A3 problem solving: the A3 report format, the steps and a filled example

What is A3 problem solving?

A3 problem solving is a structured way to work a problem from first report to a result you can prove, written up on one A3 sheet. The sheet follows plan, do, check, act: most of it is plan, because that is where teams usually rush. It is used for problems too big for a quick fix at the line and too small, or too local, for a full Six Sigma project.

The name is the paper. A3 is the international size 297 x 420 mm, close to the 11 x 17 inch tabloid sheet used in North America. Toyota made the one-page report its standard way to write up problems, proposals and progress, and the size stuck as the name of the method. Two books describe it from inside that practice: Understanding A3 Thinking by Durward K. Sobek II and Art Smalley (Productivity Press, 2008), and Managing to Learn by John Shook (Lean Enterprise Institute, 2008). Our pages on Understanding A3 Thinking and Managing to Learn summarize each one.

The word A3 is used three ways. The A3 report is the sheet. A3 problem solving, sometimes called the A3 process or A3 methodology, is the sequence of steps the sheet records. A3 thinking is the discipline under both: go and see, separate facts from guesses, test causes before choosing fixes, and agree the plan with the people it affects. A plant can fill in A3 forms without any of the thinking, which is the most common way the method fails.

How to do A3 problem solving, step by step

1. 1

   Pick a problem that deserves an A3, and one owner

   A gap against a standard that keeps coming back, costs real time or money, or needs more than one department to fix. One person owns the sheet. On a shop floor that is often the engineer or supervisor closest to the problem, with a manager as coach.

2. 2

   Go to the floor and draw the current condition

   Watch the process, collect the numbers, and sketch what happens. Split the data by shift, machine, part or operator until the problem has a shape. A Pareto chart of reasons is usually the first picture on the sheet.

3. 3

   Set the goal

   A number and a date, such as rework on cell 3 at or below 2.0% for four weeks in a row by week 12. Where one machine or shift already runs well, its level is a fair first goal for the others.

4. 4

   Find the root cause and test it

   List the candidate causes, then check each one on the floor or in the data and strike out the ones the facts rule out. Dig into the survivor with 5 Whys. A cause is confirmed when removing it stops the problem.

5. 5

   Propose countermeasures and get agreement

   Write at least one countermeasure per confirmed cause and predict what it will do to the number. Take the draft to everyone the change affects, listen, and rewrite. Lean teams call this round of conversations nemawashi.

6. 6

   Run the plan

   Each action has an owner and a date. Review the plan in the team's regular huddle so late actions are seen the day they slip, not at the next monthly review.

7. 7

   Check the result against the goal and the prediction

   Measure the same thing the same way as the baseline. If the result misses, go back to the cause analysis: either a cause was wrong or there was a second one.

8. 8

   Standardize, share and close

   Change the work instruction, the check sheet or the maintenance plan so the fix outlives the project. Copy it to similar lines (yokoten). Then close the A3 and pick the next problem from the new Pareto.

A first A3 usually takes a few weeks of elapsed time and several drafts. That is normal. The drafts are where the learning happens, and the A3 thinking post explains why a sheet finished in one sitting is usually a weak one.

Types of A3: problem solving, proposal, status and strategy

Sobek and Smalley describe three kinds of A3 report, each answering a different question. Many companies add a fourth for strategy.

A3 thinking and the coach

In Managing to Learn, Shook tells the story of a young manager and his boss working through one A3 over many drafts. The point of the book is that the sheet is a tool for coaching: the boss does not fix the problem, he asks questions until the owner can see the gaps in his own thinking. That is the part of A3 that most plants skip.

A coach reviewing an A3 asks the same few questions every time. Print them on the back of the template:

• Did you see the problem yourself, on the floor, and where are the numbers?
• Is the problem statement free of a solution?
• What else could cause this, and what did you check to rule each one out?
• If we remove this cause, does the problem stop? Have you tried it?
• Which cause does each countermeasure remove, and what do you predict will happen to the number?
• Who will this change affect, and have you talked to each of them?
• How will we know in three months that the fix is still in place?

Thin answers show up as thin boxes, which is why an A3 is a good way to coach a new engineer or supervisor. A gemba walk is the natural place to review one: what is a gemba walk covers how leaders go and see.

A3 template and tools

Start on paper or a whiteboard in pencil, because the first drafts change a lot. The free A3 problem solving template is a PDF that prints at A3 or 11 x 17 with a worked example on page 2, and an Excel version that works out the defect rate, flags late actions and shows whether each follow-up period met the goal.

For box 2 and box 4, the free Pareto chart maker builds the Pareto from a list of reasons, and the fishbone diagram maker lays out the candidate causes. The root cause analysis guide explains which cause tool fits which problem, and the fishbone diagram and Pareto chart guides go deeper on each.

In LeanSuite, Lean Studio has an A3 board with the seven boxes on one landscape canvas, and a tag raised on the floor that keeps coming back can be escalated into a Kaizen or A3 project in one click, keeping the tag's history. Kaizen & Projects then tracks the project through to results. If you are comparing digital tools, the best A3 problem solving software lists the options.