Mind Mapping Tool application in an apparent production problem

Challenge

Once I worked in a ribbon manufacturer Company. There was a lot of stopped production machines  and only one of them worked 3-4 hours each day, some of them had no maintenance. Only  considering the only working machine there was a production problema that i could not see. I needed  to know what was this apparent production problem by alanyzing the different sections of the  Company as a system of inner-clients by the different sub-products each section has to deliver to the  next in order to make the final product. These inner-clients has needs beyond the product by itself  and I wanted to discover them.

Selection

By using he Mind Mapping Tool I should get some information about the needs of each Company  section and start to get to a view to the real problem. I should analyze each section as a persona and  then I should know what was the apparent production problema.

Application

I met each section idependient from the other and show the product flow of the process. I told them  to write on a post-it the common issues they watched in the sub-product when it arriver to the section  beside as how the product was planed to arrive (freccuency, quality, etc.). This was a complicated  exercise to do with the administrative section because the sub-product they process is intangible.

Insight

The sub-product to ge tinto each section had usually good quality, but the problem was the quantity.  It had been a low product flow (compared to the Company competitors and compared to the total  production capacity of the Company itself) for 20 years. They had a lot of unused machines and a lack  of leadership, a problem to do the activities by the same way as always. I created a “persona” for each  section to standarice the way the inner-relations should be.

The main issue was located from the top of the Company, the CEO and the administrative section did  not look for more clients and the didn’t have intentions to updathe their marketing 2000’s system.  The biggest problem was the CEO’s lack of leadership. He has been confortable with his Company all  this time and did not want to change anything. There was not an offering to the products that the un- used machines would produce because of the CEO’s instentions fot not-growing. The administrative  section was the main problem, they proccesed the orders, but did not search for more. The solution is  to inspire and take the lead of a growing-upgrading administrative plan.

Approach

The use i gave to the Mind Mapping Tool results to me mor informative tan productive. The Tool’s use  i defined from the beginning was to find the origin of a problem by watching the relation of different  company’s sections instead of defining a definitive solution. The tool facilitated the road to solve the  ptoblem but not the solution itself. The next time i would make a better definition of the reach of the  tool’s use from the start.

