8D THE PROBLEM SOLVING APPROACH

To ensure a systematic and structured way for finding solution to the problems, and their easy record is always been recommended. 8D concept therefore,is a required method of documenting the correction action, and an excellent way of reporting nonconformance’s  and their corrective actions to suppliers. The basic idea of 8D is correctly identified the cause of the problem, and applied such actions to prevent recurrence of the problem. It is widely known in the automobile market.

8D methodology was been developed by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in 1974. The standard, which described 8D was named: MIL-STD 1520 "Corrective Action and Disposition System for Nonconforming Material”
Standard was officially abolished in 1995, but the 8D methodology has been propagated by Ford on automotive industry and is well known to many
companies in the electronics industry.

Recommended D's are:----

1D ESTABILISHING THE TEAM:-First step is establishing the team consists of few persons, that will be responsibility for realized particular step of 8D. Quantity of team and their making-up depends of complexion of the problem and taken decision.

2D PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:-This is the stage where you need to most accurately describe the problem. Properly problem description is the starting point to further step of analysis and proper understanding of the nature of the problem for the Team as well as people from outside.It’s very important that problem was „measurable” that is how many % or ppm or in another unit of measure.Later this allows to properly assess whether corrective actions are implemented efficiently or not.

3D CONTAINMENT ACTION:-This is the stage where are taken right containment action to prevent escalation of the problem (further making defects) or at the worst delivering not conforming products to the customer.

4D ROOT CAUSE:-To really eliminate the problem should be identify the real cause of the problem "root cause". This is not a simple issue. This is why it is important the Team’s work to look at the problem with few sites. Often the real causes of many problems are deep in the management of the company.

5D CORRECTIVE ACTION:-The Team determine which actions should be introduced in the short period of time to ensure that the process / product is controlled.

6D VALIDATE CORRECTIVE ACTION:-Please verify that the corrective actions taken are efficiently. It should be based on " real data" from the process. Action should not be estimated on the basis of only the same opinion of the persons interested.

7D PREVENT RECURRANCE:-Next step is is to determine what action should be taken to prevent recurrence of the problem. Here we define the action system to replace the actions defined in 5D.

8D VERIFY AND CONGRATULATE TEAM:-The last step is verified that the introduced actions in 7D are effective. It is recommended that verification be made by comparing the scale of the problem (as described in 2D) with results from next deliveries of material or results from rejecting of next batches.The verification must be based on that measurable data. During verification it is worth to draw conclusions as the Team worked, what the individual members have learned and what are the conclusions for future - what can be improved on problem solving, etc.

                                                                                     .........courtesy "fideltronik"