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Our Customers, Our Story

In the 1970’s, Charles Wendell Jones (the founder and President of DSI) wrote a technical paper about the dynamic nature of change within organizations entitled “4X4: The General Theory of Organizational Self Regulation.” Based upon the building blocks of this paper and drawing upon his many years of experience as Safety Director for Marathon Letourneau Co. (a manufacturing company that specializes in large equipment and offshore rigs), Mr. Jones developed a conceptually new standard operating procedure and system for doing investigations. This system was unique in that it used rules and principles instead of lists of questions or static templates to guide a user to ask the right questions. It also guided a user to dissect and investigate any counter-quality issue, verify the facts, and record those facts in a communicative and powerful way. There were four basic rules and four basic principles that guided Mr. Jones’ process and thus he named it “4X4”.

The system was extensively field tested during the 1970’s. As Chairman of the Research and Engineering Committee for the Texas Safety Association, Mr. Jones introduced TSA and National Safety Council membership to the concepts and taught the “4X4” process within seminars and trainings around the country for years. Mr. Jones officially introduced the 4X4 system to 1,600 international delegates as guest speaker at the 10th World Congress for Safety in Toronto, Canada. Then in 1986, with the development of the world’s first commercial software for conducting Root Cause Analysis (named REASON®), DECISION Systems, Inc. (DSI) became an incorporated business in the state of Texas. Initially, DSI distributed its unique REASON® problem-solving technology to government and industry via its first distribution partner Electronic Data Systems (EDS http://www.eds.com/ ). EDS initially conveyed the software though access time on their global network of large VAX mainframe computer systems. REASON® was the first Root Cause Analysis expert system software on the market, and it was an instant success. Soon, the advent of the personal computer drove change in the REASON® system. REASON® was redesigned to function over LANs and on standalone personal computers.

After having been shown the possibilities of REASON® technology, our customers soon were seeking help from DSI and our REASON® system to help solve, communicate, and use problem-event data in new and exciting ways over large wide area networks. Just as it was true then, today our working relationships with our customers drive us and keep us on the cutting-edge of new processes, thoughts, and abilities. In the end, this has enabled our customers to learn better, faster, and more intelligently about how to prevent loss and generate quality in their own organizations.

Over the years, as our customers’ needs became more sophisticated, so did REASON®. Advances in problem-solving technology like DSI’s Casual Patterns™ (which help guide a user through any investigation dynamically based upon the data he provides) and DSI’s unique Natural Language Processor technology (that enables the software to ‘understand’ what a user’s facts mean as he inputs them) are just a few of the milestones along the evolution and continuous improvement of the REASON® system.

Today, REASON® is a scaled process that begins with a case assessment step which guides a user to one of three levels of investigation. Each level is designed to make best use of either twenty minutes, two hours, or longer when they choose to operate in a ‘leave no stone unturned’ mode. This feature and the ability of our state of the art Lessons Learned system that was designed for the US Space Program are prime examples of DSI working in conjunction with the changing needs of our customers and the world to produce systems with capabilities light years beyond the competition.

So, in the end, DSI’s story is really our customers’ story. Our customers’ needs have been, and always will be, our focus. As their goals and needs grow, so will ours. As our customers test the envelope of possibilities, it will continue to push DSI to research, develop, and deliver solutions for their new needs using new technology and processes.

Our heritage of being pioneers in the areas of Root Cause Analysis and Lessons Learned in combination with the relationships we form with our customers will continue to keep DSI on the cutting edge of organizational problem-solving. We understand that the recipe for success today might not work tomorrow, and that we must continue to grow with our customers. Our promise is to continue to provide tomorrow’s abilities today. And with this vision for staying ahead of the curve, DSI heads into its future making problem-solving and sharing solutions that are state of the art, uniquely powerful, and focused on the needs of our customers.