IE 259

WORK STUDY
PROBLEM SOLVING TOOLS

ENGR. NINNA S. OCAMPO, MBA, PIE

 Exploratory Tools

What are you exploring as

an IE?
explore the
“TRUE” problem
 Facade of the Problem
what people see
Tip of the Iceberg

Beneath the Surface

the real reason
“True” Problem
 “TRUE PROBLEM” “ROOT CAUSES”

As Engineers, we want to
eliminate these
 Exploratory Tools

Pareto Analysis Ishikawa Diagram

Problem Solving Tools
• A good engineering program will follow an orderly process – from the selection of
project until the implementation of the project.
• Identification of the problem is crucial

• Tools used in methods Analysis for SELECTING A PROJECT

• Pareto Analysis and Fishbone Diagrams – evolved from Japanese quality

circles of the early 1960s
• Gantt Charts and PERT – emerged in the 1940s in response to a need for
better project planning and control of military projects
• Job/Worksite Analysis Guide – helps identify problem within a particular area
and best developed as part of a walk-through or physical observation.
6
EXPLORATORY TOOLS 1
Pareto Analysis
• This is a technique developed by Vilfredo Pareto to explain the concentration of
wealth. It is a simple technique for prioritizing possible changes by identifying the
problems that will resolved by making these changes. By using this approach, you
can prioritize the individual changes that will most improve the situation. This is
also commonly referred to as 80-20 rule.
• Typically the 20% of the ranked items account for 80% or more of the total
activity.
Example: 20% of the jobs account for approximately 80% of the accident
80% of the total inventory is found in only 20% of the inventory items
• The method analyst concentrates the greatest effort on the few jobs that
causes the problem
7
Pareto Analysis
• The Pareto Principle or the 80:20 Rule; that
is; 80% of the problems are cause by 20%
of the potential sources
• Aims to separate the vital few from the
trivial many
• A Pareto chart is a vertical bar graph is
which the height of each bar represents the
frequency. The bars are placed in order of
decreasing height, with the tallest bar to
the left.
Pareto Analysis
STEPS
1. Identify and list the problems.
2. Identify the root cause of the problems.
3. Score problems.
4. Group problems together by root cause.
5. Add up the scores for each group
6. Take action

9
 Steps in making the Pareto Chart
Create a vertical bar chart with causes on the x-axis and count (number of
1
occurrences) on the y-axis.

2 Arrange the bar chart in descending order of cause importance that is, the
cause with the highest count first.

3 Calculate the cumulative count for each cause in descending order.

 Steps in Pareto Analysis
Calculate the cumulative count percentage for each cause in descending
order.
4 Percentage calculation =
{Individual Cause Count} / {Total Causes Count}*100

5 Create a second y-axis with percentages descending in increments of 10

from 100% to 0%.

6 Plot the cumulative count percentage of each cause on the x-axis.

 Steps in Pareto Analysis

7 Join the points to form a curve.

Draw a line at 80% on the y-axis running parallel to the x-axis. Then drop the line
8 at the point of intersection with the curve on the x-axis. This point on the x-axis
separates the important causes on the left (vital few) from the less important
causes on the right (trivial many).
Example 1
Example 1
 Example 1
Pareto Diagram
400 100.0

350 90.0
80.0
300
Count of Errors

70.0
250 60.0
200 50.0

150 40.0
Count
30.0
100 Cumulative %
20.0
50 10.0
0 0.0
 Example 1
Pareto Diagram
400 100.0

350 90.0
80.0
300
Count of Errors

70.0
250 60.0
200 50.0

150 40.0
Count
100 VITALFEW TRIVIALMANY 30.0
Cumulative %
20.0
50 10.0
0 0.0
 Example 2
The quality control department of Neon Philippines, Corp. recorded various types of paints
defects for the Q1 of 2016

Create a pareto analysis.

EXPLORATORY TOOLS 2
Fishbone Diagram
• Fishbone diagram is also known as Cause and Effect diagram, was developed by
Ishikawa in the early 1950s while working on a quality control project for a steel
company.
• Fish Head – effect – occurrence of undesirable event
• Fish Bones – cause – contributing factors

• Subdivided into 6 categories

• Machines
• Methods
• Materials
• Mother Nature (Environment)
• Manpower (People)
• Measurements
19
 Ishikawa Diagram

This method consists of

defining an occurrence of a
typically undesirable event or
problem, that is, the effect,
as the “Fish Head” and then
identifying contributions,
that is, the causes as
“Fish Bones”
EFFECT
CAUSES
 Steps in Ishikawa Diagram

Agree on a problem statement (effect). Write it at the center right of the flipchart
1 or whiteboard. Draw a box around it and draw a horizontal arrow running to it.

Brainstorm the major categories of causes of the problem.

• Methods
• Machines (equipment)
2 • People (manpower)
• Materials
• Measurement
• Environment
Reference: https://asq.org/quality-resources/fishbone
 Steps in Ishikawa Diagram

3 Write the categories of causes as branches from the main arrow.

Brainstorm all the possible causes of the problem. Ask "Why does this happen?" As
4 each idea is given, the facilitator writes it as a branch from the appropriate
category. Causes can be written in several places if they relate to several
categories.

Reference: https://asq.org/quality-resources/fishbone
 Steps in Ishikawa Diagram

Again ask "Why does this happen?" about each cause. Write sub-causes branching
5 off the causes. Continue to ask "Why?" and generate deeper levels of causes.
Layers of branches indicate causal relationships.

6 When the group runs out of ideas, focus attention to places on the chart
where ideas are few.

Reference: https://asq.org/quality-resources/fishbone
F
I D
S I
H A
G
B R
O A
N M
E
24
EXPLORATORY TOOLS 3
Gantt Chart
• The first project planning and control technique to emerge during the 1940s in
response to managing complex defense projects and systems.

• A gantt chart simply shows the anticipated completion times for various
project activities plotted against time in a horizontal axis.

• Technology has evolved and there are softwares that can plot your project
detailed schedule.
• MS Project

25
GANTT CHART

26
EXPLORATORY TOOLS 4
PERT
• PERT stands for Program Evaluation and Review Technique. It is also referred as network
diagram or critical path method, a planning and control tool that graphically portrays the
optimum way to attain some predetermined objective, generally in terms of time.

• Provide two or three times estimates for each activity answering the following questions,
which will help the analyst develop a probability distribution of the time required to
perform an activity.

• How much time is required to complete an activity if everything works ideally?

(OPTIMISTIC)
• Under average conditions, what would be the MOST LIKELY duration of this
activity?
• What is the time required to complete this activity if almost everything goes
wrong? (PESSIMISTIC)
27
PERT CHARTING

28
EXPLORATORY TOOLS 5
Job/Worksite Analysis Guide
• Identifies a problem within a particular area.
• Analyst works through the area and observes the worker, the
task, the workplace and the surrounding environment to collect
data.
• Analyst will identify any administrative factors that may or likely
affect the worker’s behavior or performance
• This should be a necessary step before an extensive quantitative
data are collected on the present method.
29
Job/Worksite
Analysis
Guide

30