Page 109 - Design for Six Sigma a Roadmap for Product Development

84 Chapter Three

■ Root cause analysis
■ Experimental methods
■ Data analysis
■ Recommendations
For other objectives, the contents will be different. The A3 report is
primarily used in
■ Communication before meetings
■ Communication on the planning wall

In Toyota, before the meeting takes place, even a one-to-one meeting,
the participants usually e-mail an A3 report to each other. So before
the meeting starts, the participants can get enough information on the
subject from one another; then very quickly the serious discussion can
take place so meetings will be very productive. In many meetings, a lot
of time is wasted trying to understand what other people are really up
to. It may take a long time just to get problems defined, and after an
hour or so, people are tired and pay less attention, so the meeting is
not productive.
The advantage of the A3 report is that it offers just about the right
amount of information for people to digest. A three-line e-mail is too
short, and not enough information is provided. A 20-page report is too
long and intimidating. The A3 report makes communication effective
and meetings productive.
2. Planning Wall. Planning walls are the walls in the project control
room for many Japanese companies. Various A3 reports are dis-
played on the walls, giving team members an immediate “bigger
picture” view of the project objectives and how these relate to over-
all corporate objectives, visually oriented progress reports for all
parts of the project (color-coded, to show which metrics are on target
and which need immediate attention), and much more. Centralizing
and distilling all these project data in one location creates, in effect,
a set of project management “dashboards” that team members can
learn from, discuss, and collaborate around.
The other important element is the visual display of project infor-
mation. Charts, graphs, and diagrams summarize key project data.
Clearly, the visible knowledge tools such as the A3 report and plan-
ning walls will help to make information transformation and flow vis-
ible to all team members; people will know what has been done and
what has not. They can also learn from other people’s experience. This
helps to reduce the waste caused by information searching, miscom-
munication, knowledge loss and recreation, and so on.