Case: Root cause T 50
Introduction
How to find a root cause (avoid recurrence of a problem)
Scope: Production company
Target group: Quality manager, production manager, purchasing manager, supplier, customer
Situation
On Friday morning, Mr. Theelbow, from the Nicetoy company, telephones Miss Overthere, from the Thetoy company, to ask her for an inventory of the wheels for the PX1 product.
Thetoy is a supplier (old and reliable) of the company Nicetoy for the product PX1.
Thetoy manufactures wheels for different customers, Nicetoy being the most important in turnover.
Once or twice a month Mr. Theelbow requests an inventory for the parts for the PX1 product.
Miss Overthere notes Mr. Theelbow's request on a post-it and continues with her activities:
- telephone Mr. Verynear, Perfectoy's quality manager, to explain the actions taken following the return of two products at the start of the week. Before that, she has to send him the 8 D report
- quality meeting with the design office
- accompany a young auditor who has to carry out his first internal audit on the "receive" process at the raw materials store
Around 4 p.m. her inventory is ready and she telephones Mr. Theelbow to tell him the figures (32 boxes of 120 wheels ready to go).
It turns out that it is too late because for the (exceptional) delivery on Tuesday morning the wheels had to arrive before 8 a.m. on Monday morning. This is not possible because the carrier Goodservice does not deliver during the weekend.
Challenge
Who can we consider is the root cause of the failure of the Nicetoy company (meet the deadline for Tuesday morning)?
Solution 1. The Thetoy supplier
Solution 2. The Goodservice carrier
Solution 3. The Nicetoy customer