A3 solver

…you're facing a tough and critical problem and you have already pulled the andon cord.

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Finding a solution for a tough problem unleashes new energy and gets things flowing again.

If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.

—Albert Einstein

~ Albert Einstein The a3 solver typically:

• depicts an issue;
• analyzes the situation and its underlying causes;
• identifies the required outcome;
• proposes some corrective actions;
• prescribes an action plan (who will do what when); and
• creates a follow-up review process—all in one integrated A3-sized document.

Therefore:

Take a single A3 and describe the background, current situation and desired goals, as well as a number of experiments and ways to verify their outcomes.

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Sources

Background information and templates.

• crisp.se » A3 Template in Google Docs
• DIY Lean » A3 Tool Overview
• DIY Lean » A3 Report Templates and Presentation
• Montana University » Durward Sobek » Steps of the A3 Process
• MIT Sloan Management Review » Michael S. Hopkins » Problem Solving By Design
• MIT Sloan Management Review » John Shook » How Toyota solves problems, creates plans, and gets new things done while developing an organization of thinking problem-solvers
• InfoQ » Claudio Perrone » Lean Thinking Applied for Organizational Change
• Seth’s Blog » Seth Godin » Agreeing on the problem

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