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these can be idriltincd l ► ‘ the question l'or

ample, a poor produ( t design may be due to low quality, fail

ure to recognize trends in consumer taste, bsthetic factors

("not sleek enough").

This technique offers many of the same benefits as the fishbone
diagram. In particular, it helps problem solvers explore many
more possible causes and relate them to the overall problem,
rather than focusing on a single narrow cause. In fact, the
why-why diagram probably leads to a more thorough analysis
than the fishbone diagram. Notice the differences between Fig-
ures 3.1 and 3.2. The latter is a more rational layout of prob-
lems along the more traditional lines of the marketing mix—
product, promotion, price, distribution, and target market.

SUMMARY OF STEPS

1. State the problem on the left side of the paper.

2. Create a typical decision tree of causes to the right of the problem by
asking a succession of "whys" regarding the problem and each of the
possible causes.

3. Continue this process until a sufficient level of detail has been achieved.

PROBLEM STATEMENT 101
CREATIVE
At the end of the problem identification stage, by using the PROBLEM
various techniques described here, in addition to more tra- SOLVING
ditional analytical approaches, you should have identified TECHNIQUES
the causal problem and be able to make a more accurate prob-
lem statement than you might have otherwise. 53

Various approaches to stating the problem exist. Generally,
the more specific the problem can be stated, the easier it will
be to solve that problem. Thus if the problem in Figure 3.2 is
stated as "poor product partly due to poor quality" this
would not be as effective as if the problem were stated as
"poor quality due to poor workmanship caused by poor
worker training."" Some CPS authors believe that the prob-
lem should always be stated in terms of the preposition "to"
followed by some object and an action verb. An example
would be, "to improve worker training on chip making ma-
chines in order to improve product quality to satisfactory
levels."