Today Kepner-Tregoe processes are used to achieve sustainable results by millions of

people throughout the world. The first to introduce the "train-the-trainer" concept – which
was developed as a methodology for transferring critical approaches to clients – KT
revolutionized organizational improvement around the world.

Today, Kepner-Tregoe approaches transcend organizational, industry, and national

boundaries to help business people develop and apply critical thinking skills in a fast-
paced, global economy.

It is based on “backward chaining” concept of arriving at the cause, from the symptoms.

Kepner-Tregoe method of problem-solving:

Problem Analysis:
Problem Analysis is used to find the cause of a positive or negative deviation. When
people, machinery, systems, or processes are not performing as expected, Problem
Analysis points to the relevant information and leads the way to the root cause. The
process is used to gather and analyze just the information needed to find and correct the
true cause of a problem, making it particularly effective in today’s data-rich environment.
This promotes rapid and accurate issue resolution.

Problem Analysis improves:

Manufacturing quality
Maintenance and repairs
Customer care
Product reliability
Handling people issues
Sales and marketing performance
Investigation and documentation of deviations

Decision Analysis:

Decision Analysis is used to identify the best choice out of many. When the path ahead
is not clear, when there are too many choices, or the risk of making the wrong choice
great, Decision Analysis clarifies the purpose and balances risks and benefits to arrive at
a solid and supported choice.

This step-by-step process marries logic, expertise, creativity, and factual information to
reveal choices that have the right balance of acceptable risk and reward. By clarifying
the thinking behind the decision, highly complex, controversial, or emotionally charged
decisions can be made faster and with greater confidence.
Decision Analysis improves:
Personnel selection
Procurement and make vs. buy
Product and project portfolio management
Selecting a fix
Site selection
Product design
Budgeting and capital investment
Process redesign

Potential Problem/Opportunity Analysis:

Potential Problem/Opportunity Analysis is used to protect and leverage actions or plans.

When a project simply must go well, risk is high, or things could go wrong, Potential
Problem Analysis reveals the driving factors and identifies ways to lower risk. When one
action is taken, new opportunities arise that can help you benefit from that action.

Potential Problem/Opportunity Analysis directs experience and creativity to prepare for

the future and manage acceptable risk. The analysis helps you deploy resources in a
way that ensures the greatest chance of success.

Potential Problem and Opportunity Analyses improves:

Planned shutdowns
Process and system changes
Project management
Safety
Compliance risk reporting.
The Case Study Approach

The Kepner-Tregoe as an organization undertakes any project through Case study

approach.

Dell Support
Improving Support While
Reducing Cost

Client: Dell provides and supports a wide range of computer systems and
services
Including enterprise systems (servers, storage, workstations and networking
products)
that are critical to business customers’ operations.

Challenge: The majority of support organizations run “product-based”

troubleshooting
operations that are contingent on an expert’s knowledge of the product
coupled with experience, common sense, and access to data. However, if
knowledge
lags due to rapid changes in technology or conflicting products and
platforms, or if
a problem occurs for the first time; this approach can fail and lead to
inconsistent
service, expensive escalations, and dissatisfied customers. To stay ahead of
the curve,
Dell sought a troubleshooting standard for enterprise systems support that
would help
deliver consistent, affordable support and rapid issue resolution.

Solution: Dell chose KT Resolve®, a systematic approach to customer

support that
has been cited by ITIL as best-practice for problem management. To improve
troubleshooting
and control the cost of resolving highly complex issues, KT collaborated with
Dell to embed the troubleshooting approach through training, coaching, and
business
process integration. Now KT’s common-language, common-process
troubleshooting
provides a uniform problem-documentation standard that makes
troubleshooting transparent
and enables seamless problem transfers and escalations. Dell Support uses
the
methodology to channel and reduce data to problem-relevant information,
enhance
critical thinking, and improve the way problems are managed and resolved,
even
those that have never been experienced before.

Results: The new approach facilitates problem transfers at the interfaces,

accelerating
issue resolution and minimizing redundant inquiries. The ability to resolve
highly
complex problems by focusing on the relevant data has decreased problem
escalations
throughout the support organization. This is enhanced by “triggers” that
rapidly
escalate critical problems to the right people.
This is what the DELL has to say after adapting to Kepner-
Tregoe method of problem analysis:
Troubleshooting accelerated by reducing the flow of data to only problem-
relevant information.

A common “problem language” improves communication and consistency of

service

The cost of support is decreasing.

“Since we started using KT to improve our problem-solving operations,

we have cut our costs
by a six-digit figure.” -- Ulrich Tews, Dell Technical Escalation Manager