Project: The company wanted to improve their Corrective Action Request (CAR) process and enhance their staff’s problem-solving skills. They had a backlog of more
than 900 requests and were spending an excessive amount of time on CAR meetings. With their current process, CARs could linger for over a year before being resolved.

The company partnered with TechSolve to speed up their CAR process and make it more robust. Over a six-month period, a 14-member team participated in problem-solving training, learning to apply the tools and techniques while working on actual CARs.

The team rewrote the CAR process and refined the CAR forms and database. To shorten the time required to review a CAR, the review team was assigned specific roles—timekeeper, note keeper, facilitator, voice of the customer—in order to provide timely resolution of customer issues.

Results:

  • Reduced active CARS from 951 to 21
  • Reduced average length of review team meetings from two-and-a-half hours to less than 45 minutes
  • Decreased average review time from as much as 3 hours per CAR to under 3 minutes
  • Decreased average CAR lead time from 9 months to 45 days