365QOD- Day895

"Was a root cause analysis done?"- Bill Brown

The other day I sat in a meeting during which we discussed how our team has been modifying the process of satisfying our customers requests.  The meeting was an eye opener.

During the meeting a discussed how we have transitioned from equipment replacement in kind to improvement in kind.  We have been questioning our customers as to what their issues are with their current design.  Then our new philosophy evolved into considering alternative solutions.

So we felt pretty good about our evolution.  By we also noticed that our costs typically were going up.  This is not a bad consequence if our customer's problem is eliminated and the replacement cycle extended.

However, while talking about a specific job Bill asked whether a root cause was identified.  We all looked at each other signaling no.   In other words, we purchased an expensive piece of equipment that will hopefully resolve the problem but it also might not.  Maybe all we did was delay the reappearance of the problem?

Immediately we decided that confirming that the root cause has been identified should be our first step.

Today's question is:
"How do you know that you are solving the right problem?"