Course Description




Who is Characteristics & Changes for?

As we have seen already, in a stabilized process, any deviation from an established level of performance is because something or things have changed. The problem is that we are changing things all the time: equipment parts, materials, process parameters, production rates, people, operating procedures, environmental conditions… so when you are confronted with a deviation from a norm or standard, the immediate issue you have to deal with is to identify the relevant change or combination of changes.

Doing a timeline will obviously help but without a filter to help zoom in on the really critical changes, you can still lose a lot of valuable time investigating all the different possibilities you are faced with.

With the Characteristics and Changes methodology, we build on what you learnt in our Advanced IS- IS NOT Problem Analysis course to quickly converge on the vital few. This makes it a particularly useful technique when you either have a very large range of possible causes to investigate ( a typical situation when brainstorming techniques like the Fishbone diagram are used) or, more rarely, none at all.

Given this, Characteristics and Changes is a must for anyone : Maintenance Engineers, Field Service Engineers, Reliability Engineers, Process Engineers, Installation Managers… who works on the resolution of complex technical problems.


What will you learn?

Designed to take you to the next level of insight concerning the problem situation under study, with our on-line Characteristics and Changes training course you will learn the following:

  • How to identify what characterizes the IS situation, where the problem is observed, compared to the IS NOT situation where the problem is not observed.

  • How to use these characteristics to identify the most relevant changes implemented during the period of reference.

  • How to use both the characteristics and the changes to establish a short list of plausible possible causes


Course Content.


  • Two interactive on-line training modules:
    • Characteristics & Changes Theory: Introduction to the 3 steps of the Characteristics & Changes methodology illustrated through an example

    • Characteristics & Changes Practise: Based on a particularly rich case study, a guided, self-evaluation exercise to ensure understanding of all the concepts presented in the theory module
  • One “homework” exercise + corrected solution

Bonus: You can use the case studies provided in both the practice module and the homework exercise of this course to get further practical experience with the prior steps of our problem-solving approach: Event Mapping & IS - IS NOT Problem Analysis


Time required.

Depending on how you go about the practice exercises that are proposed, doing them completely including Event Mapping and complete IS – IS NOT Problem Analysis or only doing the Characteristics & Changes exercises, this course can take between 2 and 4 hours.


Recommended prerequisites.

Very Important: The Characteristics and Changes course should only be taken when you are completely comfortable with the IS – IS NOT Problem Analysis methodology.

senior consultant/facilitator

Jan Willem Vernhout

Mijn focus is het begeleiden van klanten om tastbare resultaten te behalen en hiermee de organisatie-effectiveit te verbeteren. In mijn dagelijks werk faciliteer ik het veranderingsproces, geef leiding aan projecten en vind het inspirerend om medewerkers te trainen en te coachen. Ik geloof dat er veel ongebruikte kennis en ervaring in mensen en organisaties aanwezig is. Door een systematische methodische aanpak zoals RATIO en Lean te combineren met onze vaardigheid om mensen te mobiliseren kun je het beste uit mensen naar voren halen.

Course curriculum

  • 2

    Principles of Characteristics & Changes

    • Characteristics & Changes Theory Module

    • Case Study: Enriched Real Estate Videos

  • 3

    Characteristics & Changes guided practise exercise

    • Read before starting

    • Characteristics & Changes Practise module

    • Case study: Westraven building evacuation

    • Support document: Solution Westraven building evacuation problem specification

    • Support document: Solution Westraven building evacuation problem specification + characteristics & changes

  • 4

    Homework assignments

    • Final Problem Analysis steps Westraven building evacuation case study

    • Support document: Solution Westraven building evacuation problem analysis

    • Case study: Will you see the final

    • Support document: Solution Event Map before PA, Will you see the final

    • Support document: Solution Problem Analysis Will you see the final

    • Support document: Solution Event Map after PA, Will you see the final

  • 5

    One-to-one tutoring

    • Schedule your one-to-one tutoring/consulting session now

  • €50,00

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  • €225,00

    €225,00Root cause failure analysis: 4 courses in 1

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