Aplicação da ferramenta A3 na área de suporte do produto: um estudo de caso numa empresa da região sul do país

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to present the result of the application of the A3 tool A3 within a Product Support department of a vehicle company in the southern region of Brazil. The A3 is a continuous improvement tool from the Toyota Production System. The tool guides the critical analysis of the problem, identifies the current situation, the nature of the problem, the actions, the ways in which the problem will be solved, and the evidence that the problem has actually been solved. The tool was applied in the Product Support area which is a department responsible for creating all the documentation used for the maintainability of the company products, such as the service information used in the repairs to the dealers and end customers. The Product Support department works with resources sized for activities within the routine of developing new products. In some situations, the Customer Support department, which interfaces with the final customers and users of the products, requests to the Product Support area specific repair information or field actions, out of the normal work routines causing different expectations between departments. During the investigation of the problem, the situation was analysed in other plants of the company and due to the A3, a new process flow was created and implemented among the departments, aligning the expectations, defining the interfaces with defined parameters and criteria aiming mainly to have agility in the demands of the final customer.