Now that you have completed a Gemba Walk—where you’ve gathered information about the organization and identified opportunities to eliminate inefficiencies, reduce waste, improve a product, or streamline a process—it’s time to look closer at these potential improvements and get to the root cause of why the issues are occurring. After reviewing these potential opportunities for improvements, you will analyze how you can apply systems thinking at the strategic level for your organization in the Week 6 Summative Assessment.

For more information about how to use 5 Whys or a Fishbone diagram to conduct a root cause analysis, check out the following videos:

• The 5 Whys of Problem-Solving Method
• Cause and Effect Analysis

Individually, create either a 5 Whys or a Fishbone diagram for one of the opportunities (short-term or long-term) that you identified during your Gemba walk. Work through each step of the 5 Whys or Fishbone processes to find the root cause(s) of the problem and the potential opportunity for its solution within your organization.

Post your diagram to your team forum for review.

As a team, review each team member’s diagram and utilize the discussion to ask questions, provide input, or make suggestions on their root cause analysis.

Each member should write a 100- to 200-word summary of the feedback they received from their team as well as an explanation of why or why it did not help them refine their root cause analysis.

Combine the responses into a single document and submit it to your instructor.

Submit your assignment.