An Approach to Identify “Right” Problems for Initial Quality Improvement Projects
Since the 1950s to date, first in Japan and then in other countries worldwide, a growing number of organizations have been promoting project-based quality improvement (QI) methodologies. This trend has been part of a response to the higher expectation of quality of virtually “everything” required in the life of individuals and societies.
A QI project is “a chronic problem scheduled for solution”. A QI project follows a QI methodology, which, briefly explained, consists of selecting a problem, describing its related process, diagnosing causes, and seeking solutions of problems through process improvement.
One critical factor for successful implementation of QI projects is selecting one problem of the “right” type for QI methodology. However, a poor selection and prioritization of problems of QI projects remain among their most common critical failure factors.
Project teams might wrongly select problems for QI projects partly because teaching materials (e.g., books, manuals, and articles) and training courses on QI project methodologies ignore or barely mention what are and how to identify “right” problems for such projects.
The objective of this article was to propose a semi-structured approach toward problem identification for QI projects. This approach aimed to help QI project teams conducting their initial QI projects, especially in contexts that lack expertise and information systems to identify QI problems of objects of team interest. Objects of interest for QI project teams might be tangible things such as equipment and instruments; intangible entities such as knowledge and culture; and entities that might have both tangible and intangible components such as systems, processes, and services.
