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:
- 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.
- Lack of documentation. No priority has been given to writing down
important information, eg, which materials go with which particular
course.
- 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
