You work in production, in method, or in logistic, maybe in quality ? You don’t know the processes well yet. What would you do at first if someone notified a quality problem that needs to be led by you ?

Necessary Recipe

Quality Problem Solving Techniques such as 6 sigma, 8D, or PDCA are structural frameworks. Process knowledge is always better, and welcome as well, however, you can still lead a problem solving study without a well process knowledge as long as you have the following recipe.

• Methodology Knowledge: Asking right questions to team.
• A willing team: Which consist of technical people who know process well.

Asking the right questions is key. Because whether you believe or not, to tackle these questions might be difficult even for the process owners. So as a problem solving study lead, your main strategy is to ask right questions!

A willing team…. this part might not be easy as written there, however, an effective communication can encourage team members to speak up. And those people need to be from the relevant process, because we need process knowledge in someway.

Leading a Problem without a well process knowledge

Let’s take an example: “Hey we have a quality problem in the production process, the bushings don’t fit the hole of parts, please check and solve immediately!”

You: “Well… I don’t know the production process very well, I’m quite new here. And I also don’t know what bushings, which parts, how ?”

While all this reaction is quite fair, the questions that you asked are also correct. Because you don’t even know what do they tell about! Nothing is normal than asking all those questions. Yes! But let’s make it in a structural way.

What is the problem? X14 type bushings don’t fit in hole of A20 parts.

Where did it happen? The problem happened in the 3rd Production Line, at bushing operation.

When did it happen? It happened in 23th March 2025, time was 8:00 am. Just as starting in production.

Why is it a problem? Because we expect bushing fits well into the hole of parts as in line with the process flow, however, it doesn’t. Therefore, we cannot produce parts.

Who did involve the problem? There is no operator effect, because the operation is done in automatic bench. However, during that time, Mete K. was working there.

How did it happen? The production team prepared the line for the production of A20 parts. The bushings were placed in station. However, when they started to production, automatic bench stuck and stopped after bushing assembly. When they reviewed it, they’ve seen that the bushing didn’t fit.

How Many Parts are affected? Different parts have also been checked, no okay parts, all batches are suspected. (200 bushings, 350 parts)

Don’t worry, I will not go to a full problem-solving study here. But for the example above, if we get those answers by asking the right questions, then we will know what happened exactly, which is the key for a problem definition. (5W2H is a technique to identify problems in a structural way)

The above example is just about the problem definition, so you can ask how we will do this for the root cause or corrective actions without knowing the process well. The answer is: as long as you ask the right questions to the right people, you will get there.

For example during the Fishbone analysis (brainstorming tool to identify & categorize potential causes of problem): don’t worry to give some stupid examples, just give them some examples to encourage when the ideas don’t come from them. Maybe machine pneumatic system doesn’t work well ? Bushing diameter has some problem ? Or maybe Part itself has some dimensional problem ? So just try to produce some to encourage them, then let them throw the good ideas.

So, we don’t need to know about process ?

Well.. the best way is always having the knowledge of process where you lead a problem solving study. However, this might not always be possible, so in these circumstances, the key is knowing the methodology well and having the right people in the team.

Quality problems are always challenging stuffs in the industries. To be fair, I don’t know anyone who becomes happy when they get a quality problem. However, unfolding the uncertainties by asking the right question is the best gun, ultimately it is a superhero to remove the stress on you and make you confident.