Problem-solving is an activity that treats the gap between the current situation and what it should be as a problem and eliminates that gap.
The current world is usually hidden in scotomas (psychological blind spots).
Your current accustomed situation is a comfortable area where you want to be comfortable forever. Hence, it is called the comfort zone.
When asked to visualise the current situation, people who try for the first time often add a little kaizen to the current situation.
From an objective point of view, it may seem that you are redoing over time, but you may write it on a piece of paper as if you finished it well in one go and say, "I made the current situation visible." Often.
I have an image that I am doing well, and even if there is waste like redoing, I can not readily admit it.
Often, the problem doesn't show up because you think you're doing well.
It was over a dozen years ago.
I decided to do kaizen for design.
First of all, I decided to start by visualising the current situation.
I started the interview by explaining to the designer, "I'd like to write on a piece of paper as it is so that everyone can discuss the problem later, so please cooperate."
I interviewed the four weeks' worth of work in detail and organised it.
For example, "What kind of work did you do on May 10th?"
-"Initial consideration."
"What did you do next after reviewing that data?"
-"I was checking for interference."
I proceeded with the interview like this.
While interviewing, I said, "Here, I'm going to start over. "I'm going to start over here. 』\
I noticed in my head, but I wrote down the work for four weeks on paper without saying it in words.
Interviewing doesn't mean that you've done it in chronological order.
Processes that designers weren't very aware of often don't come out.
If you listen objectively, you can see that it jumps from the A to C process.
No matter what I thought, I thought that I couldn't be C without a process called B, and when I asked again, "Oh, I forgot. I did B and then C. I often ended up saying ".
Without being too conscious, processes that the person did are challenging to raise awareness and often miss out on interview responses.
The interview ended once while listening to various things.
Then, with the participation of other members, we will all move on to identify the problem written in the paper on which the workflow for four weeks is written.
First, I asked the designer I interviewed and other design members to point out what they noticed.
I've come up with many ideas, but I haven't come up with the essential point I was expecting.
"Looking at the four weeks of work, you have finished drawing in the first two weeks?"
"You're moving to another job in the third week, right?"
"And I'm drawing the drawings again in the 4th week. So what happened to this?"
I asked.
Then one of the design members answered.
"The reason why I didn't draw the drawing in the 3rd week is that I handed the drawing to the production technology and asked them to consider it. It is better to have the eyes of the production technology and get their opinions later. is."
I also had people from production engineering participate, so I asked for ideas on production engineering.
"That's not the case! So I'm checking if the drawings align with the requirements I've given in advance," said a new fact from production engineering.
I was waiting for this point.
During the interview, I saw that the point was whether there was work worth doing for the remaining two weeks of work, even though I had finished drawing in two weeks.
I found here that the design's construction was completed in two weeks.
Then, the production technology checked and pointed out the requirement violation next week.
For the last week, the design was reworking the points pointed out by production technology.
So it is a "redo".
After that, the design members insisted, "It's not a redo. It's the same as elaborating a sentence."
However, the designer finally said in a small voice,
"I couldn't finish it in two weeks. The delivery date has come, so I thought I should fix it later, and I knew that it violated the requirements and submitted it to production engineering."
The place for the KAIZEN examination was temporarily becoming a place for searching for criminals, but with this one word, the actual reality became apparent.
The truth was that no one wanted to hide it and couldn't admit that they were "redoing" their work.
In subsequent discussions, it was found that the work in the 4th week was not all redone but also weaving in cost reduction ideas.
Not everything was wasted.
However, it seems that it will not take four weeks.
Designers are full of desire to complete their job.
That feeling was so strong that I wasn't aware that there was a redo in my work.
It isn't easy to visualise the current situation.
When the person visualises, the part hidden by the scotomas that cannot be seen is often hidden without being visualised, as in the case introduced this time.
It is recommended to promote visualisation with people who can be seen objectively and counter partners (in this case, production technology).
Unless the part hidden in the person's scotoma emerges as a problem, it will be out of the scope of improvement, and they cannot solve the actual problem.
The job of the person in charge must be the one that they know best, but it is enough that they may be hidden by a scotoma that they are not aware of, whether or not they are malicious. Please be careful.