ACTIVITY TOOLS (if any)

STEP 1 SELECT THEME

- identify problems encountered in the work area - Brainstorming

- decide which problem to tackle on - Matrix Table

STEP 2 PLAN SCHEDULE

- estimate the time needed for each stage of the project - Gantt Chart

STEP 3 GRASP PRESENT SITUATION

- collect data (test results, surveys etc) to confirm situation - Pareto diagram,
- collect data on factors that contribute to problem histogram etc

STEP 4 SET TARGET

- set target for improvement (in terms of % whenever possible)
- provide sound and logical evidence to support target
PLAN

STEP 5 ANALYSE PROBLEM AND DETERMINE CAUSES

- determine all possible causes - Brainstorming &
- circle the vital causes in the diagram Fish bone
diagram (4M, 1E)

- collect data to decide on which vital cause to tackle - Pareto diagram,

(80-20 rule : solve 80% of the problem by tackling 20% of the consensus, etc
cause ie. to tackle one vital factor that causes most of the
problem)

STEP 6 PLAN CORRECTIVE ACTIONS

- determine all possible corrective actions - Brainstorming

- decide on which is the best corrective actions - Matrix table

- improve on corrective action - Force Field

Analysis

STEP 7 IMPLEMENT PLAN

- describe how corrective action is to be implemented (on
DO

which group of students, what resources to be used, any

control group, reasonably large sample size (at least 30))

STEP 8 EVALUATE RESULTS

Evaluate tangible results
CHECK

- collect data for comparison - Pareto diagram,

- check if result meet target. If yes, monitor consistency of pie chart, scatter
results over a period of time. If not, go back to Step 5. diagram,
histogram
Evaluate intangible results.

STEP 9 STANDARDISATION
ACT

- standardise procedures and document it by incorporating into

the Action Plan
- -Future Plans
Jurong Junior College NOTES ON WITS TOOLS

1. BRAINSTORMING
Brainstorming is an excellent technique for generating ideas from team members
about problems and opportunities for improvement.

It is used
a) to identify problems (Step 1);
b) to sort out causes from effects (Step 5);
c) to come up with creative solutions (Step 6).

Brainstorming increases the team’s ability to generate ideas as it :

- increases involvement and participation from members
- produces the most ideas in the least amount of time

Basic rules:
a) Do not criticise, by word or gesture, anyone’s ideas.
b) Do not discuss or evaluate any idea during session, except for clarification
c) Don’t hesitate to suggest an idea because it sounds silly. Many a times a
‘dumb’ idea can lead to the problem solution.
d) Avoid allowing the session to be dominated by one or two persons.

2. MATRIX TABLE
Matrix table is used in the selection of
a) a theme for the project (Step 2);
b) the most effective solution to implement (Step 6).

The team has first to decide on the criteria for the consideration in the Matrix table.
Examples include
• urgency,
• impact,
• time saving,
• cost saving,
• ease of implementation,
• availability of data,
• within team members’ ability.

Scale:

0 1 2 3 4 5
Does not meet Just meeting Meet criterion Meet criterion Meet criterion Meet criterion
criterion at all criterion quite well well very well extremely well

1 LMH/ May 02
Jurong Junior College NOTES ON WITS TOOLS

Example :

The following Matrix table is used in the selection of a theme for the project :

Criteria Impact Within Availability Total Rank

team’s of data
Problem areas ability
1. Poor working relationship between 23 18 19 60 3
members of x dept
2. Poor marking scheme for tests 20 27 17 64 2

3. Low usage of IT in teaching 19 23 27 69 1

4. Lacking of critical thinking in 22 15 17 54 4

students’ essays
Note :
As the above is a team matrix of 6 members,
the max. mark per box is 6 members x 5 mks = 30 mks.

Scale:

0 1 2 3 4 5
Does not meet Just meeting Meet criterion Meet criterion Meet criterion Meet criterion
criterion at all criterion quite well well very well extremely well

The problem area, ”Low usage of IT in teaching“ has the highest point and is ranked first.
Thus, the theme of the project is “To implement a solution to increase the usage of IT in
teaching”.

☺ Do take note of the following :

1. In the Selection of Theme, the possible areas short-listed should be in the form of
problem statements
i.e Should be “Low usage of IT in teaching” , instead of “To increase the infusion of IT
in teaching”

2. Avoid more than one parameter in each criterion in the matrix table
i.e “Relevance, image and good service” – there are 3 parameters in this criterion

3. The scale used in each Matrix Table has to be clearly shown at the end of each table.

2 LMH/ May 02
Jurong Junior College NOTES ON WITS TOOLS

3. Gantt Chart

A Gantt Chart is used to monitor the progress of the WIT’s progress.

Note :
1. ‘Plan’ indicates the planned schedule while the ‘Act’ indicates the actual amount of
time used in the different stages of the PDCA cycle.
2. It is alright if some parts of the ‘Plan’ schedule did not agree with the ‘Act’ schedule. i.e
you might have taken more/less time than what was planned. Briefly explain why
schedule is ahead or behind what was planned.
Taken more
time than
planned to
implement
DO Implement corrective actions Plan solution.
Act
CHECK Evaluate results Plan
Act

☺ Do take note of the following :

1. Both “Plan” and “Act” schedule should be reflected in the Gantt Chart.

2. The ‘Plan’ schedule should flow continuously i.e no gaps between the different stages
of the PDCA cycle in the ‘Plan’ schedule. The same applies for the ‘Act’ schedule.

PLAN Select Project Plan

Act “Act” schedule
did not flow
Plan Schedule Plan continuously
Act
Grasp the present situation Plan
Act
Set target Plan
Act

3 LMH/ May 02
JURONG JUNIOR COLLEGE NOTES ON WITS TOOLS

STEP 2 : PLAN SCHEDULE. A Gantt Chart is used to monitor the progress of the team in the project proceedings.
Project Milestone Chart
Name of Team: FLEXI Department/Section: Physical Education
Project Title: To increase student usage of the gym.
Milestones Year 2000 Year 2001
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
PLAN Select Project Plan
Act
Plan Schedule Plan
Act
Grasp the present situation Plan
Act
Set target Plan
Act
Identify possible & vital causes Plan
Act
Determine corrective actions Plan
Act
Improve corrective actions Plan
Act
DO Implement corrective actions Plan
Act
CHECK Evaluate results Plan
Act
ACT Standardise & monitor Plan
Act
3

LMH/ MAY 99
JURONG JUNIOR COLLEGE

NOTES ON WITS TOOLS

4. Use of line, bar charts (in the Grasping of Situation, Checking of results etc)

Advantage of using charts to present data:

1. Visual effect has more impact than data.

2. Allow comparison of the Pre-test and Post –test results to be more

effectively displayed.

☺ Do take note of the following :

1. Titles and axes should be clearly labelled.

2. When using 3-D bar charts, it is advisable to show the figure at the top of each bar
in the chart :

Example :

The percentage passes at the Pre-Test and Post-Test

100%
76%
80%
Percentage
passes
60%

40%
21%
20% Target set was 70%

0%
Pre-Test Post-Test

5. Targets Setting

☺ Do take note of the following :

1. It must be quantifiable.

Example : To increase the students’ usage of the gym from 24% to 48%.

Avoid the following : “Our target is to stop pupils from talking in the hall.”
“Our target is to have a smooth flow of work.”

2. Justify the targets set.

LMH/ MAY 99
JURONG JUNIOR COLLEGE

NOTES ON WITS TOOLS

6. FISH BONE DIAGRAM (CAUSE AND EFFECT DIAGRAM)

- developed in 1941 by Professor Kaoru Ishikawa, President of the Musashi

Institution of Technology in Tokyo

- an effective tool for determining all possible causes to the problem before
solutions are discussed

Recommended Steps:
1. Write the problem(or effect) in the Fish Head.
Example: High failure rate in Promotional Examination
It is incorrect to put it as “To improve the passing rate in the Promotional
Examination”

2. Draw the backdone and 5 main bones, branching out to a few broad areas
of consideration such as MAN, MACHINE, METHODS, MATERIAL and
ENVIRONMENT. Other area(s) may substitute the 4M and 1E if they are
more appropriate for the analysis. (It is by conventional that the fish head is
always heading towards the Right.)

3. Brainstorm on all possible main and sub-cases (not solutions) by asking

the “WHY” questions.
Develop as many 'sub-bones' as possible so that the problem can be
probed in greater depth.

4. To determine the most vital cause

The team may wish to select a few vital causes through consensus. Circle
these few vital causes on the C & E diagram. By means of collection of
data and plotting of a Pareto diagram, the most vital cause, which is usually
the tallest bar, can be determined.
A second C & E diagram may be constructed on the most vital cause to
determine the root causes. For example, if ‘went to bed late’ was the most
vital cause. The obvious solution is to sleep early, but is it possible? In order
to arrive at the effective solution, the second C & E diagram may be used.
Questions such as “WHY”, “WHAT”, “WHO”, “WHOSE”,”WHEN” &”HOW”
may be asked.

Alternatively, the team may just adopt the ‘Quick Consensus Technique” to
arrive at the most vital cause.

☺ Do take note of the following :

1. Avoid writing factors on the lines of the bones:

High
absentism

2. Fish head must contain a problem statement.

3. Root causes should be from small bones and should be circled in the diagram.

LMH/ MAY 99
 JURONG JUNIOR COLLEGE NOTES ON WITS TOOLS

The following Fish bone diagram is used in the analysis of all possible causes for the souring of milk:

MACHINE MAN Problem

statement
in the Fish
Head
dirty lack of forms the
hygiene EFFECT
Tap Not taught
too the proper lazy
lazytotowash
wash
far not properly method
maintained
Temp worker tap too far
hands unclean
Not
used for other enough
purposes eg machine Coconut
chopping chillies milk
turning
not sour
enough not proper coconut
not fresh process
containers
too hot not
clear
storage of
coconut cheap
order No time &
temperature too coconut funds
much not no training
too
long washed
The ‘fish head’ must contain a
tap too far problem statement.
5 Main areas : Material, Man,
Method, Machine, Environment.
ENVIRONMENT METHOD The most probable vital causes
MATERIAL (decided by the team through
consensus) should be circled.

LMH/ MAY 99
JURONG JUNIOR COLLEGE

NOTES ON WITS TOOLS

7. PARETO ANALYSIS (by Vilfredo Pareto, a Nineteen Century Italian Economist and
Mathematician)

- based on the finding that 80% of Italy’s wealth was owned by 20% of the
population
- 80% of any problem or phenomenon often is due to 20% of the
possible causes
e.g 80% of the absentism or latecoming can be associated with 20% of the
college’s population
80% of all late departures at airline terminals were due to only 3 major
causes

The Vital Few and Trivial Many

Procedure is used to identify the significant few factors that have the most important
effect on the result and tackle them in order to obtain maximum results.

Separating the significant few from the insignificant mas helps WITs members
- to concentrate on those factors that have the most influence; and
- to ignore minor causes

Recommended Steps

1. A table is used to tabulate the data.

e.g
Pareto analysis to determine which is the main cause
for the poor performance in subject x
Major causes Frequency Cumulative
Sort the frequency
causes in Cause G 120 120
order of Cause F 88 208
descending Cause C 73 281
frequency Cause B 60 341
Cause A 45 386
Cause D 30 416

Please note that if there is a “Others” category, it should always be ranked last, regardless of its
frequency i.e the “Others” should always be the last bar in the Pareto diagram.

2. Plot a bar chart of frequency against the different causes

i.e y-axis is frequency and x-axis is the different causes
* There should not be gaps in between bars.

3. Draw in the cumulative total line.

Start the line at the origin and join to the next point, which corresponds to the top
right corner of the respective bar. Join each set of points by straight line.

4. Mark the Percentage axis

Include a second y-axis on the right.
The maximum frequency corresponds to 100%. It is sufficient to divide the
percentage scale into 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%.

LMH/ MAY 99
JURONG JUNIOR COLLEGE

NOTES ON WITS TOOLS

Frequency Percentage

416
400 100%

350

300 75%

250

200 50%

150

100 25%

50

Cause G Cause F Cause C Cause B Cause A Cause D

Different causes

How to use the graph ?

a) If target is set at 75%, the team would have to implement a solution which would
tackle causes G, F,C and part of B.

LMH/ MAY 99
JURONG JUNIOR COLLEGE

NOTES ON WITS TOOLS

In the evaluation of the effectiveness of the corrective action (or solution), Pareto diagram
may also be used. The impact of the corrective action can be clearly seen by plotting the
results before and after implementation of corrective action.

BEFORE IMPLEMENTATION OF SOLUTION AFTER IMPLEMENTATION OF SOLUTION

Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage

416 100%
400 400

350 350

75% EFFECTIVENESS
(49.5%)
300 300

250 250

210
200 50% 200 100%

150 150 75%

50%
100 25% 100

25%
50 50

G F C B A D F C B D G A
D
Different causes Different causes

The same rules apply for the plotting of the ‘After implementation” graph. The positions of
the bars, with the exception of ‘Others’, are once again arranged in a descending order of
frequency. Hence, it is inevitable that the positions of the bars are different in the ‘Before’
and “After’ graph.

LMH/ MAY 99
 JURONG JUNIOR COLLEGE

NOTES ON WITS TOOLS

8. FORCE-FIELD ANALYSIS

After a solution has been selected, a force analysis may be carried to see the
negative points(if any) in the implementation of the solution. The purpose of using this tool
is for the reviewing of the solution before implementation.

Recommended steps :
a) consider the Pros and Cons of each alternative solution
b) give a weightage of 1-10 to each Pros and Cons

Example:
FORCE FIELD ANALYSIS WORKSHEET
Alternative : To computerise the Progress Report
PRO CON
1. A neater and more professional look 1. Student need to pay for the report
for the report. holder
9 3
2. Teachers do not need to waste time 2. Teachers do not know Mail Merge
filling in the report manually.
7 8
3. Office attendants do not need to waste 3. Teachers need time to print out the
time printing and cutting the printed A4 report
sheet into three
5 7
4. Teachers could make numerous 4. Need to train teachers on Mail Merge.
amendments before printing out the
reports
6 7
5. Teachers have records of previous 5. Teachers waste time cutting each A4
report in soft copy for future reference sheet into two reports
7 6
6. Teachers merge test marks from 6. Teachers waste time keying in
Excel file to report instead of writing students’ particulars’
out manually
8 6

7. Teachers more opportunity to put what

they have learnt in IT training to good
use
5
.
After the above force field analysis has been done, review and improve on the solution
before implementation

Example:
Review of solution before implementation :
1. Notes on Mail Merge and training to be conducted for all teachers
2. A5 papers used instead of A4 so as to save time in cutting
3. Source for the lowest quote for report holder ($1.80 per holder)
4. Training on Excel is useful for teachers who have not been recording their test
marks in Excel spreadsheet
5. Provide Excel spreadsheet for all classes to save teachers’ time in keying in
students’ names.

The End

LMH/ MAY 99
 JURONG JUNIOR COLLEGE

NOTES ON WITS TOOLS

ACTIVITY TOOLS (if any)

STEP 1 SELECT THEME
- identify problems encountered in the work area - Brainstorming

- decide which problem to tackle on - Matrix Table

STEP 2 PLAN SCHEDULE

- estimate the time needed for each stage of the project - Gantt Chart

STEP 3 GRASP PRESENT SITUATION

- collect data (test results, surveys etc) to confirm situation - Pareto diagram,
- collect data on factors that contribute to problem histogram etc

STEP 4 SET TARGET

- set target for improvement (in terms of % whenever possible)
- provide sound and logical evidence to support target
PLAN

STEP 5 ANALYSE PROBLEM AND DETERMINE CAUSES

- determine all possible causes - Brainstorming &
- circle the vital causes in the diagram Fish bone
diagram (4M, 1E)

- collect data to decide on which vital cause to tackle - Pareto diagram,

(80-20 rule : solve 80% of the problem by tackling 20% of the consensus, etc
cause ie. to tackle one vital factor that causes most of the
problem)

STEP 6 PLAN CORRECTIVE ACTIONS

- determine all possible corrective actions - Brainstorming

- decide on which is the best corrective actions - Matrix table

- improve on corrective action - Force Field

Analysis

STEP 7 IMPLEMENT PLAN

- describe how corrective action is to be implemented (on
DO

which group of students, what resources to be used, any

control group, reasonably large sample size (at least 30))

STEP 8 EVALUATE RESULTS

Evaluate tangible results
CHECK

- collect data for comparison - Pareto diagram,

- check if result meet target. If yes, monitor consistency of pie chart, scatter
results over a period of time. If not, go back to Step 5. diagram,
histogram
Evaluate intangible results.

STEP 9 STANDARDISATION
ACT

- standardise procedures and document it by incorporating into

the Action Plan
- -Future Plans

LMH/ MAY 99
JURONG JUNIOR COLLEGE NOTES ON WITS TOOLS

LMH/ MAY 99