Challenge

I’m working in a manufacturing facility, with a long tradition of using classical problem solving systems as  lean manufacturing tools, five why’s, fishbone diagrams, brainstorming etc. The challenge for me is how  to apply design thinking tools in this environment, with workers with a lot of experience in their jobs with  high school or elementary school level. And a top management that like to use the current approaches so  first of all I need to see how I can convince the top management to use this tool and second how I can  make that workers use this new approach.

Selection

I decided to use the current kaizen planning in order that top management let me try these approach,  but my idea was to use design thinking approach to perform the kaizen, instead to use the regular  kaizen methodology

Application

Using ” what is” approach I put a team working to solve a problem, so I encourage the team to first look  and observe the activities that people was doing without say anything. My idea was use “visualization and  journey mapping” so they can observe what customer did and if they have an idea they can write in a  piece of paper but they cannot say anything, this was in order to generate a big amount of ideas. What I  observe was that people of team started to imagine a lot of possible solutions just with observation.

Then after observation finished we went to the meeting room and we reviewed all the information, I  asked the team to write the possible solutions in a paper without put a name using “what if” approach,  basically a brainstorming without sharing ideas. In a normal problem solving event we ask everybody to  give a possible cause of the problem and what happened is that no more than 5 ideas are given by the  team. What I observe is that people are able to generate a lot of ideas if they just put in a piece of paper  without the pressure of the bosses or other members of the team, however there are other people that  there are very difficult to not express his ideas, so I encourage them just to think and write in a piece of  paper.

After this steps we followed with “What wows” so we put all the ideas in the wall of the meeting room  and basically the possible solutions were put in groups with everybody ideas (concept development), what  I observe is since everybody ideas were in all groups of solutions the members of the team were ready to  work in any of the solutions.

The team were split in three groups to work in three solutions (Assumption testing), using “what work”  approach, to prove their ideas, at the end one idea was selected as the best option, so I encourage to  prove this idea making a prototype.

Insight

Using the tools of design thinking I discover that people that normally don’t participate in the regular  problem solving events, they are able to generate a lot of ideas of how to solve a problem, I discovered  that this approach encourage people to think alternative solutions without the social pressure to say  something smart

But this approach is difficult to people that normally they believe have the right answer

And I discovered that some people found difficult to work with prototypes to prove and idea, and I think  this is a challenge that I need to work in the future


Challenge I ’m working in a manufacturing facility , with a long tradition of using classical problem solving systems as lean manufacturing tools , five why ’s , fishbone diagrams , brainstorming etc . The challenge for me is how to apply design thinking tools in this environment , with workers with a lot of experience in their jobs with high school or elementary school level . And a top management that like to use the current approaches so first of all I need to see how I can convince the top management to use this tool and second how I can make that workers use this new approach . Selection I decided to use the current kaizen planning in order that top management let me try these approach , but my idea was to use design thinking approach to perform the kaizen , instead to use the regular kaizen methodology Application Using ” what is ” approach I put a team working to solve a problem , so I encourage the team to first look and observe the activities that people was doing without say anything . My idea was use “ visualization and journey mapping ” so they can observe what customer did and if they have an idea they can write in a piece of paper but they can not say anything , this was in order to generate a big amount of ideas . What I observe was that people of team started to imagine a lot of possible solutions just with observation . Then after observation finished we went to the meeting room and we reviewed all the information , I asked the team to write the possible solutions in a paper without put a name using “ what if ” approach , basically a brainstorming without sharing ideas . In a normal problem solving event we ask everybody to give a possible cause of the problem and what happened is that no more than 5 ideas are given by the team . What I observe is that people are able to generate a lot of ideas if they just put in a piece of paper without the pressure of the bosses or other members of the team , however there are other people that there are very difficult to not express his ideas , so I encourage them just to think and write in a piece of paper . After this steps we followed with “ What wows ” so we put all the ideas in the wall of the meeting room and basically the possible solutions were put in groups with everybody ideas ( concept development ) , what I observe is since everybody ideas were in all groups of solutions the members of the team were ready to work in any of the solutions . The team were split in three groups to work in three solutions ( Assumption testing ) , using “ what work ” approach , to prove their ideas , at the end one idea was selected as the best option , so I encourage to prove this idea making a prototype . Insight Using the tools of design thinking I discover that people that normally do n’t participate in the regular problem solving events , they are able to generate a lot of ideas of how to solve a problem , I discovered that this approach encourage people to think alternative solutions without the social pressure to say something smart But this approach is difficult to people that normally they believe have the right answer And I discovered that some people found difficult to work with prototypes to prove and idea , and I think this is a challenge that I need to work in the future