Solve the right problems

Solve the right problems from the beginning, and you will save your company a lot of money.  You will also save yourself from unnecessary heartburn.  Solving the right problems requires the correct identification of the problem's root cause. Seems straightforward.  This is unfortunately where most teams make their first mistake.  An overreliance on tools that are inappropriate for identifying a root cause is endemic in corporate America. 

Everyone has likely encountered this scenario too many times.  A "problem" is identified.  Without questioning what the problem consists of, an unlucky soul is assigned the dreaded task of completing the 5 Why's.  This process will produce a list of 5 teams/individuals to assign the blame.  Furthermore, it produces confusion. Each person who completes the exercise is likely to have 5 different answers; all of which are valid.  The only thing this process will not produce is a true root cause to solve.

How many of these statements sound familiar?  "There is too much pressure to bring new products to the market at an increasingly fast pace."  "There is increasing pressure to reduce prices."  "Competition is fiercer than ever."  "Pressure to keep costs down is preventing us from investing in new equipment, or software."  "The market demands we hold inventory levels that chipping away, or eliminating, our profit margins."  All of these statements came from one company.

None of these are actual problems, they are the symptoms of problems.  These symptoms, these undesirable effects, never exist independently of each other.  All of them are linked by strong cause-and-effect relationships.    A careful analysis will show that all of these undesirable effects have no more than 1 or 2 core problems.  Identifying these produces a core problem that can be solved by a simple and practical solution.

Underlying any given situation, there are only one or two core problems.