Also called A3 thinking, A3 problem solving, one-page report
What is an A3 report?
A whole problem, its analysis and its plan, forced onto one sheet of A3 paper.
What else it is called
- Other names
- A3 thinking, A3 problem solving, one-page report
- In French
- rapport A3
Related entries
Understanding a3 report
One sheet of A3 paper, laid out in a standard order: what the problem is and why it matters, what is happening now with real numbers, what the target is, the analysis of the cause, the countermeasures proposed, who does what by when, and how it will be followed up.
The paper size is doing real work. Anything that cannot be fitted has usually not been thought through, and the discipline of cutting forces the author to separate what matters from what they happen to know. It also makes the whole argument visible at once, so a reviewer can see whether the proposed fix actually follows from the analysis, which is much harder to check in a twenty-slide deck.
In practice
The useful review question is whether the countermeasures follow from the analysis. Very often they do not, because the fix was decided first and the analysis written afterwards.
Frequently asked
Can we do this digitally?
Yes, as long as the size limit is kept. The moment it becomes a document that can scroll, the discipline that makes it useful is gone.