24392 Gibson Dr
Warren, MI 48089
Phone: (586)427-9450

  • Finding the solution is not the goal.   Finding the direct cause of the problem is the goal.We have all heard the saying “If I knew then what I know now.”, that same thought can apply to problem solving.   If you have to keep correcting an issue after you have found the solution, you have not found the direct cause.   Find the direct cause and your solution will solve the problem once and for all.                                    
  • The shop runs the office.Encourage employee ideas and direction, they will own those ideas if it’s theirs to make.   Managements job is to direct from the back of the room, not the front.   From there they knock down walls (obstacles) for employee ideas.   Data needs to be collected from the shop (where everything is happening) not from a conference table with four leaders sitting at it.                                    
  • Make your first thought earn its way in.In diagnosing an issue it is easy to get caught up in the first thought as to what could be a problem or the right way to fix it.   There is a danger in missing opportunities when you don’t challenge your own thoughts.                                    
  • Conduct your verification as someone that doesn’t like you.If the double check is done through the eyes of the person who checked the first time then chances are the same findings will take place.   However, if the double check is made through the eyes of someone that is looking to tear down the work, there is a better chance for success the first time.                                    
  • Aces in their places.Everyone is a genius of something.   Evaluate talent by finding out what the employees are drawn to innately, get them positioned to spend more of their time using their strengths then encourage them to stay in their lanes.                                    
  • Start from zero.DO NOT overlook the simple, basic or beginning concepts.   Most of the time it is the easy answers that go undetected because we would rather overcomplicate the issue so we can use our expertise.   When we need to solve a problem we should not always start where the fault is exposed, we need to back track through a procedure or system to find where the new problem could have begun, even if it looks harmless at it’s beginning stage.                                    
  • If something is different, something changed.This is related to “Start from Zero” Most of the time people are focused on fixing the presenting problem and not even notice the underlying issue. Search for what changed; that has caused the situation to become different. An example for those who know injection molding, there are many ways to fix a short but if it was running good an hour ago something changed.   Fix the short by fixing what changed not by some random adjustment.                                    
  • Put it to bed. If you have to touch it, then touch it once and walk away once, this may take some time but you will be better off in the end.   Similar to measure twice and cut once not the reverse.                                    
  • Know the “why’s” not the “what’s”. This is another way of wording the old saying “give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”   Without knowing why something works or needs to be it will make it difficult to grasp the concept completely and nearly impossible to train on.   When you are taught "what to do” you are usually constrained to preforming the task in only that type of situation.   If you know “why you are doing” something, then you can apply the solution to a multitude of situations.                                    
  • You should want the customer to walk away, blown away. To have satisfied a customer is not a great achievement because it depends on what they were expecting.   If they were only expecting little then having satisfied them you may have only achieved little.