Problem Solving Training to Eliminate Root Causes

Problem solving training for result-driven managers and functional specialists to effectively eliminate the root causes of variability, gaps, defects, frustrations, and stress.

Systematic problem solving is a foundational sill, and by working as a professional, you are required to address performance and behavioral issues to boost safety, quality, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. The Problem Solving Training is beneficial for everyone, working in any field and at any level, but especially for managers, engineers, controllers, consultants, and process specialists to quickly identify the reasons for deviations and develop effective countermeasures that will contain, correct, and prevent those issues from reoccurring. These practical, result-oriented courses build robust skills and provide ready-to-use tools and templates, so you can quickly apply the learning and start eliminating causes in a systematic and effective way. As a result, you will free up time to spend on activities that are more rewarding and fun than battling repeat breakdowns.

Cases, when to use:

Frustration from never-ending fire-fighting
Excessive defects, uncontrolled variability
Stress from unhappy boss, customer, spouse
Working too hard, too late, risking burnout

Clients, for whom:

Department managers and team leaders
Functional specialists, engineers, controllers
Consultants and improvement champions
Anyone struggling with too many problems

Process, how it works:

Online training course with personal coaching
Apply 5 shifts to successfully address any problem
Eliminate causes at physical, human, system root
Learn proven strategies; practical templates included

Benefits, what to gain:

Status and recognition as expert problem solver
Become indispensable to the organization
Free time to spend with family, friends, hobby
Strategy for better pay and career advancement

Course Content - What You Will Learn

Systematically solve safety, quality, reliability issues
Define issue statements based on data, observations
Learn proven tools and techniques to tackle deviations
Use basic PDCA and 5-Why analysis for simple issues
Use Causal Factor Analysis (CFA) for disasters, accidents
Use Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) for rule-based problems
Identify cause-effect relationships between factors
Provide evidence to confirm or reject assumptions
Drill down causes at the physical, human, latent root
Develop actions to remove, reduce, control causes

Why Did the Titanic Sink?

The 13 Reasons for Formal Problem Solving

Undesirable condition
Deviation, defect, failure
Safety accident, incident, major risk
Product failure due to strength, performance, reliability
Line stop event
Regulatory non-compliance
Customer dissatisfaction or request
Cost overrun
Equipment breakdown
Process failure
Behavioral issue, noncompliant, disengaged
Repetitive or transferable problem
Detection failure

Ineffective Trouble Shooting

Quick fix
Fire fighting
Going from crisis to crisis
Stagnant or declining performance
No time for deeper analysis
Look for the guilty party: ”Who did that?”
Jumping from problem into actions
Generate laundry list of actions to firefight symptoms
Sub-optimizing one area, spot scope
Focus on lagging metrics (yield, sales, profits) and hope processes will improve as a result

Effective Problem Solving

Systems thinking
Continuous improvement
Systematic root cause elimination
Better performance after each problem
Allocate time to analyze, dialogue, conclude
Seek deep understanding: “How did that happen?”
Acting after understanding cause-effect relationships
Addressing all factors of the failure tree
Optimizing the value stream, enterprise scope
Focus on improving processes (capability) that effect actual performance metrics

The Problem Solving Training Gets You Certified

Problems occur every day, and failure to properly understand and address them often leads to permanent damage to health, environment, customer relationships, and business results. Our problem solving courses build practical skills to become more effective, achieving better results by systematically eliminating, reducing, and/or controlling causes at the physical, human, and latent root. Being a professional problem solver will not only increase teamwork and customer satisfaction, but also provide opportunities to advance your career. Build your skills now!

The Beginner Problem Solving Training helps anyone to get started with systematic problem solving. Within a few days, you will learn the basic methods and tools, and apply them to solve a difficult situation in five steps: (1) Describe Gap, (2) Analyze Issues, (3) Identify Causes, (4) Address Causes, (5) Evaluate Results. Quizzes and self-evaluation forms help you to test your skills and evaluate solution the effectiveness of your solutions.

The Advanced Problem Solving Training is for managers, supervisors, and functional specialists to build their their problem-solving skills. The course focuses on systematic root-cause analysis and developing countermeasures to effectively contain, correct, and prevent failures from reoccurring. The advanced course is supported by a coach, helping students through the process, while providing feedback to get the analysis right.

The Expert Problem Solving Training is for engineers, managers, and quality professionals to build expert skills in systematic problem solving. The course covers the deep analysis of event-based problems, rule-based problems and human failures. The expert toolkit allows you tackling deviations and defects at the system level by eliminating, reducing, and controlling the entire set of causes, identified on the logic tree – assisted by an experienced coach.