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Problem Statement Worksheet (Hypothesis Formation)

Context

Constraints within solution space

Criteria for success

Stakeholders to provide key insight

Scope of solution space

Key data sources

Within the last month there has been an increase in failure rates for the InSense sensor produced by the Singapore division of NSC. Rates have increased from 1-2% up to 15%. There are large upcoming orders for key customers, so the failure rate needs to be reduced as soon as possible. NSC uses twenty-six suppliers for the seven components used to make InSense sensors. Management wants to know which supplier’s parts are responsible for the increased failure rate.

The criteria for success is that the failure rate for the InSense sensors produced by the Singapore group must consistently be below 5% before beginning the large pending orders.

The scope of this solution must only focus on the Singapore group and the process related to the production of the InSense sensor. Analysis into other locations and other products is likely out of scope.

The data is limited to 20k rows and the past eight months. It’s not likely that further data will be needed to observe the problem since the issue arose within the past two months, but it is still a limitation.

Secondly, the solution must consider if the parts manufacturer(s) in question are replaceable. There must be other manufacturers that can meet the company’s supply requirements for the necessary parts, otherwise production will be capped.

The key data will come from the Cert Excel spreadsheet. I would need to analyse the data to find which manufacturers are tied to the sensors that are failing. The data would probably need to be segmented into pre-issue and post-issue to observe the change in failure rate associated with each manufacturer with the advent of this issue. Alternative data might be available from the QA/QC engineer.

The key stakeholder is Tony Abraham, VP of InSense. He will be presenting the issue and findings to other executive stakeholders such as Shane Buchholz (head engineer), Gary Neumont (head of manufacturing), Otto Evans ( InSense president) and James Hansk (CEO). Vince Maccano and Bernard Ong would be stakeholders in the initial preparation of the presentation of information before hand off to Tony since they are my direct superiors. QA/QC engineer Jessica Jones should be consulted regarding the quality data. Most of the data would come from the Cert excel spreadsheet.

Which part manufacturer(s) does NSC need to stop buying from to reduce sensor failure

below 5% as soon as possible?

Hypothesis: Create a Hypothesis with an emphasis on SMART principles. (S – Specific, M – Measurable, A – Achievable, R – Realistic, T – Timebound). If you cannot do this, you do not have a good grasp on the business problem.

Context: With context, we have clearly identified the problem at hand and have elucidated on how our initiative may solve this problem, alongside the commercial implications this will have on the business.

Criteria for Success: Clearly defining the criteria for success ensures that the scope of your work is clearly defined and understood. Otherwise, if this isn’t defined – your work will never end which will result in mismatched expectations.

Scope of Solution Space: Scoping out the solution space ensures that the business initiative is SPECIFIC for a certain segment or area. This prevents solutions that have been developed being scaled and applied for all other business units that the solution may not be responsible or scalable for.

Constraints within Solution Space: Looking forward, what are the foreseeable problems we are likely to encounter? Could this be stakeholder resistance? Could this be we don’t have access to the right data?

Stakeholders to provide key insight: Who are the people I need to speak to, to get the answers I need for my data analysis?

What key data sources are required?

Based off my discussions with the key stakeholders – can we clearly list out all the data sources we need so we can make a highly targeted request as opposed to a scatter-gun approach where we ask for a bit of everything?