Sujata Dhawase

As we know, Kata is simply a form of martial art, which is transferred to the next generations over many years. Kata is all about consistency, behavior, the way we understand and respond to situation repeatedly by understanding all the dynamics.
When we look for “every day, every one, every process” improvement then Kata is a vital enabler and therefore in business excellence we need to focus on the “Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata”.
Improvement Kata :
Improvement Kata starts with deep thinking and accepting behavior of è Daily process work=Improvement work ; therefore in Improvement Kata we consistently focus on setting up :
a) Direction/Vision b) Understand current condition c) establish the next target condition and d) PDCA towards the target condition

a) Direction/ Vision: all efforts we takes that has to be aligned and synchronized with the big purpose of an organization.
b) Understand the Current condition by visiting Gemba and verifying facts.
c) Establish target condition : Target Condition is a not a Target; Target condition drives a clear thinking and behavior è How we can achieve the next level of performance (target) , Target condition is about driving right behavior collaborating with the team members to achieve target.

While choosing target condition we should be thoughtful, it must be challenging and stretched. Transferring from Current condition to the Target condition there is a Grey area, when we starts taking 1st step then the way towards target condition will be clear, there could be many unpredictable obstacles and to overcome from those we need to use Lean way of thinking/methodologies like PDCA.
 d) PDCA :
Plan – Understand the target condition; Steps and processes, measurable metrics
Do – Implement, adjust and correct actions to move to the target condition
Check – Check and verify, is it an expected outcome? will that help us to move to target condition?
Act – Pick up learnings and use it for next challenge/obstacle removal; make it standard
In this journey, we should need to think of “What we learn during this problem solving/improvement rather scaling up and measuring how much % improvement is achieved?”
Summary of Improvement Kata :
The better is the understanding of Current condition, the more accurate target condition we can set up, once we have precise target condition then we can use our behavior and methodologies to resolve obstacles.
Application: We use Improvement Kata in many ways --- When we Drive Transformation projects / initiatives where we don’t know how to drive it , the way towards target is unclear then this methodology works.
Example – We have assigned with the 1% of CoNQ by Y2022; in 2019 we have done Hoshin and created a target condition with 3years-2year-1 year plan; identified Matrices to measure the progress of target condition; set up target condition for 2019 once we achieved it then set up next target condition and metrics for 2020, likewise. Now we are at 1.8% CoNQ target and we have path to achieve 1%.
 
Coaching Kata :
Coaching Kata is critical and essential to deploy Continuous improvement culture across organization. This is not only to deploy the methodological thinking but also the right attitude pass on method. In order to sustain Improvement Kata culture we must have to coach to the next level of organization so that this coaching cycle never ends.

 Leader’s should not to only look for how much improvements we are doing instead focus on developing the Problem solving capability and right attitude in people.
In order to develop the capability of People we can do Classroom training and On-job coaching. Effective way to drive it is with Train the Trainer or Metor-Mentee concept.
Key elements of Coaching Kata:

 
1. Identified Mentor – Mentee should have a Problem to work upon and Mentor should have an experience to deal with similar challenges.
2. Mentor would always ask Guiding questions to challenge the thought process of Mentee
3. Also allow Mentee to do affordable mistakes while learning by experience
4. Encourage Mentee to take 1 step at a moment, this to focus and invest all efforts to improve capability and attitude of mentee towards problem solving
5. This leads to : shift in Thinking, Discussion from unidirectional to focused, thoughtful/methodological approach to resolve obstacles , following A3 or PDCA structurally and improving mentee’s capability
 
Summary of Coaching Kata: This cycle of Mentor-Mentee should drive organizational practical problem solving capability development and bring more trust in organization. Predominantly what has learn from the exercise should be focus rather than what is the achievement
Application: Most of the Organization drives TTT (Train the trainer) , Mentor-Mentee program to – develop people , drive succession planning , create next level of leaders, improve people engagement, improve trust between organization and employees, improve moral of employees
 
Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata concepts are well explained in “Toyota KATA” book by Mike Rother.
 
 

We use the RCA method in Analysis phase of DMAIC , Plan phase of PDCA & D4 step in 8D approach.
What is RCA? _ Root cause analysis is a class of problem solving methods aimed at identifying the root causes of problems or event. To analyze a root cause, you have to define a problem, gather data or evidence. Identify the issue that contributed to the problem and find root cause using 5 Whys.
Difference between Causes & Root causes _
Simply causes or probable causes can identify easily based on our experience or available data & it's superficial in nature. We can't implement a systematic action which ensures that the action taken on these causes will remove the problem permanently (not proactive - Meaning problem can reoccur)
Whereas identification of Root causes is not comparatively easy as normal/probable causes. To identify it one must have to go on Gemba & validate the Scenario/issue/data by asking “why” several times until we reach the fundamental process element that failed.  Once we identify & implement an action on these RCAs that remove problem permanently meaning no reoccurrence of problem. Also it always leads us to the Process , Control mechanism & system failure oriented RCAs.
Below is the right approach to conduct the 3Way5Why RCA :
1. Generation oriented RCA (Why-why analysis) _ Which gives us the root cause for " Why the issue/problem has generated". It leads us to the Source of issue leading us to "Process or System failure"
2. Detection oriented RCA (Why-why analysis) _ In this mode of investigation we aim to Identify RCA for " Why our Process is not able to catch/detect the issues/problem from product or service throughout our process flow". This leads us towards the "Control Mechanism failure".
3. System oriented RCA (Why-why analysis)
_ As the last step of our investigation, we must focus our attention on the systems that support our processes. Tracing back defects to the systems that may have contributed to the failure will help us improve systematically throughout the organization. This step is just as important as finding out why the product or service failed in the first place and may have more impact on the bottom line.
 
Example of 3Way5Why :
Problem / Issue _  Battery charger failure
1st Way : Occurrence / Generation
1st: Why did the battery charger fail?
- It had a defective flex cable.
2nd:  Why was the flex cable defective? -The traces at the edge of the overlay opening of the flex cable were cracked. 3rd:  Why were they cracked? - Excessive force used while manually bending the flex cable  during assembly.
4th:  Why was the flex cable bent excessively? - No jig to assist the manual operation of bending.
Root cause in this instance?
Not using a poka yoke jig to assist in this manual operation will leave it exposed to variation in the force applied to assemble the product.
2nd Way : Detection
1st: Why was the defective flex cable not detected?
- Invisible trace open in flex cable was not detected electrically.
2nd:  Why was this not detected electrically? -FVT tester was not able to detect this failure.
3rd:  Why did the FVT tester fail to detect? - FVT tester did not have the program to check for this failure.
4th:  Why did the FVT tester not have this program? - The test program was consigned, and was not developed to check for this failure.
Root cause in this instance?
The test program buy-off procedure did not cover this item. This should be addressed.
3rd Way : System
1st: Why did our systems/processes produce a faulty product?
- The flex cable has assembly issues which made it vulnerable to cracking.
2nd:  Why were we not aware of this vulnerability?
-The potential failure mode of cracked cables was not properly assessed.
3rd:  Why was this failure mode not assessed?
- FMEA was performed, but did not consider this failure mode.
4th:  Why did we not consider this in FMEA?
- No training program in place to train QE and ME in correct FMEA completion.
Root cause in this instance? We need to make or FMEA system more robust with training and accountability.