TestedKaizen

Kaizen request to a charter draft

Paste the Kaizen request you were sent and get a one-page charter draft for the sponsor to review and sign, with the baseline and target checked against your notes.

What you paste in

Whatever landed on your desk: the request email, notes from a scoping meeting, a quality or downtime board, or a mix. Paste it as it is.

What you get back

  • A "Check first" line on top when the problem started with a specific change, or when people blame different departments.
  • The charter: one line each for the problem, baseline, target, scope, limits on money, people and time, team roles, and who signs.
  • Ideas already on the table: every fix or purchase someone suggested, by role, for the team to test during the week.
  • Up to five things to collect before the event, and up to three questions for the sponsor.

The prompt

Or copy it and open:

We recommend Claude because that is where we tested this prompt. It is plain text, so you can use it in any AI tool, including the one your company approves. Results can differ from tool to tool, so read what comes back.

Draft a one-page Kaizen event charter from my notes, for the sponsor
to review and sign before the event.

My notes can be an email, meeting notes, a data table or a mix. Use only
what they say. You were not there. Where they are silent, write "Not in
these notes".

Definitions
- Scope: one process, first step to last step, that a team can walk and
  change in one event week. For a changeover: last good piece to first
  good piece, unless the notes say otherwise.
- Baseline: a number from a log, a board or a timed study. Anything
  said without a record is an estimate.
- Idea: any fix, tool, hire or purchase someone suggested.

Start with one line: "Draft charter from notes. The sponsor sets the
target and signs. The team confirms the baseline." If the problem
started when something specific changed, or the causes people name sit
in different departments, add a second line: "Check first: [the
check], before you commit a team for a week."

Then give me four parts and nothing else.

1. THE CHARTER
One line each:
Event: the problem, not a fix.
Why now: the business reason, from the notes.
Area and process: first step to last step.
Problem: what happens, how much, since when. Logged numbers only. No
causes.
Baseline: each logged measure with its source and dates. Estimates go
on their own line as "(estimate, [role])". Before calling two numbers a
conflict, check they measure the same thing over the same period.
Target: the sponsor's. If the notes give one, turn it into a number
against the baseline and add "Sponsor to confirm." Say so if it is
better than any period in the notes. If there is none, write "Sponsor
to set."
In scope. Out of scope: every other problem in the notes, one line each.
Boundaries: limits on spending, people or time from the notes, or
"Sponsor to state."
Team: 5 to 8 roles for the full week: operators from each shift that
runs the process, their supervisor, the support roles the notes point
to, and one person from outside the area. Roles only. The sponsor adds
names.
Sponsor, process owner, team lead, dates, report-out.

2. IDEAS ALREADY ON THE TABLE
Each suggested fix, with who suggested it by role, one line each. The
team tests these during the week. None of them is the plan. A request
to add a problem or skip the event is not an idea: put it under Out of
scope or in part 4.

3. BEFORE THE EVENT
Up to five things to collect for the in-scope problem, most important
first: what the baseline needs, then records that could settle a cause
someone named.

4. QUESTIONS FOR THE SPONSOR
Up to three, most important first: who sponsors and owns the process if
the notes don't say, the target, and any purchase or scope decision
someone is pushing.

Rules
- One problem per charter: the one the sponsor asked for. With no
  sponsor, the one with logged numbers.
- A cause stays with whoever said it, as "[role] thinks...", in part 2
  or 3 only.
- Replace every name with a role, quotes included. Leave out remarks
  about anyone's attitude or effort.
- Before you finish, check for names, causes in the Problem line, and
  numbers that aren't in the notes.

NOTES:
"""
[PASTE YOUR NOTES HERE]
"""

How to use it

  1. Gather what you have. The email, your meeting notes, the board. Do not tidy it first.
  2. Take out names and anything that points to one person. Check with IT before you paste vendor quotes, customer names or cost data into any AI tool.
  3. Copy the prompt into your AI tool and put your notes where it says [PASTE YOUR NOTES HERE].
  4. Take the draft to the sponsor to set the target and sign, and start the "Before the event" list. Expect "Not in these notes" next to sponsor, process owner and team lead. Take those blanks to whoever asked for the event.

Free. Use it at work, change it, and share it with your team.

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