As this issue’s theme is about “Human values and ethics”, I thought I would introduce you to the “A3 process report”, a key tool within Toyota to show “respect to their people”.

But, what is the link between a report/tool and showing respect?

As some of you probably already know, there are two main pillars in the “Toyota Way”: “Continuous improvement” and “Respect for people”. This second pillar has two sub-branches:

(1) “Respect” defined as “to respect others and the environment, to build trust, and to take responsibility” and

(2) “Team work” defined as “to stimulate personal and professional growth, maximize individual and team performance.”

So, we can clearly see that the meaning of respect in the Toyota Way is broader than the traditional version of respecting the rights of others, honouring our elders, etc. There is an additional dimension here that is, “developing the people” to unleash the best within them and contribute to their personal growth and improve community wealth (1).

Now, let’s analyse in more detail what is an A3.

Initially, Toyota’s idea was that every issue an organization faces should be captured on a single sheet of paper. So the name comes from the fact that it is supposed to fit on an A3 sized sheet of paper. But it is of course much more than that.

There is no unique requirement but an A3 typically includes the following elements and follows the Deming Plan-Do- Check- Act (PDCA) cycle:

• Title/Theme: The name of the problem or issue. It answers the question: What are we talking about?
• Owner: Who is the owner of the problem? Who is the coach? Who is the supervisor?
• Background: The business context and the importance of the issue. Why are we talking about it?
• Problem description: What is the problem? Show charts, graphs, drawings to illustrate the current conditions.
• Grasp the situation:  Properly grasping the situation means correctly identifying the point of cause. Where is the process going wrong?
• Set targets and goals: What specific outcomes are required? This target should be challenging enough and encouraging another way of doing things.
• Root cause analysis:  What is (are) the root cause(s) of the problem?  Use “5 whys”.
• Countermeasure plan: Having identified the root cause(s), the next step is to identify the countermeasures to address the cause. There is no “unique solution” but only hypothesis that needs testing in a scientific way.
• Execution of plan: Gantt chart creation (Actions, time frame, responsibilities).
• Checking the results: After implementation, results must be checked in terms of effectiveness of countermeasures and impact on the cost.
• Follow-up: Check if the solution can be applied somewhere else and what are the learning outcomes of the A3 process to capture.

Example of an A3 report template

So now that we know what A3 is and the typical steps to create it, how is this A3 report used to develop the people and show them respect the Toyota Way?

It is a great teamwork tool to mentor, coach and lead people development. Here is a non-exhaustive list with the main benefits:

(1) It guides the mentee/coachee in his thinking and operating process:

• Avoid jumping to conclusions.
• Creates an environment of investigation to find facts.
• Pushes to synthesize the learning in order to decide the course of actions perceived as the best.

(2) It establishes a mutual understanding between mentor and mentee and guides the dialogue between them to reach an agreement.

(3) It can be used as an instrument of decision and creates a bridge between the decision maker and the person responsible for the work.

(4) It helps creating Lean experts following the gemba based approach to continuous improvement.

Of course, knowing about the A3 main elements will not guarantee that you become a great problem solver, coach/mentor/leader overnight. These skills have to be learnt the hard way by practicing A3 relentlessly and consistently (learning by doing), making mistakes and learning from them and removing the ego out of the way when it is necessary.

Respect within Toyota has a price and is gained the hard way each day but growing and contributing is also a great reward! A3 is just an enabling tool to develop people and solve problems. When applied the right way, the benefits are great! Ready to start? Just do it and learn by doing!

Recommended books about the A3 process:

1. Managing to Learn by John Shook (ISBN: 978 1-934109-20-5) including a few examples of different applications of the A3 process.
2. Understanding A3 Thinking by Durward Sobek & Art Smalley (ISBN:1-56327-360-8)

(1) To know more about Toyota guiding principles: http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/vision/code_of_conduct/guiding_principles.pdf. Respect for people pillar is directly linked with point number 5.

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Stéphane is a Belgian Industrial Engineer owning a Master in Management. He is a Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and a Certified NLP Practitioner. In the past 12 years, he has acquired a solid experience working in production, quality, safety and supply chain management. Since 2004, he is based in Malaysia and works as a Lean consultant in Asia and Europe. In his spare time, Stephane enjoys running long distances, traveling around the world with his wife and reading books related to management and personal development. He can be reached at stephanethiltgen@gmail.com.