Turn the countermeasures into actions with an owner and a date
Choose what will be done against each cause and set it down as actions with an owner and a date, under the goal the problem affects.
The task in figures
- Gives you back
- It does not recur every month
- Elmira today
- Helps
- Frequency
- Per project
- Who does it today
- Engineer
- Version
- Elmira Junior
What hurts today.
The countermeasures stay in the A3, and nobody chases them.
The symptom gets treated, and the problem comes back.
Nobody knows which problem each action of the plan answers.
With the root cause checked, the team proposes countermeasures, picks those that attack the cause and not the symptom, and turns them into a plan: each one with who does it, by when and how it will be known to be done. It is where the analysis becomes work, and where the most gets lost: the countermeasures stay in the A3 or in the slides, and nobody chases them.
Done today with
- Expert
- In-person meeting
- Paper and whiteboard
- Spreadsheet
- Email and chat
- Project tool
Each step, today and with Elmira.
You tell Elmira each countermeasure on WhatsApp, and she proposes it as an action under the goal, with its owner, its date and when it counts as done. Obeyaka tells each owner, and Elmira tells you how they are going.
| Step | Today | With Elmira |
|---|---|---|
| Propose countermeasures for each cause | In-person meeting, Paper and whiteboard30 min – 1 h | Comes with the value office |
| Choose those that attack the cause, not the symptom | In-person meeting, Expert | Your call |
| Set each one down as an action, with an owner, a date and when it counts as done | Spreadsheet, Project tool10 min – 30 min | |
| Tell each owner what falls to them | Email and chat10 min – 20 min | Automatic |
| Follow them until they are done | Spreadsheet, In-person meeting15 min – 30 min | Automatic |
The conversation
- Ana, continuous improvement engineer
Elmira, the cause of the waste is that each shift seals at a different temperature. Pedro Rojas should set the temperature in the sealers’ standard by the 21st; it is done when all three shifts seal at 180 °C.
Create the action “Set the sealing temperature in the standard”
Goal: Cut Packaging’s waste
Team: Packaging
Responsible: Pedro Rojas
Due on October 21, 2026
Done when: all three shifts seal at 180 °C
- Ana, continuous improvement engineer
Approve
Done: I created the action “Set the sealing temperature in the standard”.
Does this happen to your team?
Book a demo and we will show you Elmira doing this task.
More cases of problem solving
- Gather the problems people on the floor reportWhat is said in the hallway reaches nobody.
- Spot the problems in the indicators’ deviationsPeople react to every number that drops, and none gets solved.
- Keep the list of open problems and their statusThe list lives apart from the plan, and goes stale.