SEO info
- Target keywords: QC current situation analysis / how to show problems in QC / how to use a Pareto chart in QC / presenting data in QC / current situation analysis example
- Intended reader: people who've been told their QC report is weak on the current situation
The Current Situation Step Isn't a Place to Dump Data
The most common mistake in this step is simply lining up data.
- Number of missed clock-in/out punches per month
- Number of people who missed one
- When the misses happen
- Time spent checking them
- How much they pile up around the monthly cutoff date
All of these matter.
But just listing them is weak.
Here's what your audience is thinking:
So what's your point?
What this step needs isn't the data itself.
It's what the data tells you is wrong.
What Reviewers Look for in the Current Situation Step
Reviewers usually look at two things:
- Is it shown objectively, with data, what is wrong?
- Does the problem stand out clearly?
So what you need to do is this:
Show what's wrong in numbers
↓
Show where it's worst
↓
Show how it hurts the actual work
Depth Comes From Objectivity
You don't add depth to this step by writing more text.
You add it with numbers.
Here's the ladder of depth:
| Level | State | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Lv1 | Impression | "It happens a lot," "It's a problem for us" |
| Lv2 | Record | "It's actually happening" |
| Lv3 | Numbers | "X cases, X people, X minutes per month" |
| Lv4 | Comparison | "You can see differences versus last month, by type, and around the cutoff date" |
| Lv5 | Structure | "You can see where it's concentrated and what to fix to make the biggest difference" |
Depth in this step isn't about word count.
It's whether the numbers reveal the structure of the problem.
Only Now Do You Use the Pareto Chart
Don't make a Pareto chart first.
A Pareto chart (a bar chart sorted from the biggest cause to the smallest, with a cumulative line on top) is for answering this question:
What's the biggest problem?
Take missed punches as an example:
| Category | Cases |
|---|---|
| Forgot to clock out | 25 |
| Forgot to clock in | 10 |
| Forgot to punch when returning from an outing | 5 |
| Other | 3 |
Show this as a Pareto chart, and
"forgetting to clock out is the most common" is clear at a glance.
In other words, a Pareto chart is
a tool for making the problem stand out.
It's not decoration to make your report look like proper QC.
Numbers and QC Tools for the Current Situation Step
| What you want to see | Question | Numbers | How to show it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall volume | How often does it happen? | Missed punches per month | Line or bar chart |
| Core of the problem | What's the most common type? | Cases of missed clock-in, clock-out, outing-return punches, etc. | Pareto chart |
| Timing | When does it happen most? | Around the cutoff date, day of week, time of day | Bar chart, split by category |
| Who's affected | Whose time does it cost? | Time spent checking by the employee, their boss, and the admin department | Stacked bar chart |
| Wasted effort | How much productivity is lost? | Checking time per case × number of cases | Work-hours conversion table |
| Persistence | A one-off, or every month? | Monthly trend | Line chart |
A Weak Current Situation vs. a Strong One
A weak current situation:
Current state of missed punches
We looked at monthly counts, number of people, timing, and checking time.
This is just a data dump.
A strong current situation:
Missed punches happen every month, and cluster especially at clock-out time and around the cutoff date.
And if you want to connect it to what the workplace needs:
Missed punches cluster at clock-out time and around the cutoff date, and create checking work for the employee, their boss, and the admin department.
Now it's clear what's wrong.
Connecting the Current Situation to Root Cause Analysis
The current situation step ends by leading into the next step, root cause analysis.
Suppose this step showed the following:
Missed clock-outs are the most common.
Checking work piles up right before the cutoff date.
Then the next questions pretty much write themselves:
Why do people forget to punch out?
Why does nobody notice until just before the cutoff date?
Why can't the employee fix it alone, so the work flows to the boss and the admin department?
That's how you connect the current situation cleanly to root cause analysis.
Summary
The current situation step isn't about lining up data.
It's about making the problem objective with numbers and making the biggest problem stand out.
This is where the Pareto chart finally shows up.
QC tools aren't something you pick first.
You use them to present, clearly, the numbers that answer the questions on the evaluation sheet.
