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42 The PCB Magazine • April 2016 References 1. The Evolution of Six Sigma by Jim Fo- laron, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co, August 2003. 2. Métodos PDCA e DMAIC e Suas Ferramentas Analíticas by Cristina Werkema. Renato Peres is an industrial en- gineer and production coordinator with Circuibras Circuitos Impressos Profissionais. foCusing on What matters most! Determining the root cause of the problems identified in the first step is the goal here. This is the last step before you go into action. Not thoroughly analyzing the root cause will compromise the whole process, because it will drive you to wrong actions. My suggestion: Don't waste your company's and your teams' precious time and money; do your best to get to the root cause. Some of the tools you may use to achieve your goal include: Eight Disciplines Problem Solving (8D Analysis), 5 Whys, Fishbone Dia- gram, Brainstorming, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA), and Cycle Time Analysis. Improve The goal is to come up with ideas to elimi- nate the fundamental causes of the problems defined (propose), analyze the risk of each ac- tion (evaluate) and test the chosen solutions (implement). After testing, it is necessary to check the results and go back to the measure step if necessary. Control It seems obvious, but leaders may fail on this step. Have you ever had the feeling that you had already faced a specific problem? If so, it is because the method hasn't come to an end yet. In order to preserve the results, new pat- terns must be defined and shared through all the organization. A training section must be done, as well as the updates of all your manu- als and work instructions. If possible, use auto- matic devices or methods to prevent failure to occur (Poka-Yoke). Conclusion It is not uncommon to see people focused on doing things that are urgent, and sometimes not important and solving immediate problems instead of thinking of the long term. Here in Brazil we have an idiomatic expression for that: "apagar incêndio," which literally means work- ing to extinguish a fire instead of preventing it from happening. DMAIC works to extinguish the fire and pre- vent it from happening again. For more information on Six Sigma visit the website isixsigma.com. PCB Figure 3: PDCA and DmAIC [2] .