A3 Dojo: Share and Discuss A3s with Other Lean Thinkers

Message: Hello Stacie, I am not quite sure if I got our question right but aside of the Managing to Learn book I also recommend the Understanding A3 Thinking book where are a lot of good tips how to do A3s. Plus a lot of Lean / TPS books has good chapters regarding A3s. But of course the best way is to try :o). Vitek

Message: Stacie - sorry for the delayed response. A couple of thoughts: In North American Toyota we used the A3 to present proposals. There would be a meeting for final sign-off to proceed from the person or persons whose approval authority was required. This meeting was generally, however, a formality. It was proceeded by other meetings to review -- and refine -- the A3 with the stakeholders whose support or acceptance was required to actually be able to implement. The final session was usually a formality because the stakeholders would have signed off on the A3 signaling their agreement. The approving person(s) looked for those sign-offs to know the proposed plan had been vetted and the agreements necessary to implement were in place. That's why John Shook refers to a A3 as a process for "earning authority to proceed" and not just a communication tool. The proposal A3 itself is just a tool used to have the discussions and get the agreements necessary to proceed. Second thought: You can do proposal presentations that are a combination of the A3 storyboard and PowerPoint slides. Those at the presentation are given copies of the A3. Then presenter then uses a slide for each section of the A3 to walk through his/her story that makes a case for his/her proposed action. I hope this in part answers your question. Please let me know if it leads to other questions. Thansk -- David

Message: At the company where I work we have (and continue to use in most areas) a DMAIC 'storyboard' that can grow up to 60+ slides by the time we get to the Control phase. Those that are using the A3 find it refreshing and a relief to not have to create those presentation/storyboard decks. It's just so many forms of waste when you think about it. More time is spent creating the presentation than solving the problem. That's the beauty of the A3. The detailed data can always shared if someone wants to see it, but the A3 doesn't need to go into all that to be effective. Keep it at the high level. The mentor/mentee knows the detail has been completed to get to the current stage.

Take the leap, drop the presentations, get more time to solve the problems.

Message: Thanks Jeff, I did end up skipping the presentation and just getting it (the A3) to the folks who were the final decision makers. I agree a 60 plus slide show is overkill. One of the things that I really like about this process is the clarity of the final document. The group was able to read through the information and make some choices. Thanks for the input!

Message: Hi I have some A3s that I cannot share on such a broad forum, but if you give me your email i may be able to share some of real good information.

Message: BTW my email id is Pramod_Yadav@whirlpool.com

Message: my mail is cnunez@pacificinsight.com for you tosend me info related to A3