Four Types of Problems

By: Art Smalley

Narrated by: Vernon Williams

When faced with problems, many business leaders and teams look for familiar and standard problem-solving methods, often creating unnecessary struggle, frustration, delay, and ineffectiveness in solving the problem - if it is ever solved at all! In other words, they keep reaching for the same old hammer as if every business problem were a nail.

In Four Types of Problems, continuous improvement expert and author Art Smalley shows you how to break the "hammer-and-nail" trap.

He demonstrates that most business problems fall into four main categories:

1. Troubleshooting
2. Gap from standard
3. Target state
4. Open-ended and innovation

"Organizations and individuals at all levels fall into the trap of having one primary or standard way of solving every problem," says Smalley, who learned problem solving from Tomoo Harada at Toyota's historic Kamigo engine plant. Harada led the maintenance activities that created the stability needed for Taiichi Ohno's innovations in the Toyota production system.

Each type of problem category requires different thought processes, improvement methods, and management cadences. Each type has its own sub-system and surfacing mechanism, management cadence, timing, and difficulty level, he explained.

One size does not fit all. Situations and training people in tools or techniques only scratches the surface of problem solving.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2018 Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc (P)2020 Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc

The right tool for the right job!

In construction, it's most important that we use the right tools for the right job. Using what appears to be the right tool doesn't always lend itself to producing the desired result. You would think that using a hammer 🔨 for a nail is always the right tool. Well, not so much when it's a waffle faced framing hammer on finished kitchen cabinets.

'Four types of problems' point out the 4 categories most business problems fall into:
1- Troubleshooting
2- Gap from standard
3- Target state
4- Open-ended and innovation

It also provides a myriad of suggestions for not only how to identify the problem type, but the methods that can be used to address them. I would suggest paying extra attention to solution types 1 thru 3 as many of us will use these most frequently.

This book is truly (IMHO) another great addition to your Lean toolbox and will serve your team well to know and better understand your domains problems more intimately, so the right tools 🔧 can be used to solve them!

Don't take my word.. Check it out!
What did you think?

#problemidentification #therighttools #lean