Products
+ Problem Solving
A3/Lean
Root Cause Analysis
Facilitate Critical
Problems
Training
Customers are becoming ever more demanding. Customer problems are often complex, spanning multiple parts of the organization. Customer critical problems need to be solved with many people working together fast and effectively. When you can't find the Root Cause of an issue and create effective, permanent countermeasures fast, the problem just keeps costing you money.
PHRED Solutions' Customer-Focused Problem Solving stops that money drain.
Customer-Focused Problem Solving - What is it?
We use various industry accepted problem solving methodologies, depending on requirements, including:
- Quick CAR 8D (Quick Corrective Action Reporting - 8 Discipline)
- Quick CAR A3 (Quick Corrective Action Reporting - A3 Toyota's Model)
- Level One, Level Two, Level Three Problem Solving (Escalating levels of complexity)
- All the different parties involved in a customer issue to come together and reason through issues fast
- Integration of data and reasoning about an issue across different systems
The software uses "Question-Based Reasoning" to create a neutral environment where questions like "What is actually happening?" focus discussions by sticking to the facts and rapidly getting to Root Cause. This technique is sometimes called "Fact-Based Reasoning".
How is it used?
A customer problem usually involves a chain of people across many departments including:
- Customer Service
- Application or Production engineering
- Production plants
- The Supply Chain
When a problem occurs, it is entered into the system. The first step is to see if this problem or something like it has happened before. If not, a simple analysis is performed. Problems are often resolved here and a report sent to the customer. The issue, its Root Cause, the Temporary Fixes and Permanent Countermeasures are stored so they can be retrieved later.
When there are multiple Root Causes or complex solutions, the problem is escalated to a full Expanded Investigation. The system can be used to facilitate an internet meeting with available stakeholders. The group works together through the structured reasoning processes discussing the issue at hand. The software keeps the meeting on track and the participants focused on the facts. On paper, the structure seems simple. The results are quite sophisticated. Here's a flow chart.
The software's "Fact-Based Reasoning" structure mitigates agenda based behaviors. People have different, often competing perspectives. Due to the close link between ego and knowledge, differences of opinions and perspective can become quite personal. The software creates a third point of common focus. When people think together well, problems are rapidly and innovatively solved.
Unique Features of the Customer-Focused Problem Solving system:
Flexibility within a standard approach - It is designed to be flexible enough to meet the needs of different constituencies and problem types. The system is configurable on an ongoing basis to meet these different levels of complexity.Multiple languages and incorporating local knowledge - It is available in English, Spanish and French. Local knowledge and specialized information can be added by work group.
Data: All in one place - It is ODBC compliant so it can link to existing data. The data section can be tailored to meet differing work procedures. This saves a great deal of time and reduces confusion in recreating information.
Retaining information in a way that can be reused - The software doesn't just capture the data and descriptions of the issue and countermeasures; it captures the reasoning users went through. When a problem reoccurs, it is much faster and easier to understand "why they did what they did", so other options can be applied. This database of experience becomes a very valuable resource.
See the features chart for more information about Customer-Focused Problem Solving.
System Requirements
Find out more about how PHRED Solutions can help you.
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All products are available as hosted solutions or may be installed behind the corporate firewall. Users access the applications via their web browser. MS Internet Explorer browsers 6.0 and higher are supported.
