Current reality tree (theory of constraints): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 09:43, 25 November 2008

Revision as of 01:55, 3 December 2008

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[[Image:CurrentRealityTree_Example.png|thumb|right|Current Reality Tree example]]

A CRT begins with a list of problems, known as undesirable effects (UDEs.) These are assumed to be symptoms of a deeper common cause. To take a somewhat frivolous example, a car owner may have the following UDEs:

# the car's engine won'twill not start.

# the air conditioning isn'tis not working.

# the car's radio sounds distorted.

The CRT depicts a chain of cause-and-effect reasoning (IF...AND...THEN) in graphical form, where elipses or circles represent an "AND". The graphic is constructed by:

The CRT is constructed by:

* attempting to link any two UDEs using a chain of cause-and-effect reasoning (IF....AND....THEN) In the graphic, circles represent an "AND". ''For example, '''IF''' the handbrakeengine stopsneeds afuel carin from rolling into theorder swimmingto poolrun '''AND''' the handbrakefuel is faultynot getting to the engine, '''THEN''' the car's isengine inwill thenot swimming poolstart''.

* elaborating the reasoning to ensure it is sound and plausible. ''For example, '''IF''' the air intake is full of water '''THEN''' air conditioning is not working. Elaboration ('''because''' air is not able to circulate) gets added as in-between step.''

* linking each of the remaining UDEs to the existing tree by repeating the previous steps.

This approach tends to converge on a single root cause. In the illustrated case, the root cause of the above UDEs is seen as being a faulty handbrake.

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[http://code.google.com/p/jthinker jThinker] is a free tool for building thinking processes diagrams including the current reality tree.

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==See also==