I see a lot of similarities between how Toyota operates and how we have started to operate. They implement thousands of micro-improvements every year in their process and assembly lines. Most of the improvement suggestions come from people working on the front lines.
One interesting thing they do is called the 5 Whys
The vehicle will not start. (the problem)
Why? - The battery is dead. (first why)
Why? - The alternator is not functioning. (second why)
Why? - The alternator belt has broken. (third why)
Why? - The alternator belt was well beyond its useful service life and not replaced. (fourth why)
Why? - The vehicle was not maintained according to the recommended service schedule. (fifth why, a root cause)
The questioning for this example could be taken further to a sixth, seventh, or higher level, but five iterations of asking why is generally sufficient to get to a root cause. The key is to encourage the trouble-shooter to avoid assumptions and logic traps and instead trace the chain of causality in direct increments from the effect through any layers of abstraction to a root cause that still has some connection to the original problem. Note that, in this example, the fifth why suggests a broken process or an alterable behaviour, which is indicative of reaching the root-cause level.
This is something that Toyota does to identify problems and get to the root cause of the problem.
My suggestion is as follows:
Start with an RFC identifying and describing the problem. Just focus on the problem itself. No solutions yet.
The discussion has the goal of getting to the root cause of the problem using the five whys
Once we have agreed on the root cause of the problem we discuss a solution to attack the root of the problem
I see a lot of similarities between how Toyota operates and how we have started to operate. They implement thousands of micro-improvements every year in their process and assembly lines. Most of the improvement suggestions come from people working on the front lines.
One interesting thing they do is called the 5 Whys
This is something that Toyota does to identify problems and get to the root cause of the problem.
My suggestion is as follows: