information. These presentations at Toyota are clear and concise, and it takes
very little time to share the message. Formatting the activity in this way requires
the distillation of information into a complete, clear, and easy to understand
presentation. The story is told with a minimal number of words and is pictorial
in nature. When properly presented, the information can be read or explained
in five minutes or less so everyone understands and decisions can easily be
made. A well-prepared A3 prevents a condition Winston Churchill once quipped
about concerning a cumbersome report: “The length of this document defends
it well against the risk of its being read.”
Outside of Toyota, most presentations of lean activities we’ve seen have
lacked a basic structure that maintained focus and direction. They tended to
wander, and the usual result is that many people are presented with excessive
information with no clear logical flow, and much time is wasted on side con-
versations and sorting through the information. Notebooks of course notes and
operating procedures and discussions of lean principles sit on the shelf, never
to be read. The A3 report is designed not only to be read, but to be used as part
of the problem-solving process.
Determining How to Use an A3
An A3 is used for many different types of story presentations at Toyota. They
are not “reports” per se, but each should tell a story with a beginning, middle,
and end. Figure 18-1 shows four different common types of A3 reports. One
type makes proposals; the others are various types of reporting—from a problem
Chapter 18. Telling the Story Using an A3 Report 377PROPOSAL
STORY
PROBLEM-
SOLVING
STORYSTATUS
STORYINFO
STORYPROPOSAL TYPE
STORIES
REPORT TYPE STORIES
Problem Consciousness Current SituationFigure 18-1. Four types of A3 stories