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School of Lean

Practical Problem Solving

Prac­ti­cal Prob­lem Solv­ing (PPS) is a Lean method­ol­o­gy ini­tial­ly devel­oped in the Toy­ota fac­to­ry that expands on the PDCA cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act) and turns prob­lem-solv­ing into a sys­tem­at­ic eight-step process. Prac­ti­cal Prob­lem Solv­ing allows orga­ni­za­tions to estab­lish how to define a ​“prob­lem,” which then allows them to respond quick­ly with the appro­pri­ate set of actions. It also enables teams to avoid wast­ing time on debate or dis­cus­sion so that they can spend more time and ener­gy on activ­i­ties that move the nee­dle in the right direction.

Addi­tion­al­ly, PPS pre­vents orga­ni­za­tions from deal­ing with the same prob­lems over and over through care­ful plan­ning, root cause analy­sis, and doc­u­men­ta­tion. Instead of spend­ing time going over the same issues, PPS allows com­pa­nies to learn from past mis­takes and keep build­ing on their knowledge. 

In this Prac­ti­cal Prob­lem Solv­ing online course, we’ll explain how to imple­ment this crit­i­cal strat­e­gy to help your orga­ni­za­tion achieve high-lev­el objectives.

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22 Videos

2h 16m

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What You’ll Learn in this Practical Problem Solving Online Course

In this online Prac­ti­cal Prob­lem Solv­ing course, Lean expert Ron Pereira intro­duces the con­cept of PPS and how its core prin­ci­ples can be applied to solve the prob­lems your orga­ni­za­tion deals with each day, no mat­ter their size. 

Here’s a quick overview of what’s cov­ered in this course series:

  • How to define a prob­lem and why it mat­ters. We’ll also intro­duce the con­cept of Prac­ti­cal Prob­lem Solv­ing (PPS) and its role in Lean management. 
  • The PDCA cycle and its four phases. 
  • You’ll learn Toy­ota’s 8‑step prac­ti­cal prob­lem solv­ing method­ol­o­gy and how it’s used by Lean prac­ti­tion­ers around the world. We’ll intro­duce each stage one seg­ment at a time to rein­force key concepts.
  • Dif­fer­ent approach­es for solv­ing a prob­lem, includ­ing Pare­to charts, fish­bone dia­grams, dot plots, run charts, and more. 
  • How to eval­u­ate the process and stan­dard­ize results.
  • How to use prob­lem-solv­ing as a learn­ing tool that can help you get bet­ter results from your Lean man­age­ment strategy.
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Benefits of this Gemba Academy Online Practical Problem Solving Course

After com­plet­ing this Gem­ba Acad­e­my Prac­ti­cal Prob­lem Solv­ing train­ing course, you’ll have an under­stand­ing of the prob­lem-solv­ing con­cepts that sup­port Lean principles.

You’ll learn about dif­fer­ent meth­ods for prob­lem-solv­ing and how to use dif­fer­ent deci­sion-mak­ing tools and tech­niques to iden­ti­fy prob­lems, their root caus­es, and the best pos­si­ble solutions.

Thought leader training

In addition to the benefits offered through this online Practical Problem Solving training, all Gemba Academy subscribers receive the following:

  • On-demand expert-led training.

    All sub­scribers gain full access to our on-demand Lean and Six Sig­ma con­tent library, which cur­rent­ly boasts over 1,500 lessons that can be viewed any­time, any­where. We’re always offer­ing fresh con­tent, which means the val­ue of your sub­scrip­tion grows over time, at no extra charge.

  • Prac­ti­cal lessons.

    Our online train­ing cours­es are led by real-world prac­ti­tion­ers who draw on their expe­ri­ence work­ing with com­pa­nies world­wide. Gem­ba Acad­e­my cours­es are pre­sent­ed in an infor­mal teach­ing style and offer prac­ti­cal insights your team can imme­di­ate­ly implement.

  • Lean learn­ing.

    Gem­ba Academy’s online train­ing cours­es won’t waste your time with irrel­e­vant activ­i­ties or long-wind­ed pre­sen­ta­tions. We’ve found that adults tend to learn best in 8 – 10-minute bursts, which is why all of our video lessons are between 5 – 15 min­utes long.