The '5-Why' Method

The '5-Why' Method

Whether you call it 5-Why or 5-Whys, it's a method of problem analysis.


The method involves asking "Why … ?" 5 times.  The purpose is to move beyond the various symptoms of the problem to identify the real, underlying cause(s).

Now this can sound blindingly simple.  But thought is required to identify the right questions to ask.  And discipline and persistence are required to use and apply the method. Let's look at an example.

Example

Symptom:  The wrong course manuals were delivered for a one-day training course.  That meant the course participants (students) had no course books until nearly lunchtime, because the company had to do a rush job of copying and then deliver the right manuals.  The participants were very unhappy about it.
 
1. Why were the wrong materials delivered? 
Andrea usually does this (copying and sending materials to course venues) but she was on holiday.  The fill-in guy got mixed up and sent "Advanced" course books to the "Basic" course. (Symptom)

2. Why did he mistake the courses?

He's only been doing it for a week.  He hasn't had time to get on top of the job yet, and there's a lot to learn.(Symptom)

3. If he isn't on top of it yet, why is he doing the job? 
Well, someone has to do it while she's away.  But of course he spent some time with Andrea going through it all before she went on leave.  It was thought he'd be OK.  But it does often take a while to get familiar with the various courses and materials, and those two particular courses have very similar names. (Still a symptom)

4. But this has happened before.  We already know it takes a while to learn about the various courses and materials, so why don't we have things in place to help that learning?
For example, do we have a packing checklist/instruction for use when preparing and despatching course materials? Does anyone do a cross-check before materials are sent?  Do we have any system to training our people about the various courses and materials we have?

Um, no, we don't. We've been meaning to do stuff like that, but haven't yet.

5. Why?
Because we've just been far too busy.  And it hasn't been a priority.

At this point, we've uncovered at least 3 underlying (root) causes: 

1. Lack of training.  There isn't any effective internal training system in place, to make sure that the critical function of delivering the course materials can be covered properly during staff absence.  
2. Lack of documentation. No priority has been given to writing down important information, eg, which materials go with which particular course.
3. Process controls are inadequate.  There is no cross-check, to make sure things are  done consistently, even if the person doing the task changes or is new to it.

These are management practices - weaknesses in the current system of management.  They can be changed, and should be.  If not, the problem will happen again.

More about the method

• The answer to the first Why? question should point the way to the next one.
  
• Understand that you can't always just run straight through these questions in a few minutes, asking and answering all questions immediately, unless possibly you are very experienced in the method.
  For example, you may need to gather and analyse more information in order to answer a particular question.  And you may need to stop and think about whether you're asking the right question(s).
  
• By the time you get to the fourth or fifth Why…? and provided you have asked the right questions, you should be close to the root cause or causes.  You'll then have identified management practices rather than just symptoms.
  
• There is most often more than just a single cause.
  

5 Whys can be extremely valuable and powerful, but it's a technique that needs practice to get better at. As with other improvement tools, the more you use it, the better you get. 

What not to do

• Don't confuse symptoms with root causes. It's the most common mistake.  Symptoms are outward signs that there's a problem, but they are not the real causes.  The fact that the fill-in guy 'didn't know' there were two courses with very similar names is a symptom of a deeper problem.  It is not the real cause.
  
  
• Don't settle for the siren call of the simple answer.  Most people stop far too early in the problem-solving process and just latch on to the first or second simple answer. Again, they confuse symptoms (such as the new guy not knowing something) with the real underlying cause/s.  The first 'cause' offered is almost never a root cause. And it's only when you find a root cause that you can take effective corrective action and remove it, and thus stop that problem cropping up again.
  
  
• Don't believe there's only one single root cause.  One potential weakness of 5 Whys is that it may lead to that belief.  But far more often than not, there's more than one cause contributing to the problem. 
  
• Don't go for blame.   If I had a dollar for every time that 's/he made a mistake' or 'it was just human error' has been given as the cause of a failure, I'd be rich.  Very rich.  Yes, we're all human and yes, of course mistakes happen. But don't stop there.  People who are experienced with quality management know this and design processes and systems to manage this, which includes building in sensible controls to avoid or catch errors.  Because 99.9 times out of 100 the problem lies is in the system itself. Which is also good news, because management systems can and should be improved.

One reason a good quality management system (and the ISO 9001 Standard) promotes a systematic approach to mistakes and failures is because will produce considerable improvement, no matter what the size of the organisation. 

If you are still only responding individually and not systematically to a problem, weakness and failure, then you're almost certainly still in ad hoc and reactive mode.  It's one of the hallmarks of an immature quality management system.

Organisations with more mature systems are proactive: they've already recognized the rich pickings they can find here, and used this 5 Whys (and quite possibly other tools too) to improve.

Do aim to collect information on your problems and failures, analyse them and spend time on them.  Because symptoms can crop up in various places and disguises, they may fool you into thinking each is different.  Once you take a systematic approach, you'll often find that the various instances are just more of the same symptoms: different details but tracing back to the same root cause/s.

NB: The 5-Why method is closely related to the Cause & Effect (Fishbone) diagram; it is often very effective to use them together.  I rarely use fishbones as I don't much care for them, but some people swear by them.

Author: Jane Bennett