Welcome to the A3 Thinking Blog. From time to time the authors of A3 Thinking will post articles or updates pertaining to the book A3 Thinking. Drop by and visit when you have free time or send the authors a question. As time allows they’ll take turns answering whatever is submitted.
|
||||||
|
Recently I was asked to give a presentation via Webinar on the topic of A3 Thinking by OPS Group, Inc. For the audience I agreed to post my presentation slides on-line in pdf format. Here is a link to that file for interested parties. In general I like to think that there are three invisible pillars for A3 reports. One pillar is good old fashioned problem solving. A second pillar is communication and collaboration. A third pillar however is mentoring and advising people on A3 reports. So in addition to the recent points of communication advice I drafted for A3’s here are some follow up points I discussed with a client about the topic of mentoring. It is difficult enough to author a good A3 report but it is also challenging and rewarding to help people improve the quality of their reports. Here is my subjective list of things to look out for and keep in mind. I am sure there are other points as well these are just my initial thought starters for consideration. Continue reading A3 Mentoring Advice A client asked me to give some pointers pertaining to A3 presentations and communication points. Here is a list of ten things that I mentioned and a few words of advice pertaining to each point. The following list is not exhaustive by any means and is just intended as some points of practical advice for thought starters. Continue reading A3 Communication Advice A reader named Vimal from a processing company writes in this week with the following question:
This is a good question that we receive from time to time from readers and practitioners of A3 reports especially the problem solving variety. Here are two respective points of view from Prof. Durward Sobek and Art Smalley. Continue reading When to write an A3 report? Assembly Magazine did an article similar to this topic some type a while ago. At a recent client off site meeting I was asked to briefly discuss common mistakes I see made in A3 reports. The list is simply populated by observation and no doubt might change over time. It also varies of course widely case by case, company by company, etc. Here are a dozen items that I mentioned during the discussion. Continue reading Common Mistakes in A3 Report Writing A client recently asked if I had a poster for A3 thinking that they could post on meeting room walls and other locations for the purposes of general communication. I did not have one but agreed to sketch one out for discussion purposes. After that they would adjust it and make their own 24″ by 36″ posters. Here is the concept that I came up with. The poster has three levels and I will highlight each one below with some brief explanation. Continue reading A3 Thinking Poster Austin Weber of Assembly Magazine does a nice job summarizing some of the common mistakes to avoid in creating A3 reports. Visit this link below to read his write up. Professor Sobek and I had an invitation recently to participate in a new website called The Lean Edge with some fellow lean authors. The concept is that various authors will be asked a question by a guest participant. Each author will answer the question with a few paragraphs of response. The idea is not to give the same answer but to give some different replies from different points of view. For now the participating authors in addition to ourselves are:
The initial question was asked by Professor Rob Austin author of Artful Making and other books as well.
Please visit the site to see some sample answers and submit reader comments. The purpose is thoughtful discussion from different points of view! Here is a reader question for Professor Sobek:
Professor Sobek’s response: Continue reading Reader Question on A3 Reports & Six Sigma DMAIC Framework |
||||||
|
Copyright © 2012 A3 Thinking - All Rights Reserved |
||||||