Question

Consider that you/your group works for the University and you have been tasked with improving the 5-year graduation rate. In the Analyze phase of your Lean Six Sigma project, you decide to investigate potential causes for “why students do not graduate on-time.” To do this, you plan to use 5 whys/why-why analysis in conjunction with a cause-and-effect diagram. Then, you will collect data about the most significant potential causes of your problem and create a Pareto chart to determine the leading cause of this problem.

Answer 1

1. Create a cause-and-effect diagram (using 5 whys/why-why analysis) that organizes potential causes for why students do not graduate on-time:

Create a Pareto chart that depicts the causes for students not graduating on-time:

1. Based on the Pareto chart you created for Activity #2 of this Workshop, what cause of the problem should you address first in your Lean Six Sigma project and why?

            Based on my Pareto chart, the cause of the problem I should address first is “Not a full     time student”. The reason why is because it has the obvious highest frequency.

1. Did the results of your Pareto chart surprise you (i.e., was the order of the actual top 5 causes of the problem shown in your Pareto chart different than what you had originally identified in your cause-and-effect diagram)? What does this illustrate about the importance of collecting data about a problem versus using only instinct/intuition?

            Indeed, I was a little surprise of the result of my Pareto chart. At first, our top cause was “Dropping courses” which actually was the second highest cause of the problem in the Pareto chart above. Overall, I believe that it is paramount to collect data rather than using only instinct/intuition because it makes your chart more valid rather than guessing.