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RealityCharting® Exercises

Exercise - Door Jammed

This is an exercise in the process of constructing a Realitychart and is available for your practice in using the Apollo method. With the information provided below you will be able to build an understanding of the causes that shaped an unwanted event and thus identify solutions that prevent its recurrence.

If you do not already have RealityCharting® or the demo installed please visit the downloads page to install the free 30 day trial and start creating your own Realitychart. A Reader is also freely available so others can view your shared work.

Beginning Your Realitychart

Use the information from the discussions with the Shipping Foreman and Maintenance Manager to create the beginnings of a Realitychart. There is enough knowledge here to get started understanding the causal relationships and identifying what questions to ask next.

Remember, Realitycharting is an iterative process so don't get bogged down. Have fun with this and don't place any undo pressure on yourself to get it "right". There is no single cause and effect chart for any given event because everyone perceives the world differently. Once your own draft Realitychart is done and you want to see how another person defined their understanding of the causes go ahead and open the Day 1-Bay Door Jammed rca.

When you have completed the first part of this exercise and are ready to continue gathering information please proceed to Day 2.

Day 1

You are the Maintenance Manager at a small manufacturing facility in Ohio. It is wintertime and a large bay door at the shipping dock is stuck in the partially open position. You have looked at the door and talked to the employees who work in the area. You can see the door rollers on one side are jammed in the track because two roller support brackets failed while opening the door. Additionally, through your conversations with the Shipping Foreman and Maintenance Manager you learned the following:

Discussion with the Shipping Foreman:

     “As you know, this problem has been around for about a year now. It started about a year after we installed this new track and roller type door. The door has always vibrated pretty badly, but I am not sure that is the problem. I think it is just part of the design and we need to do a better job of preventive maintenance. Why can’t you guys just come in here and tighten the bolts every month or so. As you can see the bolts fall out. Here is one on the floor, right here – see it falls out when the door gets fully opened and the bolts get in a vertical position to fall out. The nuts have vibrated off so there is nothing to hold them in.”

Discussion with Maintenance Manager:

     “Yea, I have to replace those brackets quite often. It’s no big deal because I keep a good supply of parts on hand and we have gotten real good at fixing the door. I can’t fix it right now because it was one of the center support brackets and I don’t have any of those in stock. But I called the door guys and they are sending some in overnight mail – be here tomorrow. Don’t worry boss, we’ll get this fixed up real soon. It’s going to be a little cold in the shipping area tonight though."