What % of CA you implement are Effective? How do you determine Effectiveness?

[samsung]

As far as implementation of CA is concerned it's the 'effectiveness' that finally matters. Sometimes back I evaluated the level of effectiveness of all the Corrective Actions we implemented during last six months and I was disappointed to know that it just fell short of 50% that means nearly half of the actions we implemented didn't work as anticipated. One of the reasons, among others, for this shortfall is ineffective root cause analysis in addition to ineffective implementation of the CA to which a solid Root Cause is yet to be assigned.

I'm wondering how others perform in this area, means what's the normal level of success that you achieve in terms of effectiveness of your CA program ?

I also wish to know how you determine the effectiveness of an action, means is it the absence of recurrence of the problem due to the detected (root) cause(s) or other factors are also taken into consideration ? Why I ask this is because sometimes when multiple actions are implemented (when a definitive cause is not perceived) and the problem doesn't recur, it becomes highly difficult to know which particular 'action' did contribute to resolving the problem.

Your inputs are highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Stijloor]

Re: What % of CA you implement are effective & how do you determine it ?

As far as implementation of CA is concerned it's the 'effectiveness' that finally matters. Sometimes back I evaluated the level of effectiveness of all the Corrective Actions we implemented during last six months and I was disappointed to know that it just fell short of 50% that means nearly half of the actions we implemented didn't work as anticipated. One of the reasons, among others, for this shortfall is ineffective root cause analysis in addition to ineffective implementation of the CA to which a solid Root Cause is yet to be assigned.

I'm wondering how others perform in this area, means what's the normal level of success that you achieve in terms of effectiveness of your CA program ?

I also wish to know how you determine the effectiveness of an action, means is it the absence of recurrence of the problem due to the detected (root) cause(s) or other factors are also taken into consideration ? Why I ask this is because sometimes when multiple actions are implemented (when a definitive cause is not perceived) and the problem doesn't recur, it becomes highly difficult to know which particular 'action' did contribute to resolving the problem.

Your inputs are highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Comments anyone?

Thanks.

Stijloor.

 

[Chennaiite]

Re: What % of CA you implement are effective & how do you determine it ?

As far as implementation of CA is concerned it's the 'effectiveness' that finally matters. Sometimes back I evaluated the level of effectiveness of all the Corrective Actions we implemented during last six months and I was disappointed to know that it just fell short of 50% that means nearly half of the actions we implemented didn't work as anticipated. One of the reasons, among others, for this shortfall is ineffective root cause analysis in addition to ineffective implementation of the CA to which a solid Root Cause is yet to be assigned.

I'm wondering how others perform in this area, means what's the normal level of success that you achieve in terms of effectiveness of your CA program ?

I also wish to know how you determine the effectiveness of an action, means is it the absence of recurrence of the problem due to the detected (root) cause(s) or other factors are also taken into consideration ? Why I ask this is because sometimes when multiple actions are implemented (when a definitive cause is not perceived) and the problem doesn't recur, it becomes highly difficult to know which particular 'action' did contribute to resolving the problem.

Your inputs are highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Sam, I guess your effectiveness of 50% is too low. As you rightly pointed out, this speaks volume on either ineffective analysis or ineffective implementation. Now, the easier one to immediately resolve is the ineffective implementation which can be achieved by good follow up of the action plan. On the other hand, ineffective analysis can only be improved by applying right problem solving tools at the right situation. We(my Organization) normally recommend our suppliers to carry out Fishbone diagram to identify potential causes logically, Validation of all the potential causes either by trying to reproduce the cause or with the help of available data and finally Why Why analysis for the causes identified out of validation. These steps may be little too exhaustive, but it takes care of all logically possible causes and can be applied in order wherever the problem deserves this much quantum of attention. This can help in improving the figures.

Now coming to the second part of your post, IMO effectiveness of CA is very subjective thing to measure. When a problem recurs it is always better to go back to the previous instance and find out if the then analysis was carried out exhaustively. More often than not, we dont make exhaustive analysis and decide actions at the heat of the moment. Apparently, such cases can be considered as recurrence. Nevertheless, there can be situation where the cause at the first instance was quite clear and didnt call for a deep analysis. This can certainly be given a reprieve, IMO.

 

[somashekar]

Re: What % of CA you implement are effective & how do you determine it ?

Much is in the why why approach and majority of the root cause come at the 5th why.
We all know this.
The only issue as samsung has opened up by asking ... what's the normal level of success that you achieve in terms of effectiveness of your CA program ?
People are Shy to go deeper in the Why and compromise at the best Why as they feel comfortable with .. leading to mediocre levels of success and mediocre effectiveness.

 

[samsung]

Re: What % of CA you implement are effective & how do you determine it ?

Much is in the why why approach and majority of the root cause come at the 5th why.
We all know this.
The only issue as samsung has opened up by asking ... what's the normal level of success that you achieve in terms of effectiveness of your CA program ?
People are Shy to go deeper in the Why and compromise at the best Why as they feel comfortable with .. leading to mediocre levels of success and mediocre effectiveness.

You got it rightly. There are people who do it religiously but there are others who don't want to drill down deeper and so come up with poor outcome of their analyses. For them it's a trial & error game and at the end of the day, everything works fine but at a much higher cost.

My query is a sort of benchmarking exercise. I know we are way behind but just want to know how much so that based on the study I can a set an objective for performance improvement.

Appreciating your opinion / feedback,

Thanks

 

[Chennaiite]

Re: What % of CA you implement are effective & how do you determine it ?

You got it rightly. There are people who do it religiously but there are others who don't want to drill down deeper and so come up with poor outcome of their analyses. For them it's a trial & error game and at the end of the day, everything works fine but at a much higher cost.

My query is a sort of benchmarking exercise. I know we are way behind but just want to know how much so that based on the study I can a set an objective for performance improvement.

Appreciating your opinion / feedback,

Thanks

I would say (striving towards)100% effectiveness is the benchmark. But the larger concern lies in the *determination* of the effectiveness which is the second part of your original post. To me, you have put forward a genuine concern in the form of recurrence identification and it is better to first fix it, before you set some target, whatsoever and work for it.

 

[Chennaiite]

Re: What % of CA you implement are effective & how do you determine it ?

Much is in the why why approach and majority of the root cause come at the 5th why.
We all know this.
The only issue as samsung has opened up by asking ... what's the normal level of success that you achieve in terms of effectiveness of your CA program ?
People are Shy to go deeper in the Why and compromise at the best Why as they feel comfortable with .. leading to mediocre levels of success and mediocre effectiveness.

With due respect, I honestly feel 5 Why is just a phrase. So many times it is difficult to carry forward till the fifth one. Believe me it is not the mindset.
Secondly, 5 Why is one of the tools and it alone cannot solve all Quality problems.

 

[somashekar]

Re: What % of CA you implement are effective & how do you determine it ?

With due respect, I honestly feel 5 Why is just a phrase. So many times it is difficult to carry forward till the fifth one. Believe me it is not the mindset.
Secondly, 5 Why is one of the tools and it alone cannot solve all Quality problems.

This difficulty which is mentioned is perhaps what I termed as shy away from the why.
It so happens that you have an opportunity for a next why questioning and then it is perceived to be beyond reach or thoughts of false obstacles come so strongly that one settles to less than the 'real root cause' .
yesss... the 5 why cannot solve the quality problem or any non conformance, but then as mentioned its a tool and it has to be well utilized so that your finger comes down to " the actual and factual point " and then knowing the root cause is half the problem solved. The rest is in planning and executing the solution.

 

[David Hartman]

Re: What % of CA you implement are effective & how do you determine it ?

As others have already stated the 5-Why method is only one of the tools available, you could also implement a brain-storming session with a resultant fish bone chart (or other cause and effect based chart). Additionally, as a result of determining the root cause and corrective action, metrics to determine how to measure improvement should be developed so that the effectivity of the chosen solution can be monitored. Another thought is that you are not limited to using only one analysis tool, they can be used together or separately (as a method for validating the selected root cause).

 

[samsung]

Re: What % of CA you implement are effective & how do you determine it ?

Thanks for all the replies yet my question still remains to be answered, i.e. How others are performing in this area and how the effectiveness of CA is evaluated ?