STOP™ Method: A World-Class Problem-Solving System

In today's business environment, simplicity, speed, and accuracy rule the day. In 45 plus years of working worldwide with countless international manufacturing environments, I have learned the best tool is the one that everybody uses.

My obsession for simple and useful tools, methods, and systems were always present. I learned this when I developed an international patent in the machining industry, that I later sold to a Swiss company with manufacturing operations worldwide.

I developed and pioneered the S.T.O.P.™ Method of problem solving:

• Step Back, Study: Pause production

• Think of Why: Machined misalignment? Operator error?

• Observe Options: Adjust machine, retrain operator

• Plan & Proceed: Fix and monitor

— Repeat if Necessary —

By teaching this method to each employee, I instructed them that they can apply it to the problem at hand. If they were unable to solve the problem, they were to bring it to their supervisor. If unsolved, keep pushing the problem to higher levels of management, gaining more resources and expertise until a suitable solution is found.

Richard Blamer, BS, I/O Psychology and MBA, a former professor with 20 plus years of teaching business psychology at Cleveland's John Carroll University produced this written endorsement: "Corsaro's STOP™ Method is a simple, common-sense approach to keeping tabs on the day-to-day performance of the organization."

The final step was to document the problem and the solution and keep a record which we called a "Legacy Log" for future reference both at the department and then a master log company-wide.