Toyota's Secret: The A3 Report

The A3 is a tool used by Toyota managers to "share a deeper method of thinking", helping them to "mentor others in root-cause analysis and scientific thinking."  Management wants people to learn from one another and therefore encourages productive dialogue, bringing into line the interests of individuals and departments of the firm.  A3 management is a system based on building structured opportunities for people to learn from through plan-based trial and error.  It can be an iterative process, where multiple progressive A3s are prepared to offer a final solution to a problem.

The A3 serves to illustrate a problem, important factors impacting the situation, goals to achieve and plans how to accomplish them.  It can be most effective when it is presented visually, utilizing diagrams and graphs to tell the story.  The desire is to have all who view it reach an shared understanding.  Simplicity is key.

7 Stages/Steps:

(1) Background - establish the business context and importance of a specific problem or issue

(2) Current Conditions  - based on facts acquired from the place where the work takes place; it is here that the problem is defined as simply as possible

(3) Goals/Targets - identify the desired outcome

(4) Analysis - establish causality; identify the gap between the current state and the desired performance; find the root causes by examining the way the work is performed and asking why the problem occurs

(5) Propose Countermeasures - proposed actions to directly address existing conditions; these actions in solving one set of issues may create new problems requiring yet more countermeasures; multiple countermeasures are presented, not just a single solution

(6) Plan - prescribe an action plan for getting it done, including deliverables, timeline and who is responsible for each

(7) Follow-up - scheduled time to review changes made, to identify new problems, develop countermeasures and communicate improvements to the rest of the firm

According to John Shook,"the ultimate goal of A3s is not just to solve the problem at hand, but to make the process of problem solving transparent and teachable in a manner that creates an organization full of thinking, learning problem solvers."