Page 406 - The Toyota Way Fieldbook

Chapter 18. Telling the Story Using an A3 Report 379

THEME
I. BACKGROUND IV. TOTAL EFFECT

II. OBJECTIVES

V. UNRESOLVED PROBLEMS /
FUTURE ACTIONS

III. IMPLEMENTATION

AUTHOR:______________________ DATE: ______________
Figure 18-3. Status report story

approach to implementation, the total effect to date, and unresolved problems
with accompanying actions. All proposal, problem-solving, and status A3 reports
must have some action plan.
An “informational story” is intended to convey information only. There is no
evaluative component. It does not require a description of a problem; the only
objective is to convey general information to an audience, inside or outside the
company. Visualization is very important for an informational story, and there
are many possible ways of organizing this type of presentation.
An entire book could be written about each of these applications. Instead we
will focus on one of the most complex and in-depth uses of an A3: problem solving.

The A3 Problem-Solving Report Process

Problem solving uses multiple formats at different stages of the process
depending on what is being presented and when in the process the information is
presented. There are three distinct stages in the problem-solving process. First is
the proposal stage, when the proposal story is used. There are actually two levels
during the proposal stage. The initial proposal is made to gain consensus on