Recurring Problems and the Urge to Jump to Solutions

Every workplace has problems that come back. The same customer complaint arrives every month. The same machine stops every week. The same report is late at the end of every quarter. Each time, somebody fixes it quickly, and each time it returns.

A problem usually comes back for one simple reason: the people who fixed it treated the symptom, not the cause. They saw the problem, guessed a solution that seemed obvious, and acted. The guess felt right, so nobody checked whether it really removed the cause.

This habit is called jumping to solutions. It is natural. Our brains like quick answers, and managers often reward people who act fast. But a quick answer to the wrong question costs more time in the end than a slower answer to the right one.

Who this course is for

This is a beginner course for team leaders, supervisors, engineers, office staff and anyone who has been asked to "solve this problem so it does not happen again". You do not need any statistics or any earlier lean training. The examples come from warehouses, workshops, offices, engineering teams and site canteens.

What the course covers

• The PDCA cycle, its history, and the scientific thinking behind it.
• What an A3 is, where it came from, and the types of A3.
• Each box of a problem-solving A3, with practice: background, current condition, goal, analysis, countermeasures, implementation plan and follow-up.
• Running countermeasures as experiments and checking the results.
• How a coach and a learner use the A3 to talk, including catchball and an introduction to Toyota Kata.
• One complete A3, worked from start to finish.