Brainstorming and Mindmapping::Continuous Quality Improvement

If you are going through a planned process of continuous improvement or problem solving then you will need an effective method of highlighting both potential causes of problems and potential solutions. One simple method of creative thinking is to use a simple technique called brainstorming and mind mapping.

Brainstorming is a team based activity to come up with a multitude of ideas around a specific agreed objective! This can be anything from trying to identify the causes of a specific problem to trying to come up with features to add to a new product range.

It is however not a “free for all”, a brainstorming session should have rules, someone to run the session and keep order and someone to scribe the ideas directly onto the board.

Continuous quality improvement requires quality tools such as Brainstorming if it is to be successful, implement these tools to improve every aspect of your business processes.

There are a set of very simple rules by which to run your Brainstorming session;

1. Withhold your judgment of other’s ideas until after the session, we should not be discussing the pros and cons at this stage of each idea as this will kill the generation of ideas.
2. Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas, sometimes the more way out the suggestion the better, especially when combined with rule 4 below
3. Strive for quantity of ideas not quality, we can go through them at a later stage.
4. Build on other’s ideas. Sometimes what someone else says will trigger many more ideas.
5. Every team member and every idea has equal worth, there are no job titles in a brainstorming session.
6. Ensure all ideas are recorded, don’t miss anything.

Despite the fact that you are trying to generate potentially hundreds of ideas there has to be some order to the session. There has to be someone who will ensure that all of the rules above are adhered to.

It is also worth while using a scribe to record the ideas, I have run sessions where people write their own ideas but they begin to be distracted by the writing and people fail to start to build on others ideas as they don’t hear them while they are busy writing.

Ideas should be written onto post-it notes and applied to the board, using post-it notes allows you to reorganize all the ideas much easier  at later stages.

The Brainstorm will have generated potentially hundreds of ideas, these need to be analyzed in some manner. There are a number of ways to organize these thoughts.

Organize them as to the value of the idea, have the team re-arrange them into the best, medium and worst ideas.

Another option is to feed them into a cause and effect diagram (Fishbone diagram or Ishikawa Diagram). This allows you to group the ideas into the different categories Man, Method, Machines, Materials, Measurements and the Environment. This will allow the team to make better sense of the many ideas generated.

A less formal type of fishbone diagram is what is called a mind map;

Mind mapping is taking the ideas generated around a central theme and linking together similar themes and ideas to show their relationship to each other. Unlike a Fishbone diagram the “effect” is placed in the center and the groupings can be formed from any sensible ideas unlike the predefined titles of the fishbone diagram.

Continuous quality improvement does not just happen, it has to be planned and managed. Without a continual process of business improvement you will always be behind your competitors until eventually they pull miles ahead of you. If your business is to flourish then quality tools like brainstorming and mind mapping can help you drive continuous quality improvement. Other quality tools that will help you are;

Tally Sheets, for data collection.

Histograms or Bar Charts, to graphically represent your data to make easy visual analysis.

Pareto Analysis, To highlight the vital few causes that impact the many.

Fishbone Diagram or Ishikawa Diagram to show cause and effect in a simple manner

Process mapping, to highlight all of the wasteful steps in a process, also Value stream mapping to highlight the waste in the whole business.

Statistical Process Control (SPC) Charts, to measure and monitor the process output and parameters.

The 5 Whys, to help drive you to the true root cause of a problem.

PDCA, Plan, Do, Check, Act, a technique to help you plan your improvement activities.

The following links will help you with regard to understanding and implementing quality tools and continuous quality and process improvement;

Chartered Quality Institute (CQI) The Chartered Quality Institute

American Society for Quality (ASQ) American society for quality

Lloyds Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) Lloyds Register Quality Assurance

British Standards Institute British Standards Institute

American Standards Organization American Standards Organization

Quality Institute of America Quality Institute of America

Quality Institute in Healthcare Quality Institute for Healthcare

Institute for Manufacturing (IFM) Institute for Manufacturing

These links will help you with finding out about Brainstorming, Mind Mapping and other quality tools for continuous quality improvement.