Check sheet example

Imagine a book shop placed in the main street of a medium-large city. Even
though its situation the achieved sales are lower than expected. The staff
pointed out that many customers came into the shop but they left without buying
anything. To solve this problem, the staff organised a brainstorming session
where the following causes came into light:
ƒ The customers did not find what they were looking for.
ƒ The staff did not pay much attention to customers.
ƒ The books were sold out
ƒ The books were not carried out by the shop.
ƒ Items too expensive.
ƒ Long queues at the counter.
ƒ Not all types of credit cards were accepted.
ƒ Poor lightning.
ƒ Air conditioned/heating too high/low.
ƒ No places to sit and flick through books before making a decision.

They found difficulties in identifying the main problem in order to implement a

solution so during two weeks they kindly asked the customers that left the shop
without buying anything the reason for that. The answers were gathered in the
following check sheet:

Cause of no Week 1 Week 2 Times per cause

purchase
Item not found IIIII IIIII IIIII II IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII 37
Poor attention IIIII IIIII IIII IIIII I 20
Item sold out II III 5
Item not carried III IIIII I 9
High prices I 1
Queues too long I III 4
Credit cards II 2
Poor lightning IIIII II IIIII IIIII II 19
Heating/air III II 5
conditioned
No place to sit II IIII 6
Total per week 52 56 108

An analysis of the check sheet clearly showed the first causes to solve.