data .

A Check Sheet is normally a table with defined rows and columns where the data collected is usually 1 check mark within each category. However, you can modify this concept of a data collection tool to meet a variety of different needs.

The best check sheets contain something more than data, they contain meta data .

Meta data is data about the data – like who collected the data, when (date, shift or time) the data was collected, and where (location, line, equipment number) there data collection took place.

Without this meta data, the actual data can become ambiguous and lose its integrity ( think data integrity ).

Let’s say we go back to our toaster example and see what a check sheet for final assembly rejects might look like. This also includes the meta data and illustrations to go along with it.

This data can then be fed into a pareto chart to identify the “critical few” defects (Hint, it’s the electrical defect).

3. Pareto Chart

The Pareto Chart is a bar chart that allows for analysis of data in search of the Pareto Principle or the 80/20 rule .

The 80/20 rule was first identified by an Italian researcher, Vilfredo Pareto , who was studying wealth and land ownership in Europe, and found that 80% of the land in Europe was owned by 20% of the population.

The 80/20 rule was popularized by Joseph Juran , who names the Pareto Chart after Vilfredo Pareto.

Juran went on to say that the Pareto Chart helps us separate the vital few from the trivial many .

Mechanically, the Pareto Chart is simply a bar chart and the categories of data are typically arranged from greatest to least on the X-axis.

The Y-axis is a count of defects , but this number can be cost , or any other variable. Pareto Charts also frequently include a cumulative frequency line to assist in the analysis.

In this example , the top 3 defects (Defects A, B & C) make up only 20% (3 out of 15) of the defect conditions, however they contribute to 72% of the total number defects . If we could eliminate just these 3 defect conditions, we could eliminate 72% of the defects. That’s the Pareto Chart and the 80/20 Rule at work.

4. Cause & Effect Diagram

The Cause and Effect diagram is a visual tool to explore all the potential factors that may be causing or contributing to a particular problem .

This tool was popularized by Kaoru Ishikawa and allows you to graphically capture all the potential causes of a problem , then select those which require further investigation.

The Cause & Effect Diagram is also commonly referred to as the Fishbone Diagram, the Ishikawa Diagram, Cause & Effect Matrix, C&E Diagram or the C-E Diagram.

The Ishikawa diagram has 8 major categories (The 8M s) that might contribute to your problem which include:

Mother Nature
Measurements
Maintenance

Cause & Effect Example:

Let’s say you’re a Toaster Manufacturer and you received a customer complaint for a toaster that is not toasting.

We can go through the brainstorming process using the 8M’s to identify potential causes and contributing factors that require further investigation.

You can see here we’ve excluded maintenance, machines and Management, and identified potential causes and contributing factors in other areas.

We can also prioritize the most likely contributing factors which should give the investigation actions to conclude the root cause of the problem.

5. Control Chart

A control chart is a statistically based tool that analyzes the variation of a process .

A control chart is a time-based line graph that reflects the behavior of a process over time including normal variation and any special cause variation.

A control chart can also be described as a visual communication tool that graphs analyzed data in real-time and reflects the stability of a process .

Remember: A good process is a stable process; we want stability.

The details of the control chart, including the various kinds, how to create them, and how to analyze them can be found in the Statistical Process Control (SPC) chapter.

Control Chart with control limits and variation

The control chart contains upper and lower control limits that are statistically based, which allow the user to identifying instances where the process appears to be behaving abnormally.

These control limits and centerline represent the “voice of the process” and are simply a reflection of the process – both the average value of your process and the natural variation of the process.

Using control charts allows you to proactively monitor your process , detect when a problem is occurring (or has occurred), which is the starting point for an improvement project.

A control chart is like a scoreboard . It can be used at the end of an improvement project to indicate if an improvement was successful or not.

6. Scatter Diagram

A Scatter diagram is a visual analysis tool that is meant to reflect the possible relationship between two variables .

The Scatter Plot visually plots pairs of data on an X-Y graph in order to reveal the relationship between the data sets.

The relationship between the two variables can be positive, negative or non-existent. The strength of the relationship can also be analyzed visually by how closely the points fall on the line of best fit.

The strength of that relationship can be expressed mathematically using the Pearson Correlation Coefficient , which is a number that ranges from a strong positive correlation (+1) to a strong negative correlation (-1).

The scatter plot is often used in the problem-solving process when we’re studying a process to understand which input variables (independent variables) are contributing to a negative outcome in a response variable (dependent variable).

FYI – below is a hypothetical situation. I’ve created this data as an example, however I believe the conclusions are likely accurate 😊.

Let’s say that I’m studying the various factors that affect performance on the CSSGB Exam .

I propose a hypothesis that there is a relationship between quiz scores and the ultimate exam score.

So I run an experiment where I work with 14 people and have them take a quiz before the exam to determine if a relationship exists between these two variables .

Ultimately, I’d like to be able to predict their exam score based on the quiz score .

So I’ve taken these pairs of data, with the Quiz Score as the Independent Variable (X), and the Exam Score as the Dependent Variable and analyzed them using a Scatter Diagram.

This scatter diagram indicates that a strong positive correlation exists between these two variables (r = 0.8).

If you do well on the quiz, you’re likely going to do well on the exam.

But can doing well on a quiz CAUSE you to do well on the exam. No.

This is a good opportunity to warn you about the difference between correlation and causation.

This is an example of correlation without causation.

These two variables highly correlate with each other because there are other factors like study time, study habits, or job performance that are CAUSING you to do well on both variables.

So, if you really want to do well on the exam, create healthy study habits, invest your time to study, reflect on what you’ve learned, put that into action and you will do well on the exam (and the quiz).

It’s not to say that this quiz is without value though. The quiz is an indicator of potential success on the exam .

7. Histogram

The Histogram is a tool used to visualize the distribution of continuous data .

More specifically, a Histogram is a type of Bar Chart that graphs the frequency of occurrence of continuous data and is a useful tool for displaying, summarizing and analyzing data .

Variation is all around us. Every process or product has some level of variation.

Every data set you collect will have variation in it, and this variation will exist in a “Pattern”.

And the best way to see or understand this Pattern of variation is to graph your data using a Histogram.

There are different patterns of variation that may be revealed in a Histogram. The most common distributions, and their analysis, are discussed within the Probability Statistical Distributions (Chapter 12) of the Green Belt Master Class .

Typically, a distribution can be characterized by the central tendency of the data (Mean, Median Mode), and the “ variation ” ( range, standard deviation, etc ) within the data.

The Normal Distribution is the most common type of statistical distributions.

The histogram is a visual tool you can use as a gut check to see if your data set is approximately normal .

As a Six Sigma Green Belt, one of the most important skills you can have, is the ability to solve a problem or improve a process .

To do this successfully, you need to be able to apply the 7 QC Tools.

These 7 tools combine a fact-based approach with a visual tool that makes solving problems easier.

Below is a quick and simple review of the definition for each of the 7 tools discussed within this chapter.

1. A Flow Chart is a visual tool that depicts the flow or sequence of a process . This can include the flow of information, tasks, people, parts, material , etc.

2. The check sheet is a simple tool for collecting, organizing and analyzing data .

3. The Pareto Chart is a bar chart that allows for analysis of data in search of the Pareto Principle or the 80/20 rule .

4. The Cause and Effect diagram is a visual tool to explore all the potential factors that may be causing or contributing to a particular problem (effect).

5. A control chart is a time-based line graph that reflects the behavior of a process over time including normal variation and any special cause variation.

6. A Scatter diagram is a visual analysis tool that is meant to reflect the possible relationship between two variables .

7. A Histogram is a type of Bar Chart that graphs the frequency of occurrence of continuous data and is a useful tool for displaying, summarizing and analyzing data .

Next: Kano Model

Table of Contents

Introduction & Why use the 7 QC Tools?

The 7 QC tools help to analyze the data and are most helpful in problem-solving methods. It is the fundamental tool to improve our product and process quality by identifying and analyzing the problems.

As per the Deming chain to achieve the organizational goal, we must tackle the product & process-related problems, and analyze these problems we get help from 7 QC tools. These 7 QC tools give us the analytical and statistical competence to solve the problems .

What are 7 QC tools?

7 Basic Quality techniques

Pareto Charts
Cause and Effect Diagrams
Check sheet
Scatter Diagrams
Control Charts
Flow Charts

Pareto Chart

Prioritize problems.
Pareto Charts are used to apply the 80/20 rule of Joseph Juran which states that 80% of the problems are the result of 20% of the problems. A Pareto Chart can be used to identify 20% of route causes of problems.

How is it done?

Create a preliminary list of problem classifications.
Tally the occurrences in each problem classification.
Arrange each classification in order from highest to lowest
Construct the bar chart

Pareto analysis helps graphically display results so the significant few problems emerge from the general background
It tells you what to work on first

To know the detail of What Pareto Principle is?, How to Make Pareto in Excel?

Cause & Effect Analysis

Graphical representation of the trial leading to the root cause of a problem
It’s a diagram that demonstrates the relationship between Effects and the categories of their causes
The Arrangement of the Diagram lets it look like a fishbone it is therefore also called a fish-bone diagram
Decide which quality characteristic , outcome, or effect you want to examine (may use a Pareto chart)
Backbone –draw a straight line
Ribs – categories
Medium-size bones –secondary causes
Small bones – root causes

Breaks problems down into bite-size pieces to find the root cause
Fosters teamwork
A common understanding of the factors causing the problem
Road map to verify picture of the process
Follows brainstorming relationship

To learn in detail How to create a cause and effect diagram (Fishbone diagram)?

A Histogram is a bar graph
To determine the spread or variation of a set of data points in a graphical form
usually used to present frequency

Collect data, 50-100 data point
Determine the range of the data
Calculate the size of the class interval
Divide data points into classes Determine the class boundary
Count # of data points in each class
Draw the histogram
Allows you to understand at a glance the variation that exists in a process
The shape of the histogram will show process behavior
Often, it will tell you to dig deeper for otherwise unseen causes of variation.
The shape and size of the dispersion will help identify otherwise hidden sources of variation
Used to determine the capability of a process
The starting point for the improvement process

Check Sheet

Tool for collecting and organizing measured or counted data
Data collected can be used as input data for other quality tools
Collect data in a systematic and organized manner
To determine the source of the problem
To facilitate the classification of data (stratification).

Scatter Diagram

To identify the correlations that might exist between a quality characteristic and a factor that might be driving it
A scatter diagram shows the correlation between two variables in a process.
These variables could be Critical to Quality (CTQ) characteristic s and a factor affecting it two factors affecting a CTQ or two related quality characteristics.
Dots representing data points are scattered on the diagram.
The extent to which the dots cluster together in a line across the diagram shows the strength.
Decide which paired factors you want to examine. Both factors must be measurable on some incremental linear scale.
Collect 30 to 100 paired data points.
Find the highest and lowest value for both variables.
Draw the vertical (y) and horizontal (x) axes of a graph.
Plot the data
Title the diagram

The shape that the cluster of dots takes will tell you something about the relationship between the two variables that you tested.

You may occasionally get scatter diagrams that look boomerang- or banana-shaped.

To analyze the strength of the correlation, divide the scatter plot into two sections.
Treat each half separately in your analysis
Helps identify and test probable causes.
By knowing which elements of your process are related and how they are related, you will know what to control or what to vary to affect a quality characteristic.

Control Chart

The primary purpose of a control chart is to predict expected product outcomes.
Statistical tool, showing whether a process is in control or not.
Taking samples of a process and detecting the possibility of the process being out of control

How does it Work?

Define Upper limit, lower limit, and medium value
Draw Chart.
Gather values and draw them into the chart
Predict process out of control and out of specification limits
Distinguish between specific, identifiable causes of variation
Can be used for statistical process control

Strategy for eliminating assignable-cause variation:

Get timely data so that you see the effect of the assignable cause soon after it occurs.
As soon as you see something that indicates that an assignable cause of variation has happened, search for the cause.
Change tools to compensate for the assignable cause.

Strategy for reducing common-cause variation:

Do not attempt to explain the difference between any of the values or data points produced by a stable system in control.
Reducing common-cause variation usually requires making fundamental changes in your process
Visual illustration of the sequence of operations required to complete a task.
Schematic drawing of the process to measure or improve.
The starting point for process improvement
A potential weakness in the process is made visual.
Picture the process as it should be.
Way of representing a Procedure using simple symbols and arrows
List major steps
Write the process step inside each symbol
Connect the Symbols with arrows showing the direction of the flow
List sub-steps under each in the order they occur

Identify process improvements
Understand the process
Shows duplicated effort and other non-value-added steps
Clarify working relationships between people and organizations
Target specific steps in the process for improvement.
Simplest of all flowcharts
Used for planning new processes or examining an existing one
Keep people focused on the whole process
Show what happens at each step in the process
Show what happens when non-standard events occur
Graphically display processes to identify redundancies and other wasted efforts

Benefits of all – Tool-wise

Cost of Quality | Quality engineer essential guide

Total Quality Management (TQM) Fundamentals

SIPOC – The complete guide

Root cause analysis

Control charts and types of control charts

Control Charts & Types of control chart

Team is working on solving the management complex problem using 7 management tools. They found its very helpfull.

7 Management and Planning Tools

What Are The 7 Basic Quality Control Tools | 7 QC Tools Overview

The tools most often used for problem solving by organizations well versed in quality control are called the Seven QC Tools. In this guide, we give a general usage definition of the seven basic QC tools and detail how the 7QC tools can help your organization improve no matter what type of work you do.

7 Basic Tools Of Quality Control

Officially, the seven basic quality tools are a group of highly efficient proven tools developed by many different gurus. They are divided into:

1. Process Map The first QC tool is used to help employees and organizations understand the finite details and obtain a thorough description of the process that’s being applied to. The other very important aspect of a process map is to visually identify the process or system that it’s being used on officially. The process map can take or be defined as a diagram of the flow of production process or service process through a system. Standard symbols are often used to designate processing flow directions, branching decisions and inputs and outputs. There are various ways to formulate a process map, some include gathering a team of subject matter experts and analysts to use post-it notes individually listing the process steps and laying them out in sequence on a wall. Another way would be to use digital applications.

2. Pareto Chart Pareto Charts classifies problems and defects by type in the order of quantities and shows the cumulative total. Now Pareto Charts are often used for checking a problem or defect to be highlighted for solution. In other words, Pareto Chars often help us identify where the problem is.

3. Cause And Effect The cause and effect diagram is one of the most common and well-known quality tools. It’s a method of linking and organizing factors that affect an issue or problem being investigated. The ultimate goal of the cause and effect diagram is to identify all of the possible causes of an effect and investigate further with the intention of discovering root causes. All in all, the cause and effect diagram systematically arranges the results of effects and the factors that influence them. With this information, we’re able to classify causes and their potential influence on the problem at hand.

4. Check Sheet Check sheets are tables used to arrange data by type. They are simple and easy tools for summarizing occurrences of specific events through tally counting, checking if jobs are completed without problems and for preventing mistakes from happening at all. One important thing to keep in mind when creating a check sheet is that the team members who are creating the check sheets have ample amounts of time to create and gather accurate data.

5. Histogram The next tool in our set of seven basic quality tools is the histogram. It’s a graphical display of numerical data in the form of upright bars such as temperature wait and oftentimes dimension in a process. With histograms, we’re able to learn many things including how much variation or spread, a data set contains.

6. Control Chart Control chart is a tool used for judging the situation of quality values against control limits in order to check the stability of a process. It also help us to under stand whether we’re dealing with common cause or special cause variation.

7. Scatter Diagram This QC tool is used to show the relationship between two variables by plotting corresponding date. In other words, scatter diagrams help us examine the relationships between two variables and whether or not they’re associated, or correlated, with on another.

Benefits of the 7 Quality Control Tools

The 7 basic quality tools provide practitioners with a structured path for using statistical analysis to identify and solve problems that directly impact the quality of your products, processes, and services. The main benefit offered by the 7QC tools is that they make it easy to make quality control activities a routine part of your continuous improvement practice. Long-term, QC efforts support sustained improvements in customer satisfaction and brand reputation, and cut costs associated with errors, delays, and poor complaint-handling.

How to master the seven-step problem-solving process

In this episode of the McKinsey Podcast , Simon London speaks with Charles Conn, CEO of venture-capital firm Oxford Sciences Innovation, and McKinsey senior partner Hugo Sarrazin about the complexities of different problem-solving strategies.

Podcast transcript

Simon London: Hello, and welcome to this episode of the McKinsey Podcast , with me, Simon London. What’s the number-one skill you need to succeed professionally? Salesmanship, perhaps? Or a facility with statistics? Or maybe the ability to communicate crisply and clearly? Many would argue that at the very top of the list comes problem solving: that is, the ability to think through and come up with an optimal course of action to address any complex challenge—in business, in public policy, or indeed in life.

Looked at this way, it’s no surprise that McKinsey takes problem solving very seriously, testing for it during the recruiting process and then honing it, in McKinsey consultants, through immersion in a structured seven-step method. To discuss the art of problem solving, I sat down in California with McKinsey senior partner Hugo Sarrazin and also with Charles Conn. Charles is a former McKinsey partner, entrepreneur, executive, and coauthor of the book Bulletproof Problem Solving: The One Skill That Changes Everything [John Wiley & Sons, 2018].

Charles and Hugo, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for being here.

Hugo Sarrazin: Our pleasure.

Charles Conn: It’s terrific to be here.

Simon London: Problem solving is a really interesting piece of terminology. It could mean so many different things. I have a son who’s a teenage climber. They talk about solving problems. Climbing is problem solving. Charles, when you talk about problem solving, what are you talking about?

Charles Conn: For me, problem solving is the answer to the question “What should I do?” It’s interesting when there’s uncertainty and complexity, and when it’s meaningful because there are consequences. Your son’s climbing is a perfect example. There are consequences, and it’s complicated, and there’s uncertainty—can he make that grab? I think we can apply that same frame almost at any level. You can think about questions like “What town would I like to live in?” or “Should I put solar panels on my roof?”

You might think that’s a funny thing to apply problem solving to, but in my mind it’s not fundamentally different from business problem solving, which answers the question “What should my strategy be?” Or problem solving at the policy level: “How do we combat climate change?” “Should I support the local school bond?” I think these are all part and parcel of the same type of question, “What should I do?”

I’m a big fan of structured problem solving. By following steps, we can more clearly understand what problem it is we’re solving, what are the components of the problem that we’re solving, which components are the most important ones for us to pay attention to, which analytic techniques we should apply to those, and how we can synthesize what we’ve learned back into a compelling story. That’s all it is, at its heart.

I think sometimes when people think about seven steps, they assume that there’s a rigidity to this. That’s not it at all. It’s actually to give you the scope for creativity, which often doesn’t exist when your problem solving is muddled.

Simon London: You were just talking about the seven-step process. That’s what’s written down in the book, but it’s a very McKinsey process as well. Without getting too deep into the weeds, let’s go through the steps, one by one. You were just talking about problem definition as being a particularly important thing to get right first. That’s the first step. Hugo, tell us about that.

Hugo Sarrazin: It is surprising how often people jump past this step and make a bunch of assumptions. The most powerful thing is to step back and ask the basic questions—“What are we trying to solve? What are the constraints that exist? What are the dependencies?” Let’s make those explicit and really push the thinking and defining. At McKinsey, we spend an enormous amount of time in writing that little statement, and the statement, if you’re a logic purist, is great. You debate. “Is it an ‘or’? Is it an ‘and’? What’s the action verb?” Because all these specific words help you get to the heart of what matters.

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Simon London: So this is a concise problem statement.

Hugo Sarrazin: Yeah. It’s not like “Can we grow in Japan?” That’s interesting, but it is “What, specifically, are we trying to uncover in the growth of a product in Japan? Or a segment in Japan? Or a channel in Japan?” When you spend an enormous amount of time, in the first meeting of the different stakeholders, debating this and having different people put forward what they think the problem definition is, you realize that people have completely different views of why they’re here. That, to me, is the most important step.

Charles Conn: I would agree with that. For me, the problem context is critical. When we understand “What are the forces acting upon your decision maker? How quickly is the answer needed? With what precision is the answer needed? Are there areas that are off limits or areas where we would particularly like to find our solution? Is the decision maker open to exploring other areas?” then you not only become more efficient, and move toward what we call the critical path in problem solving, but you also make it so much more likely that you’re not going to waste your time or your decision maker’s time.

How often do especially bright young people run off with half of the idea about what the problem is and start collecting data and start building models—only to discover that they’ve really gone off half-cocked.

Hugo Sarrazin: Yeah.

Charles Conn: And in the wrong direction.

Simon London: OK. So step one—and there is a real art and a structure to it—is define the problem. Step two, Charles?

Charles Conn: My favorite step is step two, which is to use logic trees to disaggregate the problem. Every problem we’re solving has some complexity and some uncertainty in it. The only way that we can really get our team working on the problem is to take the problem apart into logical pieces.

What we find, of course, is that the way to disaggregate the problem often gives you an insight into the answer to the problem quite quickly. I love to do two or three different cuts at it, each one giving a bit of a different insight into what might be going wrong. By doing sensible disaggregations, using logic trees, we can figure out which parts of the problem we should be looking at, and we can assign those different parts to team members.

Simon London: What’s a good example of a logic tree on a sort of ratable problem?

Charles Conn: Maybe the easiest one is the classic profit tree. Almost in every business that I would take a look at, I would start with a profit or return-on-assets tree. In its simplest form, you have the components of revenue, which are price and quantity, and the components of cost, which are cost and quantity. Each of those can be broken out. Cost can be broken into variable cost and fixed cost. The components of price can be broken into what your pricing scheme is. That simple tree often provides insight into what’s going on in a business or what the difference is between that business and the competitors.

If we add the leg, which is “What’s the asset base or investment element?”—so profit divided by assets—then we can ask the question “Is the business using its investments sensibly?” whether that’s in stores or in manufacturing or in transportation assets. I hope we can see just how simple this is, even though we’re describing it in words.

When I went to work with Gordon Moore at the Moore Foundation, the problem that he asked us to look at was “How can we save Pacific salmon?” Now, that sounds like an impossible question, but it was amenable to precisely the same type of disaggregation and allowed us to organize what became a 15-year effort to improve the likelihood of good outcomes for Pacific salmon.

Simon London: Now, is there a danger that your logic tree can be impossibly large? This, I think, brings us onto the third step in the process, which is that you have to prioritize.

Charles Conn: Absolutely. The third step, which we also emphasize, along with good problem definition, is rigorous prioritization—we ask the questions “How important is this lever or this branch of the tree in the overall outcome that we seek to achieve? How much can I move that lever?” Obviously, we try and focus our efforts on ones that have a big impact on the problem and the ones that we have the ability to change. With salmon, ocean conditions turned out to be a big lever, but not one that we could adjust. We focused our attention on fish habitats and fish-harvesting practices, which were big levers that we could affect.

People spend a lot of time arguing about branches that are either not important or that none of us can change. We see it in the public square. When we deal with questions at the policy level—“Should you support the death penalty?” “How do we affect climate change?” “How can we uncover the causes and address homelessness?”—it’s even more important that we’re focusing on levers that are big and movable.

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Simon London: Let’s move swiftly on to step four. You’ve defined your problem, you disaggregate it, you prioritize where you want to analyze—what you want to really look at hard. Then you got to the work plan. Now, what does that mean in practice?

Hugo Sarrazin: Depending on what you’ve prioritized, there are many things you could do. It could be breaking the work among the team members so that people have a clear piece of the work to do. It could be defining the specific analyses that need to get done and executed, and being clear on time lines. There’s always a level-one answer, there’s a level-two answer, there’s a level-three answer. Without being too flippant, I can solve any problem during a good dinner with wine. It won’t have a whole lot of backing.

Simon London: Not going to have a lot of depth to it.

Hugo Sarrazin: No, but it may be useful as a starting point. If the stakes are not that high, that could be OK. If it’s really high stakes, you may need level three and have the whole model validated in three different ways. You need to find a work plan that reflects the level of precision, the time frame you have, and the stakeholders you need to bring along in the exercise.

Charles Conn: I love the way you’ve described that, because, again, some people think of problem solving as a linear thing, but of course what’s critical is that it’s iterative. As you say, you can solve the problem in one day or even one hour.

Charles Conn: We encourage our teams everywhere to do that. We call it the one-day answer or the one-hour answer. In work planning, we’re always iterating. Every time you see a 50-page work plan that stretches out to three months, you know it’s wrong. It will be outmoded very quickly by that learning process that you described. Iterative problem solving is a critical part of this. Sometimes, people think work planning sounds dull, but it isn’t. It’s how we know what’s expected of us and when we need to deliver it and how we’re progressing toward the answer. It’s also the place where we can deal with biases. Bias is a feature of every human decision-making process. If we design our team interactions intelligently, we can avoid the worst sort of biases.

Simon London: Here we’re talking about cognitive biases primarily, right? It’s not that I’m biased against you because of your accent or something. These are the cognitive biases that behavioral sciences have shown we all carry around, things like anchoring, overoptimism—these kinds of things.

Both: Yeah.

Charles Conn: Availability bias is the one that I’m always alert to. You think you’ve seen the problem before, and therefore what’s available is your previous conception of it—and we have to be most careful about that. In any human setting, we also have to be careful about biases that are based on hierarchies, sometimes called sunflower bias. I’m sure, Hugo, with your teams, you make sure that the youngest team members speak first. Not the oldest team members, because it’s easy for people to look at who’s senior and alter their own creative approaches.

Hugo Sarrazin: It’s helpful, at that moment—if someone is asserting a point of view—to ask the question “This was true in what context?” You’re trying to apply something that worked in one context to a different one. That can be deadly if the context has changed, and that’s why organizations struggle to change. You promote all these people because they did something that worked well in the past, and then there’s a disruption in the industry, and they keep doing what got them promoted even though the context has changed.

Simon London: Right. Right.

Hugo Sarrazin: So it’s the same thing in problem solving.

Charles Conn: And it’s why diversity in our teams is so important. It’s one of the best things about the world that we’re in now. We’re likely to have people from different socioeconomic, ethnic, and national backgrounds, each of whom sees problems from a slightly different perspective. It is therefore much more likely that the team will uncover a truly creative and clever approach to problem solving.

Simon London: Let’s move on to step five. You’ve done your work plan. Now you’ve actually got to do the analysis. The thing that strikes me here is that the range of tools that we have at our disposal now, of course, is just huge, particularly with advances in computation, advanced analytics. There’s so many things that you can apply here. Just talk about the analysis stage. How do you pick the right tools?

Charles Conn: For me, the most important thing is that we start with simple heuristics and explanatory statistics before we go off and use the big-gun tools. We need to understand the shape and scope of our problem before we start applying these massive and complex analytical approaches.

Simon London: Would you agree with that?

Hugo Sarrazin: I agree. I think there are so many wonderful heuristics. You need to start there before you go deep into the modeling exercise. There’s an interesting dynamic that’s happening, though. In some cases, for some types of problems, it is even better to set yourself up to maximize your learning. Your problem-solving methodology is test and learn, test and learn, test and learn, and iterate. That is a heuristic in itself, the A/B testing that is used in many parts of the world. So that’s a problem-solving methodology. It’s nothing different. It just uses technology and feedback loops in a fast way. The other one is exploratory data analysis. When you’re dealing with a large-scale problem, and there’s so much data, I can get to the heuristics that Charles was talking about through very clever visualization of data.

You test with your data. You need to set up an environment to do so, but don’t get caught up in neural-network modeling immediately. You’re testing, you’re checking—“Is the data right? Is it sound? Does it make sense?”—before you launch too far.

Simon London: You do hear these ideas—that if you have a big enough data set and enough algorithms, they’re going to find things that you just wouldn’t have spotted, find solutions that maybe you wouldn’t have thought of. Does machine learning sort of revolutionize the problem-solving process? Or are these actually just other tools in the toolbox for structured problem solving?

Charles Conn: It can be revolutionary. There are some areas in which the pattern recognition of large data sets and good algorithms can help us see things that we otherwise couldn’t see. But I do think it’s terribly important we don’t think that this particular technique is a substitute for superb problem solving, starting with good problem definition. Many people use machine learning without understanding algorithms that themselves can have biases built into them. Just as 20 years ago, when we were doing statistical analysis, we knew that we needed good model definition, we still need a good understanding of our algorithms and really good problem definition before we launch off into big data sets and unknown algorithms.

Simon London: Step six. You’ve done your analysis.

Charles Conn: I take six and seven together, and this is the place where young problem solvers often make a mistake. They’ve got their analysis, and they assume that’s the answer, and of course it isn’t the answer. The ability to synthesize the pieces that came out of the analysis and begin to weave those into a story that helps people answer the question “What should I do?” This is back to where we started. If we can’t synthesize, and we can’t tell a story, then our decision maker can’t find the answer to “What should I do?”

Simon London: But, again, these final steps are about motivating people to action, right?

Charles Conn: Yeah.

Simon London: I am slightly torn about the nomenclature of problem solving because it’s on paper, right? Until you motivate people to action, you actually haven’t solved anything.

Charles Conn: I love this question because I think decision-making theory, without a bias to action, is a waste of time. Everything in how I approach this is to help people take action that makes the world better.

Simon London: Hence, these are absolutely critical steps. If you don’t do this well, you’ve just got a bunch of analysis.

Charles Conn: We end up in exactly the same place where we started, which is people speaking across each other, past each other in the public square, rather than actually working together, shoulder to shoulder, to crack these important problems.

Simon London: In the real world, we have a lot of uncertainty—arguably, increasing uncertainty. How do good problem solvers deal with that?

Hugo Sarrazin: At every step of the process. In the problem definition, when you’re defining the context, you need to understand those sources of uncertainty and whether they’re important or not important. It becomes important in the definition of the tree.

You need to think carefully about the branches of the tree that are more certain and less certain as you define them. They don’t have equal weight just because they’ve got equal space on the page. Then, when you’re prioritizing, your prioritization approach may put more emphasis on things that have low probability but huge impact—or, vice versa, may put a lot of priority on things that are very likely and, hopefully, have a reasonable impact. You can introduce that along the way. When you come back to the synthesis, you just need to be nuanced about what you’re understanding, the likelihood.

Often, people lack humility in the way they make their recommendations: “This is the answer.” They’re very precise, and I think we would all be well-served to say, “This is a likely answer under the following sets of conditions” and then make the level of uncertainty clearer, if that is appropriate. It doesn’t mean you’re always in the gray zone; it doesn’t mean you don’t have a point of view. It just means that you can be explicit about the certainty of your answer when you make that recommendation.

Simon London: So it sounds like there is an underlying principle: “Acknowledge and embrace the uncertainty. Don’t pretend that it isn’t there. Be very clear about what the uncertainties are up front, and then build that into every step of the process.”

Hugo Sarrazin: Every step of the process.

Simon London: Yeah. We have just walked through a particular structured methodology for problem solving. But, of course, this is not the only structured methodology for problem solving. One that is also very well-known is design thinking, which comes at things very differently. So, Hugo, I know you have worked with a lot of designers. Just give us a very quick summary. Design thinking—what is it, and how does it relate?

Hugo Sarrazin: It starts with an incredible amount of empathy for the user and uses that to define the problem. It does pause and go out in the wild and spend an enormous amount of time seeing how people interact with objects, seeing the experience they’re getting, seeing the pain points or joy—and uses that to infer and define the problem.

Simon London: Problem definition, but out in the world.

Hugo Sarrazin: With an enormous amount of empathy. There’s a huge emphasis on empathy. Traditional, more classic problem solving is you define the problem based on an understanding of the situation. This one almost presupposes that we don’t know the problem until we go see it. The second thing is you need to come up with multiple scenarios or answers or ideas or concepts, and there’s a lot of divergent thinking initially. That’s slightly different, versus the prioritization, but not for long. Eventually, you need to kind of say, “OK, I’m going to converge again.” Then you go and you bring things back to the customer and get feedback and iterate. Then you rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. There’s a lot of tactile building, along the way, of prototypes and things like that. It’s very iterative.

Simon London: So, Charles, are these complements or are these alternatives?

Charles Conn: I think they’re entirely complementary, and I think Hugo’s description is perfect. When we do problem definition well in classic problem solving, we are demonstrating the kind of empathy, at the very beginning of our problem, that design thinking asks us to approach. When we ideate—and that’s very similar to the disaggregation, prioritization, and work-planning steps—we do precisely the same thing, and often we use contrasting teams, so that we do have divergent thinking. The best teams allow divergent thinking to bump them off whatever their initial biases in problem solving are. For me, design thinking gives us a constant reminder of creativity, empathy, and the tactile nature of problem solving, but it’s absolutely complementary, not alternative.

Simon London: I think, in a world of cross-functional teams, an interesting question is do people with design-thinking backgrounds really work well together with classical problem solvers? How do you make that chemistry happen?

Hugo Sarrazin: Yeah, it is not easy when people have spent an enormous amount of time seeped in design thinking or user-centric design, whichever word you want to use. If the person who’s applying classic problem-solving methodology is very rigid and mechanical in the way they’re doing it, there could be an enormous amount of tension. If there’s not clarity in the role and not clarity in the process, I think having the two together can be, sometimes, problematic.

The second thing that happens often is that the artifacts the two methodologies try to gravitate toward can be different. Classic problem solving often gravitates toward a model; design thinking migrates toward a prototype. Rather than writing a big deck with all my supporting evidence, they’ll bring an example, a thing, and that feels different. Then you spend your time differently to achieve those two end products, so that’s another source of friction.

Now, I still think it can be an incredibly powerful thing to have the two—if there are the right people with the right mind-set, if there is a team that is explicit about the roles, if we’re clear about the kind of outcomes we are attempting to bring forward. There’s an enormous amount of collaborativeness and respect.

Simon London: But they have to respect each other’s methodology and be prepared to flex, maybe, a little bit, in how this process is going to work.

Hugo Sarrazin: Absolutely.

Simon London: The other area where, it strikes me, there could be a little bit of a different sort of friction is this whole concept of the day-one answer, which is what we were just talking about in classical problem solving. Now, you know that this is probably not going to be your final answer, but that’s how you begin to structure the problem. Whereas I would imagine your design thinkers—no, they’re going off to do their ethnographic research and get out into the field, potentially for a long time, before they come back with at least an initial hypothesis.

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Hugo Sarrazin: That is a great callout, and that’s another difference. Designers typically will like to soak into the situation and avoid converging too quickly. There’s optionality and exploring different options. There’s a strong belief that keeps the solution space wide enough that you can come up with more radical ideas. If there’s a large design team or many designers on the team, and you come on Friday and say, “What’s our week-one answer?” they’re going to struggle. They’re not going to be comfortable, naturally, to give that answer. It doesn’t mean they don’t have an answer; it’s just not where they are in their thinking process.

Simon London: I think we are, sadly, out of time for today. But Charles and Hugo, thank you so much.

Charles Conn: It was a pleasure to be here, Simon.

Hugo Sarrazin: It was a pleasure. Thank you.

Simon London: And thanks, as always, to you, our listeners, for tuning into this episode of the McKinsey Podcast . If you want to learn more about problem solving, you can find the book, Bulletproof Problem Solving: The One Skill That Changes Everything , online or order it through your local bookstore. To learn more about McKinsey, you can of course find us at McKinsey.com.

Charles Conn is CEO of Oxford Sciences Innovation and an alumnus of McKinsey’s Sydney office. Hugo Sarrazin is a senior partner in the Silicon Valley office, where Simon London, a member of McKinsey Publishing, is also based.

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TECHIEQUALITY

7qc tools for problem solving | what are 7 qc tools.

7QC Tools for Problem Solving techniques are generally used in manufacturing, Non-manufacturing industries, and service sectors to resolve problems.

Download 7-QC Tools Template/ Format

Definition and History:-

The 7QC Tools (Also Known as “Seven Basic Tools of Quality”) originated in Japan. First emphasized by Kaoru Ishikawa, a professor of engineering at Tokyo University and the father of “quality circles”. These tools are used to solve critical quality-related issues. You can use the 7 basic tools of quality to help understand and solve problems or defects in any industry. With the help of Excel, you can plot the graphs / Diagrams to resolve the daily quality problems. I will help you to understand the basic ideas and knowledge of 7QC Tools and their usage.

For solving problems seven QC tools are used Pareto Chart, Cause & Effect Diagram, Histogram, Control Charts, Scatter Diagrams, Graphs/Process Flow Diagram, and Check Sheets. All these tools are important tools used widely in the manufacturing field to monitor the overall operation and continuous process improvement. seven QC tools are used to find out the Root cause of the problem and implement the action plan to improve the process efficiency.

7QC tools are:-

Pareto Chart
Cause and effects diagram
Scatter Diagram
Control Chart
Check Sheet
PFD(Process Flow diagram)/Graphs

Benefits of 7QC Tools:-

Improve management decisions.
Simple and easy for implementation
Continuous quality improvement
Quick results
Enhances customer satisfaction through improved quality product
Reduce cycle time and improve efficiency
Control cost of poor quality / Cost of quality
Reduce defects and optimize the production
Reduce variations and improve the quality of Products
Encouragement of teamwork and confidence
Enhancement of customer focus.

Pareto Chart:-

A Pareto Chart is named after the Italian Economist Vilfredo Pareto. It is a type of chart that contains both bars and a line graph, where the individual values are represented in the bar graph in descending order (largest to smallest value) and the cumulative percentage is represented in the line graph.

Click here to learn “How to Plot Pareto Chart In Excel”.

Understanding the Pareto Chart principle (The 80/20 rule):

The Pareto principle is also known as the 80/20 rule derived from the Italian Economist Vilfredo,

The principle is understood as –

20% of the input creates 80% of the results

80 % of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

In the above Pareto Chart[Figure-1], we can see the cumulative% in the line graph, According to the Pareto Chart principle 80/20 rule, the 80% cumulative in the line graph is filling under the low hardness, which means BH, Damage, SH and Low hardness defers are coving the 80% of contribution over total types of defects. And those 80 % of contributions were due to the 20% caused.

Histogram:-

The histogram is one of the 7QC tools, which is the most commonly used graph to show frequency distribution.

Helps summarize data from a process that has been collected over a period of time.

Click here to know the “How to Plot Histogram in Excel:

Fish-bone Diagram/Cause and Effects /Ishikawa Diagram:-

The cause and Effects Diagram looks like a fish that’s why it’s called Fish-bone Diagram, also called the Ishikawa diagram.

It’s a visualization tool for categorizing the potential causes of a problem in order to identify its root causes.

CFT members are identifying the potential cause through the Brainstorming process of individuals and together.

The Potential cause is related w.r.t below as

Environment
Measurement

Scatter diagram:-

The scatter diagram graphs pairs of variable data, with one variable on each axis, to look for a relationship between them. If the variables correlate, the points will fall along a line or curve. The better the correlation, the more points will strongly cluster to the line. It generally gives the idea of the correlation between the variables.

In the above figure-4, the positive and Negative correlation is only due to the direction, and in both the correlation, points are clustered to the line but in the last figure in figure-4, Points are not clustered to the line but spread over the X and Y-axis.

Control Chart:-

A line on a control chart is used as a basis for judging the stability of a process. If the observed points are beyond a control limit then it is evidence that special causes are affecting the process.

Control Charts can be used to monitor or evaluate a process.

There are basically two types of control charts, those for variable data and those for attributes data.

Click here to learn more about the Control Chart and Statistical Process Control.

Benefits: -Higher Quality, Lower Unit Cost, Higher effective Capability, etc.

Selection of Control Charts based on Attribute / Variable Type Data:-

Calculation of Average and Range Charts-

Click here to know the details.

The formula of the Attributes Control Chart:-

Click here to learn the formula and calculation.

Nomenclature of Control Chart:-

Check Sheet:-

Check Sheet is a simple document used for collecting data in real time. Variable or Attribute type data is collected through a Check sheet. A check sheet generally helps to make the decision on the basis of a fact and to collect the data for analysis and evaluation.

Sample check Sheet:-

Process Flow diagram/Graphs:-

A process flow diagram is a diagram used to indicate the general flow of plant processes and equipment.

The 7QC tools are the most commonly used tool in the industry for improvement, With the help of the 7QC tools you can understand the process/activities, analyze the data, and interpret the result/graph/output.

Which are the 7 QC tools?

The seven QC tools are

Fishbone diagram
PFD(Process Flow diagram)/Graphs /Stratification

Useful Article:

why why analysis methodology | 5-why analysis step by step guide

Rework vs Repair |IATF Requirement for Control of Reworked/ Repaired Product

How to plot the Run Chart in Minitab

Run Chart Example | Concept & Interpretation of Result with Case Study | Industrial Example:

Thank you for reading..keep visiting Techiequality.Com

I hope the above article “7QC Tools for Problem Solving” is useful to you…

7 Powerful Root Cause Analysis Tools and Techniques

By Sebastian Traeger

Updated: April 21, 2024

Reading Time: 5 minutes

1. The Ishikawa Fishbone Diagram (IFD)

2. pareto chart, 4. failure mode and effects analysis (fmea), 5. proact® rca method, 6. affinity diagram, 7. fault tree analysis (fta).

With over two decades in business – spanning strategy consulting, tech startups and executive leadership – I am committed to helping your organization thrive. At Reliability, we’re on a mission to help enhance strategic decision-making and operational excellence through the power of Root Cause Analysis, and I hope this article will be helpful! Our goal is to help you better understand these root cause analysis techniques by offering insights and practical tips based on years of experience. Whether you’re new to doing RCAs or a seasoned pro, we trust this will be useful in your journey towards working hard and working smart.

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) shines as a pivotal process that helps organizations identify the underlying reasons for problems, failures, and inefficiencies. The goal is simple: find the cause, fix it, and prevent it from happening again. But the process can be complex, and that’s where various RCA techniques come into play.

Let’s dive into seven widely utilized RCA techniques and explore how they can empower your team’s problem-solving efforts.

Named after Japanese quality control statistician Kaoru Ishikawa, the Fishbone Diagram is a visual tool designed for group discussions. It helps teams track back to the potential root causes of a problem by sorting and relating them in a structured way. The diagram resembles a fishbone, with the problem at the head and the causes branching off the spine like bones. This visualization aids in categorizing potential causes and studying their complex interrelationships.

The Pareto Chart, rooted in the Pareto Principle, is a visual tool that helps teams identify the most significant factors in a set of data. In most situations, 80% of problems can be traced back to about 20% of causes. By arranging bar heights from tallest to shortest, teams can prioritize the most significant factors and focus their improvement efforts where they can have the most impact.

Pareto Chart - Quality Improvement - East London NHS Foundation Trust : Quality Improvement – East London NHS Foundation Trust

The 5 Whys method is the epitome of simplicity in getting to the bottom of a problem. By repeatedly asking ‘why’ (typically five times), you can delve beneath the surface-level symptoms of a problem to unearth the root cause. This iterative interrogation is most effective when answers are grounded in factual evidence.

When prevention is better than cure, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) steps in. This systematic, proactive method helps teams identify where and how a process might fail. By predicting and examining potential process breakdowns and their impacts, teams can rectify issues before they turn into failures. FMEA is a three-step process that involves identifying potential failures, analyzing their effects, and prioritizing them based on severity, occurrence, and detection ratings.

The PROACT ® RCA technique is a robust process designed to drive significant business results. Notably used to identify and analyze ‘chronic failures,’ which can otherwise be overlooked, this method is defined by its name:

PReserving Evidence and Acquiring Data: Initial evidence collection step based on the 5-P’s – Parts, Position, People, Paper, and Paradigms.

Order Your Analysis Team and Assign Resources: Assembling an unbiased team to analyze a specific failure.

Analyze the Event: Reconstructing the event using a logic tree to identify Physical, Human, and Latent Root Causes.

Communicate Findings and Recommendations: Developing and implementing solutions to prevent root cause recurrence.

Track and Measure Impact for Bottom Line Results: Tracking the success of implemented recommendations and correlating the RCA’s effectiveness with ROI.

PROACT® RCA excels in mitigating risk, optimizing cost, and boosting performance, making it a valuable addition to any RCA toolkit.

The Affinity Diagram is a powerful tool for dealing with large amounts of data. It organizes a broad range of information into groups based on their natural relationships, creating a clear, visual representation of complex situations. It’s particularly beneficial for condensing feedback from brainstorming sessions into manageable categories, fostering a better understanding of the broader picture.

Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) is a top-down, deductive failure analysis that explores the causes of faults or problems. It involves graphically mapping multiple causal chains to track back to possible root causes, using a tree-like diagram. FTA is particularly useful in high-risk industries, such as aerospace and nuclear power, where preventing failure is crucial.

Each RCA technique provides a unique approach for viewing and understanding problems, helping you pinpoint the root cause more effectively. The key is to understand when and how to use each tool, which can significantly enhance your team’s problem-solving capabilities.

Power up your RCA analysis with our EasyRCA and revolutionize your problem-solving process. Start Your Free Trial.

In conclusion, the techniques presented offer a diverse set of tools to help organizations address problems and inefficiencies effectively. From visual representations like the Ishikawa Fishbone Diagram and Pareto Chart to more proactive approaches such as the 5 Whys and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), each technique provides a unique perspective on identifying and mitigating root causes.

The PROACT® RCA Method stands out for its comprehensive process, particularly suited for chronic failures. Additionally, the Affinity Diagram and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) contribute valuable insights by organizing data and exploring causal chains, respectively. Leveraging these techniques strategically enhances a team’s problem-solving capabilities, enabling them to make informed decisions and drive continuous improvement.

I hope you found these 7 techniques insightful and actionable! Stay tuned for more thought-provoking articles as we continue to share our knowledge. Success is rooted in a thorough understanding and consistent application, and we hope this article was a step in unlocking the full potential of Root Cause Analysis for your organization. Reliability runs initiatives such as an online learning center focused on the proprietary PROACT® RCA methodology and EasyRCA.com software. For additional resources, visit our Reliability Resources .

Root Cause Analysis /

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Writingmate.ai pros & cons, what is writingmate.ai.

Writingmate.ai is an AI-powered writing assistant that provides ChatGPT assistance without the need for an OpenAI account.

The tool has a user-friendly interface and effective problem-solving capabilities, making it an absolute must-try. It also offers security measures to protect users’ personal information and Google integrations to enhance the capabilities of Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Slides with the potential of GPT-4.

Writingmate.ai can generate images, talk to any web page, scrape websites, summarize and structurize articles, paraphrase, translate, or elucidate any text across the web. It can also supercharge businesses by automating repetitive tasks for sales, marketing, and customer success.

Writingmate.ai is a useful tool for anyone looking to improve their writing skills and streamline their writing process.

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SevenRooms CEO Joel Montaniel Is Solving the Hospitality Industry’s Data Problem

Sevenrooms ceo joel montaniel speaks about how his crm company helps restaurants redefine their relationship with customers..

Joel Montaniel at Observer's Nightlife + Dining Power List party on Jan. 22. 2024 in New York City.

Joel Montaniel ’s SevenRooms is more than just another restaurant reservation system. “If you ask a restaurant, ‘What are your top 10, your top 25, and your top 50 customers?’ There are 15 million restaurants on the planet and 14.95 million of them can’t answer that question today,” Montaniel tells Observer. So, SevenRooms set out to solve that problem—by offering a suite of tools that empower restaurants and other types of hospitality operators to take full control and make the best use of their customer data.

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“Basically what Shopify has been doing for retail is what we’re doing for restaurants,” Montaniel explained. “We help restaurants do three things: make money, build relationships with their customers, and then streamline their operations.” Montaniel, a former investment banker and real estate investor, founded SevenRooms in 2011 with his childhood friend Kinesh Patel and former Credit Suisse (CS) colleague Allison Page . Inspired by the former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter ‘s “seven rooms theory,” the company aspires to create spaces where patrons feel at home, regardless of the venue’s exclusivity. From high-end establishments to smaller independent eateries, SevenRooms caters to a diverse range of hospitality operators, boasting an impressive clientele of more than 11,000 hospitality operators around the world.

Montaniel was named on Observer’s 2023 Nightlife + Dining Power List. We interviewed him earlier this month about SevenRooms’ founding story, his journey of finding the right business model, and the broader landscape of the hospitality industry amid high inflation and shifting consumer behavior. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Observer: How did you meet your co-founders and how did the idea of SevenRooms come about?

Joel Montaniel: There are three of us. One of them, our CTO, Kinesh, I grew up with in Texas, so we’ve known each other since we were 10 years old. My other co-founder, Alison, and I met at our first jobs out of school—we were investment banking analysts and shared a cubicle wall.

At first, our idea was to solve a consumer problem and try to make it easier for consumers to go to these exclusive places. We launched a website in 2009 and it failed miserably. W hat we learned was that there actually was a bigger problem to solve. When we looked at the systems that hospitality operators were using, they didn’t have any customer data. So, we switched over from thinking about the consumer to thinking about the restaurant or the operator. We found that by solving that problem and giving them the technology that can help them understand their customers, that could then translate into an amazing customer experience, which is what we were trying to solve in the first place.

Before diving into the SevenRooms we know today, in retrospect, why do you think your original idea “failed miserably?”

I think we weren’t solving a real problem at that point in time, and I don’t think the world was ready for something like that. I remember talking to a restaurant and they told us point blank, “We sell dinner here, we don’t sell the right to have dinner.”

We learned that we shouldn’t be solving things that we think are cool. We should work on things that actually create real value based on problems that we’ve experienced ourselves or problems that the industry talked to us about.

How would you describe SevenRooms’s core products and services?

The way we think about ourselves is basically what Shopify is doing for retail is what we’re doing for restaurants. At the center is CRM—that is guest data. Then, there’s operations marketing, and commerce that sit on top of it. We work with restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues. We help them do three things: make money, build relationships with their customers, and streamline their operations.

What was the traditional approach to achieving those three objectives and what innovation and value does SevenRooms provide?

The traditional approach would have been to use a reservation system. In the U.S., that means using an OpenTable or a Resy system, for example. Those systems are really good at bringing customers in. But what hospitality operators haven’t really made as much investment in is the guest database and marketing tools. All of the guest information would be stored in their heads.

If you ask a restaurant, “What are your top 10, your top 25, and your top 50 customers?” There are 15 million restaurants on the planet and 14.95 million of them can’t answer that question today, because restaurants don’t have the customer data, they’re not really doing retention marketing.

On your website, it says the company’s name was inspired by the “seven rooms theory.” Can you explain what that is and why it’s a fitting name for your company?

We believe technology is more than just transactional, and so we wanted to find a name that is about helping companies build relationships with people. W e stumbled across this theory by the former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter called “the seven rooms theory.” It says that, in New York, there are seven interconnected rooms, each one more exclusive than the one before it. It suggests that when you think you’re at the top spot and the best place, there’s always another room that you don’t have access to that you haven’t discovered yet.

It hit the nail on the head for us where, you know, the seventh room is not about exclusivity; it’s about the place you go to where you feel most at home. For one of us, it might be a coffee shop, and for another one of us, it might be a bar. That captures the essence of what we want to do, which is we’re in business to help restaurants and hospitality operators make their guests feel at home.

What types of hospitality operators does SevenRooms work with?

At the very beginning, we were working with more higher-end restaurants and nightclubs. These were places that want to make people feel special. One of the very first customers we had was Tao Group Hospitality in New York. Another really early customer was LDV Hospitality, which owns Scarpetta and other places. They were super helpful in helping us understand the technology and what customer information mattered.

But today, we are in every size and dollar amount. We have over 11,000 restaurants using the platform. We power 80 percent of Las Vegas today, so all of MGM, Wynn, Cosmo and Venetian. We have everything from big hotel groups like Marriott to small, independent restaurants. And we have everything from inexpensive to $200-plus per person. As an example, 40 percent of our customers are under $50 per person and 9 percent are under $25.

Covid-19 and high inflation for the past two years have changed consumer behavior in many ways. What are some of the emerging trends you’ve observed in hospitality?

Hospitality has been resilient overall. Sales are roughly flat, but they’re not going down. People are going out a little bit more, but they’re spending a little bit less.

We will continue to see that trend, which I think is largely driven by an older demographic that has a lot of disposable income. They’re spending money on travel and they’re going out to eat. Then you have a younger generation that is all about the experiences, all about Instagram and TikTok. The reason I think restaurants are really taking off is that they’re the new kind of social currency, and people are posting about food, restaurants and even dinner reservations on social media. I’m finding that food and experiences are central to both the younger generation and the older generation.

SevenRooms CEO Joel Montaniel Is Solving the Hospitality Industry’s Data Problem

SEE ALSO : FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel Supports TikTok Ban, Calls Lack of Oversight ‘Stunning’

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Mathematical Physics

Title: finite volume simulation of a semi-linear neumann problem (keller-segel model) on rectangular domains.

Abstract: In this study, the finite volume method is implemented for solving the problem of the semilinear equation: $-d \delta u+ u=u^q (d, q>0) $with a homogeneous Neumann boundary condition. This problem is equivalent to the known stationary Keller-Segel model, which arises in chemotaxis.After discretization, a nonlinear algebraic system is obtained and solved on the platform Matlab. As a result, many single peaked and multi-peaked shapes in 3D and contour plots can be drawn depending on the parameters d and q.

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IMAGES

6 steps of the problem solving process
7 Problem Solving Tools
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7 Steps to Improve Your Problem Solving Skills
How to improve your problem solving skills and strategies
7 steps in problem solving

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What are 7 QC Tools?
How to Solve a Problem in Four Steps: The IDEA Model
The 7 Quality Control (QC) Tools Explained with an Example!
The 7 QC Tools Explained
How to solve any real life problem with these 7 steps (Problem solving explained)
Problem solving using 7 QC tools

COMMENTS

7 Basic Quality Tools: Quality Management Tools
Quality Glossary Definition: Seven tools of quality "The Old Seven." "The First Seven." "The Basic Seven." Quality pros have many names for these seven basic tools of quality, first emphasized by Kaoru Ishikawa, a professor of engineering at Tokyo University and the father of "quality circles."Start your quality journey by mastering these tools, and you'll have a name for them too: indispensable.
7 QC Tools
The 7 Quality Tools are widely applied by many industries for product and process improvements, and to solve critical quality problems. 7QC tools are extensively used in various Problem Solving Techniques which are listed below: 8D Problem Solving Methodology. PDCA Deming Cycle for Continuous improvement in product and processes.
What Are the 7 Basic Quality Tools?
Stratification. Histogram. Check sheet (tally sheet) Cause and effect diagram (fishbone or Ishikawa diagram) Pareto chart (80-20 rule) Scatter diagram. Control chart (Shewhart chart) The ability to identify and resolve quality-related issues quickly and efficiently is essential to anyone working in quality assurance or process improvement.
7 Basic Tools of Quality for Process Improvement
They are called basic quality tools because they can be easily learned by anyone even without any formal training in statistics. Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa played the leading role in the development and advocacy of using the 7 quality tools in organizations for problem-solving and process improvement. The 7 basic quality tools include; Flowchart; Histogram
What are the 7 Basic Quality Tools?
Quality Tools: Enhancing Your Problem-Solving Capabilities. The application of these seven tools can simplify your problem-identification processes, make understanding trends more accessible, and facilitate overall process improvement across diverse business environments. The benefits of using these tools are manifold, including enhanced ...
9 essential problem solving tools: the ultimate guide
Problem solving software is the best way to take advantage of multiple problem solving tools in one platform. While some software programs are geared toward specific industries or processes - like manufacturing or customer relationship management, for example - others, like MindManager , are purpose-built to work across multiple trades ...
35 problem-solving techniques and methods for solving complex problems
Problem analysis can be one of the most important and decisive stages of all problem-solving tools. Sometimes, a team can become bogged down in the details and are unable to move forward. Journalists is an activity that can avoid a group from getting stuck in the problem identification or problem analysis stages of the process.
Seven basic tools of quality
The seven basic tools stand in contrast to more advanced statistical methods such as survey sampling, acceptance sampling, statistical hypothesis testing, design of experiments, multivariate analysis, and various methods developed in the field of operations research. See also. A3 problem solving - Structured problem improvement approach
What is Problem Solving? Steps, Process & Techniques
Finding a suitable solution for issues can be accomplished by following the basic four-step problem-solving process and methodology outlined below. Step. Characteristics. 1. Define the problem. Differentiate fact from opinion. Specify underlying causes. Consult each faction involved for information. State the problem specifically.
Streamlining Six Sigma Projects with The 7 QC Tools
Unfortunately, the complexity of the subject intimidated most workers, so Ishikawa focused primarily on a reduced set of tools that would suffice for most quality-related issues. The 7 QC tools are: Check sheet. Fishbone diagram (cause and effect diagram, or Ishikawa diagram) Histogram. Pareto chart. Control chart.
7 Powerful Problem-Solving Root Cause Analysis Tools
The first step to solving a problem is to define the problem precisely. It is the heart of problem-solving. ... Manufacturers have a variety of problem-solving tools at hand. However, they need to know when to use which tool in a manner that is appropriate for the situation. In this article, we discuss 7 tools including: The Ishikawa Fishbone ...
PDF Seven Basic Tools of Quality Control: The Appropriate ...
This chart as a problem solving tool can apply methodically to detect and analyze the areas or points of process may have had potential problems by "documenting" and explaining Neyestani B. (2017, March). "Seven Basic Tools of Quality Control: The Appropriate Quality Techniques for Solving Quality Problems in the Organizations."
7 QC Tools
These 7 tools combine a fact-based approach with a visual tool that makes solving problems easier. Below is a quick and simple review of the definition for each of the 7 tools discussed within this chapter. 1. A Flow Chart is a visual tool that depicts the flow or sequence of a process.
7 QC Tools
The 7 QC tools help to analyze the data and are most helpful in problem-solving methods. It is the fundamental tool to improve our product and process quality by identifying and analyzing the problems. As per the Deming chain to achieve the organizational goal, we must tackle the product & process-related problems, and analyze these problems we ...
What Are The 7 Basic Quality Control Tools
Officially, the seven basic quality tools are a group of highly efficient proven tools developed by many different gurus. They are divided into: 1. Process Map. The first QC tool is used to help employees and organizations understand the finite details and obtain a thorough description of the process that's being applied to.
What Is Problem Solving?
The first step in solving a problem is understanding what that problem actually is. You need to be sure that you're dealing with the real problem - not its symptoms. For example, if performance in your department is substandard, you might think that the problem lies with the individuals submitting work. However, if you look a bit deeper, the ...
The McKinsey guide to problem solving
The McKinsey guide to problem solving. Become a better problem solver with insights and advice from leaders around the world on topics including developing a problem-solving mindset, solving problems in uncertain times, problem solving with AI, and much more.
How to master the seven-step problem-solving process
To discuss the art of problem solving, I sat down in California with McKinsey senior partner Hugo Sarrazin and also with Charles Conn. Charles is a former McKinsey partner, entrepreneur, executive, and coauthor of the book Bulletproof Problem Solving: The One Skill That Changes Everything [John Wiley & Sons, 2018].
7QC Tools for Problem Solving
For solving problems seven QC tools are used Pareto Chart, Cause & Effect Diagram, Histogram, Control Charts, Scatter Diagrams, Graphs/Process Flow Diagram, and Check Sheets. All these tools are important tools used widely in the manufacturing field to monitor the overall operation and continuous process improvement. seven QC tools are used to ...
The 7 QC Tools (Effective Problem Solving)
Welcome to this course on the "7 QC Tools". These are simple yet powerful and effective tools for problem solving, with a wide applicability across different sectors, whether it is manufacturing or service sector. I believe that every member of your team, who is involved in problem solving of any nature, should have a good insight and exposure ...
7 Problem-Solving Skills That Can Help You Be a More ...
Although problem-solving is a skill in its own right, a subset of seven skills can help make the process of problem-solving easier. These include analysis, communication, emotional intelligence, resilience, creativity, adaptability, and teamwork. 1. Analysis. As a manager, you'll solve each problem by assessing the situation first.
Problem Solving
Problem Solving. 56 Resources. Problems can occur at any time, and solutions often need to be found quickly. Delve into this wide variety of tools that will help you to identify the source of a problem, brainstorm solutions and select the best option.
7 Powerful Root Cause Analysis Tools and Techniques
Let's dive into seven widely utilized RCA techniques and explore how they can empower your team's problem-solving efforts. 1. The Ishikawa Fishbone Diagram (IFD) Named after Japanese quality control statistician Kaoru Ishikawa, the Fishbone Diagram is a visual tool designed for group discussions.
MindTools
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Here's how you can enhance problem solving activities with technology. Powered by AI and the LinkedIn community. 1. Digital Tools. Be the first to add your personal experience. 2. Simulation ...
[2404.17080] Solving the Graph Burning Problem for Large Graphs
Solving the Graph Burning Problem for Large Graphs. We propose an exact algorithm for the Graph Burning Problem ( GBP ), an NP-hard optimization problem that models the spread of influence on social networks. Given a graph G with vertex set V, the objective is to find a sequence of k vertices in V, namely, v1,v2, …,vk, such that k is minimum ...
Writingmate.ai New Tool Explained with Features & More [2024]
WritingMate.ai is a groundbreaking Chrome extension that empowers users with the power of ChatGPT and GPT-4, offering a user-friendly interface and exceptional problem-solving capabilities. This innovative tool simplifies writing tasks, provides Google integrations for efficient document management, and enables users to create images, scrape ...
Solving the Hospitality Industry's Data Problem ...
SevenRooms CEO Joel Montaniel Is Solving the Hospitality Industry's Data Problem. SevenRooms CEO Joel Montaniel speaks about how his CRM company helps restaurants redefine their relationship ...
[2404.17145] Finite volume simulation of a semi-linear Neumann problem
This problem is equivalent to the known stationary Keller-Segel model, which arises in chemotaxis.After discretization, a nonlinear algebraic system is obtained and solved on the platform Matlab. As a result, many single peaked and multi-peaked shapes in 3D and contour plots can be drawn depending on the parameters d and q.

What are the 7 basic quality tools, and how can they change your business for the better?

What are the 7 basic quality tools?

Where did the quality tools originate?

7 quality tools

2. Histogram

3. Check sheet (or tally sheet)

4. Cause-and-effect diagram (also known as a fishbone or Ishikawa diagram)

5. Pareto chart (80-20 rule)

6. Scatter diagram

7. Control chart (also called a Shewhart chart)

Bonus: Flowcharts

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7 Basic Tools of Quality for Process Improvement

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Clearly define the problem

Don’t jump to conclusions

Try different approaches

Don’t take it personally

Get the right people in the room

Document everything

Bring a facilitator

Develop your problem-solving skills

Design a great agenda

1. Six Thinking Hats

2. Lightning Decision Jam

3. Problem Definition Process

4. The 5 Whys

5. World Cafe

6. Discovery & Action Dialogue (DAD)

7. Design Sprint 2.0

8. Open space technology

Techniques to identify and analyze problems

10. The Creativity Dice

11. Fishbone Analysis

12. Problem Tree

13. SWOT Analysis

14. Agreement-Certainty Matrix

16. Speed Boat

17. The Journalistic Six

18. LEGO Challenge