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Mike Rother! A3 + IK!

Why Your A3 Isn't Working!& What You Can Do About It!

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By Je Liker, Mark Rosenthal, Mike Rother and Jenny Snow-Boscolo February 2014

Mike Rother! A3 + IK! 2

WHAT ARE A3 REPORTS? Used at Toyota One side of A3-sized sheet of paper (~11 x 17 inches) A process of creaTng an unfolding story


A3 AT TOYOTA Developing an A3 story forces you to lter and rene your thoughts to t on one large sheet of paper, in such a way that your manager has their (major) quesTons answered by reading that sheet. Only short A3 training is available at Toyota maybe an hour or two. A3 report wriTng skill is learned from your Coach/manager and a lot of experience.

1) Its not just a report. The document evolves along the way with the process of learning. That process is more important than the A3 itself.

2) Its part of a method for teaching (coaching)

systemaTc, scienTc habits of thinking and working. 3) Its also a method for building consensus.


FOUR TYPES OF A3 STORIES

PROPOSAL STORY

PROBLEM SOLVING STORY

STATUS STORY

INFO STORY

PROPOSAL TYPE STORIES

REPORT TYPE STORIES


PROBLEM SITUATION

TARGET / GOAL

CAUSE ANALYSIS

COUNTERMEASURES

IMPLEMENTATION

FOLLOW-UP

THEME

AUTHOR: ________________________ DATE: ______________

EXAMPLE A3 PROBLEM SOLVING STORY FORMAT


WHAT'S THE PURPOSE OF THE A3 TOOL?

Many of us have heard the stories from Westerners who went to work at Toyota... At the start of their Toyota career they're given an assignment and have to create an A3 as they work on that assignment. As a result, of course, the A3 tool and format became central in their thinking about Toyota's approach. However, the A3 format / tool itself is primarily a medium to facilitate communicaTon between a Toyota Mentor and their Learner. The goal is not the A3 itself, but to teach the Learner a scienTc pahern of thinking and acTng as the Learner works on a real assignment or problem. Here's a sobering point for users of the A3 outside of Toyota: The choreography of that thinking pahern lies more inside the Mentor's head than in the A3. Just using the A3 does lihle.

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CHANGE TAKES MORE THAN THE A3 TOOL

A lesson learned in the Toyota Kata research is that A3 is a Toyota tool that's used there in the context of correcTve coaching by an experienced mentor. When A3 gets used in other organizaTons without this underlying component, the probability of A3 developing systemaTc, scienTc thinking & acTng is low.

The thinking and behavior paherns at Toyota are held in their seasoned coaches, not in the A3 tool format

The A3 Tool

The desired pahern of thinking & acTng is here

Experienced Mentor

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At Toyota


RESEARCHERS WHO BENCHMARK TOYOTA TECHNIQUES CAN REACH

ERRONEOUS CONCLUSIONS The A3 document and associated coaching is a Toyota technique that helps managers teach a scienTc pahern of thinking in parts of the company. What's important from a tech-transfer point of view is the pahern of thinking (modeled by the Improvement Kata), which gets actualized in various ways throughout the Toyota organizaTon.

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A 3


WHAT SHOULD WE DO? We're not at Toyota and we don't have an

experienced Toyota mentor (manager) coaching us

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PRACTICE THE IMPROVEMENT KATA AND COACHING KATA

A3 as it is used to train people at Toyota and the Improvement Kata / Coaching Kata (IK/CK) are aimed at the same purpose: Developing scienTc thinking skills (clarity of objecTve, conducTng experiments, striving based on facts and data). The A3 alone is more of a summary of a problem-solving process. If used correctly, the Learner is going through it with coaching, and hence pracTce, at every step. At Toyota the coaching is not structured and it is not necessarily daily. There is no formal coaching protocol and no protocol for daily pracTce, though ideally that is what is desired. It is up to the Coach to determine the frequency and approach. This means the A3 requires a higher level of coaching skill. The Improvement Kata & Coaching Kata make this process more explicit, teachable and transferrable. The purpose of the IK & CK is to systemaTze the pracTce as in sports & music thats more implicit in Toyota's already-strong culture of improvement. The Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata explicitly create the pahern that makes the A3 eecTve at Toyota.

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BEGINNERS NEED PRACTICE ROUTINES!

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Both the Learner & Coach benet from having structured pracTce rouTnes to develop their skills and mindset


THE IMPROVEMENT KATA & COACHING KATA INCLUDE PRACTICE ROUTINES

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The IK & CK model scienTc thinking & acTng, and have structured rouTnes for pracTcing and teaching that pahern


THREE SUGGESTIONS FOR A3 USERS

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1) ADD THE IK/CK ROUTINES TO YOUR A3 The IK/CK rouTnes are a way to pracTce and build skills, but there's no need to abandon the A3. If you're already using A3, you can use the IK/CK rouTnes within your A3.

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SPECIFICALLY

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PLANNING

EXECUTING


EXAMPLE

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1. Identify the Problem (Include Challenge and Current Condition)

Terex Problem Solving Report TOPIC/Focus Area: Date/Name:

2. Set a Target (Define next Target Condition)

3. Analyze Causes (Perceived Obstacles Parking Lot)

5. Check & Evaluate (Final results to achieve Target Condition)

6. Act/Standardize (Yokoten to share best practice)

Challenge Statement

Current Condition/Gap:

4. Propose &Test Countermeasures (PDCA Cycles Records)

Example by Jenny Snow-Boscolo


2) USE THE A3 FORMAT AS A SUMMARY

Check and Act can reect on the process of working toward the last Target CondiTon, in preparaTon for dening the next target condiTon

1. Identify the Problem (Include Challenge and Current Condition)

Terex Problem Solving Report TOPIC/Focus Area: Date/Name:

2. Set a Target (Define next Target Condition)

3. Analyze Causes (Perceived Obstacles Parking Lot)

5. Check & Evaluate (Final results to achieve Target Condition)

6. Act/Standardize (Yokoten to share best practice)

Challenge Statement

Current Condition/Gap:

4. Propose &Test Countermeasures (PDCA Cycles Records)

Conduct a reecTon with key stakeholders: A3 to review one Target CondiTon eort

A3 can be used to summarize informaTon from the Learner's Improvement Kata storyboard, as a major reecTon or reporTng acTvity once a target condiTon is reached.


The A3 is parTcularly useful for individuals trying to get cross-funcTonal agreement and engagement, by having a crisp, clear story to circulate and get alignment and build consensus.

3) USE THE A3 FOR CONSENSUS BUILDING


WHETHER IMPROVEMENT KATA OR A3, YOULL NEED:

A clearly paherned improvement/striving process. Broken into elements to pracTce each element. An experienced coach with a dened coaching pahern, to provide correcTve feedback. Experiments to iterate toward the target condiTon. Involve those aected. Frequent reecTon/adjustment, and a major reecTon for closure.

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CONCLUSION The Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata are structured teaching tools to shio underlying thought paherns. The idea is that as prociency is developed and the scienTc skills and thought paherns take hold, the structure of the coaching dialogs can move in the general direcTon of Toyota's This is just how we think and do things" culture. Gepng the kata paherns established is an early target condiTon. The Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata are for organizaTons that don't think and act scienTcally by default, but want to learn to do so. That means they are in deliberate pracTce mode, and the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata provide a structure for that pracTce.

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FOR MORE DETAIL: On the "Toyota Kata Website"

Improvement Kata Handbook

The online Improvement Kata Handbook is the resource for pracTcing and coaching the rouTnes of the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata

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