An Assessment on Problem Solving Approaches in Automotive Industry: Illustrative Templates, Similarities and Differences

The problem-solving cycle is an iterative approach that involves brainstorming, constructing matrices, analyzing and testing until the optimal solution is reached. For the purpose of discovering optimal solutions, some main techniques have been widely used in automotive industry. Despite the use of many problem solving techniques in industrial environment, Team Oriented Problem Solving Methodology-8D, A3 and 5P are well known and have been successfully applied to concerns in automotive industry. The aim of this study is to demonstrate similarities and differences of problem solving methodologies, especially used in automotive industry such as 8D, A3 and 5P. For this purpose, these methodologies have been introduced with generic templates and representing characteristics.