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In Lean: countermeasure plan
A countermeasure is a change aimed at one cause, to be tested. It names the cause, the change, its owner and what will show whether it worked.
What is the cause, in the words of your why-chain?
A rule, a tool, an owner or missing information. Not a person.
Ask this before any change. Automating a step that should not exist makes the waste faster and harder to question.
Which step does the cause sit in?
| Test the step | Answer |
|---|---|
| Who uses what this step produces? | |
| What would happen if it stopped? | |
| Has it ever changed the outcome? | |
| What really requires it? |
Should this step exist?
Tick one.
What is the reason for that answer?
Which is the first option on this list that answers the cause?
Go down from the top and stop at the first one that works. Each option higher up leaves less work behind and less to maintain. Tick one.
What exactly will change, so that someone else could put it in place?
Is a quick patch needed until the change is in place, and when does it end?
In Lean: containment. Without an end date it becomes permanent extra work.
What will you look at in the work to tell whether it held?
Use the unit you had when the problem was reported: how often it happens and how many minutes each time. With no number, name what you will see instead, such as the step no longer happening.
Which result would show it did not hold?
In Lean: countermeasure plan
Look at the work itself at about a week, two weeks and a month. Answer as things really are: held, partly or reverted. Each answer tells you what to do next.
What the person who reported the problem estimated at the start, before anything changed. If nobody gave a number, write no figure. Never write 0.
Times a day, a week or a month.
An estimate of where time goes, not a saving.
The latest check decides: an answer at day 30 outranks the answer at day 14.
| When | Date answered | Did it hold?held / partly / reverted | What did you see in the work? | Minutes a week saved, if givenOnly a figure someone gives at this check-in. Never a guessed share. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 7 | ||||
| Day 14 | ||||
| Day 30 |
Taken from the latest check-in answered. Held with a figure: that figure. Held without one: the minutes a week from the report may stand in, marked as such. Partly: only a figure someone gave. Reverted, or nothing given: no figure.
Where does this figure come from?
Tick one.
Keep this box apart from the time before the change. Never add the two together, and never show one as a share of the other.
What happens next?
Tick one.