A3 methodology: going beyond process improvement.
| Autor | Filho, Geraldo Maciel Santos |
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Introduction
The increasing level of market competition for industries has made the implementation of lean thinking a robust approach to be adopted (Herzog & Tonchia, 2014). By definition, lean thinking is widely understood as a concept that leads to excellent performance and competitive advantage (Womack & Jones, 1996). In this sense, Thangarajoo and Smith (2015) define lean thinking as an approach to a production system that is carried out to effectively and efficiently create value, with a focus on consumers and the company's competencies.
The high number of implementations of lean thinking, especially in industries, is due to the many benefits obtained from its application (Rini, 2021). Some of these advantages are greater process understanding, reduced inventory, less waste, reduced lead-time, less rework and financial savings (Girardi & Tortorella, 2015).
In order to achieve these goals, companies heavily invest on the implementation of quality systems that bring problem-solving methodologies and continuous improvement, such as plan-do-check-act (PDCA), define, measure, analyze, improve and control (DMAIC) and A3 Report (Bassuk & Washington, 2013). These systems are based on reducing errors, waste, redundancies and streamlining processes (Yorukoglu, Ozer, Alptekin & Ocal, 2017). In this sense, Bassuk and Washington (2013) state that problem-solving and continuous improvement methodologies come in various shapes and sizes, giving managers the option to choose the one that best suits their company.
Major problems are usually solved through activities that are detected and controlled by management. The way this company is able to increase performance is through leverage and focus. The lean production system (LPS) imposes basic problem-solving on all employees. In this way, each employee can become a problem-solver, making it possible for the company to effectively leverage its personnel resources. For more complex problems that require a high degree of problem-solving skills, management members are trained through Kaizen events. According to the LPS philosophy, the information needed to describe a problem is: a description of the current situation and historical trends, the goal, including the difference between the goal and current status, and the detailed description of the problem (Liker, 2004).
Among the various methodologies created by quality systems to solve problems and implement continuous improvement, we highlight A3 report. It is a method that emerged at Toyota and became popular among Japanese companies (Rodrigues, 2014). A3 is an improvement process that applies lean thinking to problem-solving (Flinchbaugh, 2012). It is an approach to present a comprehensive yet organized report on a single page. This tool is considered useful in the early stages of preparing to implement lean thinking onto problem-solving.
This methodology allows showing the key and essential information about a given problem or set of problems, which must be perceptible in a short period of time and outlined on an A3 sheet, presenting different structures in the scientific literature, but all of them are based on in the PDCA cycle (plan, do, verify, act). (Pereira, Silva, Bastos, Ferreira & Matias, 2019, p. 746) A3 building blocks can be categorized into (1) history, (2) current condition, (3) objectives/goals, (4) analysis, (5) proposed countermeasures, (6) implementation plan and (7) follow-up. However, A3 is more of a way of thinking than a standard document format (Rini, 2021). Thus, the basic elements in the A3 report can be adjusted according to the needs and conditions of each company.
This methodology is described by Priori and Saurin (2020, p. 64) as "...a systematic problem-solving guide, through consensus between the affected parties, which documents the main problems of a process and proposals for improvements". Generally speaking, the A3 report is used to structure, summarize and document a thought process (Sobek & Jimmerson, 2016).
The A3 process emerged at Toyota as part of the Toyota Production System (TPS) in the 1960s to summarize the activities of the improvement circle or Kaizen (Dennis, 2007).
The A3 method is primarily used for collaborative problem-solving, status reporting and proposal submission (Dennis, 2007). It is currently widely applied as part of the implementation of the LPS in different sectors, perhaps because of the good results achieved by its application, combined with the simplicity of the methodology (Bassuk & Washington, 2013). This approach was applied in research center improvements (Bassuk & Washington, 2013), showed excellent results when implemented in a pathology laboratory (Yorukoglu et al, 2017), was implemented in a hospital emergency (Priori & Saurin, 2020), had a successful implementation in the flexography sector of a plastics company (Pradella, Grando, Ely & Turatti, 2015) and generated excellent results in an automobile industry (Grilo, Oliveira & Junior, 2016).
As seen earlier, the A3 thought process is generally based on the Shewhart cycle (1931) PDCA for problem-solving and continuous improvement. According to Rosa, Silva, and Ferreira (2017), the PDCA is a tool or technique of the LPS and is used as a support to identify opportunities to reduce waste and increase efficiency. For Jiang, Sun, Ji, Kabene and Keir (2021), the PDCA, also known as the quality cycle, checks the result of a process, summarizes and analyzes the cause of failures, and starts a new PDCA cycle to improve the process. This creates a flow that the authors call an "endless cycle of scientific quality management and control". Song and Fischer (2020) understand that PDCA is a control structure for the execution of a series of improvement activities that emerged in the industry. The fact is that the PDCA tool became popular and has shown such good results that it left the industry scope and is now applied to a wide range of processes.
During the A3 development process, several tools that are part of lean thinking are used. In the analysis phase of the problem root cause (4.4), the methodology called "5 whys" is used. The "5 whys" method is a scientific approach used in the Toyota Production System to get to the real root cause of the problem, which is usually hidden by obvious symptoms. The "5 whys" analysis is a tool for solving problems. The "5 whys" help to identify the root of a problem or the cause of a discrepancy in the production process, in order to find preventive actions to minimize the ineffectiveness of the production process. It consists of asking the question "Why" five times to understand what happened (the root cause). According to Weiss (2012), for the analysis of the "5 whys", although it is called that way, less "whys" can be used (three, for example), or more "whys", according to the need to find the root cause. It uses a specific set of steps, with associated tools, to find the root cause of the problem, so it ispossible to (1) determine what happened; (2) determine why this has happened and (3) figure out what to do to reduce the probability of it happening again.
In the phase called "propose countermeasures", the 5W2H tool is used. This tool was created by professionals from the Japanese automobile industry to be used as an auxiliary tool in the use of the PDCA (Silva, 2013). Polacinski, Raquel SassaroVeiga, Tauchen, and Pires (2013) describe that the 5W2H tool consists of an action plan for pre-established activities that need to be developed as clearly as possible, and maps them through the central objective of 5W2H tool, which is to answer seven basic questions and organize them, namely what; where; why; when; who; and the 2H are how and how much.
(1) What: What action (countermeasure) will be taken?
(2) Where: Where will the action (countermeasure) be taken?
(3) Why: Why will the action (countermeasure) be taken?
(4) When: When will the action (countermeasure) be taken?
(5) Who: Who is responsible for this action (countermeasure)?
(6) How: How will the action (countermeasure) be carried out?
(7) How much: How much will it cost to carry out the action (countermeasure)?
In this paper, a case study of the implementation of A3 methodology is presented in an industry of the motorcycle-producing in the two-wheel sector. The focus of the study was to understand how to use A3's problem-solving methodology to make improvements and develop people's mindsets.
This technological paper is composed of the following parts: context and investigated reality, in which the environment where the case study took place will be contextualized; diagnosis of the problem situation, that will clarify the problem the company is facing, the improvement cycle and the tool that will be used to solve the problem; analysis of the problem-situation and improvement proposal, which will explain the methodology that will be used and its use; conclusions and technological contribution--at this stage the conclusions will be described, as well as the contribution of this work and its...
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