The 5 Why’s

One of may favorite root cause analysis techniques (or simply problem solving) is to teach people to ask, "why?" Our kids learn this trick and it drives us nuts but gets them a lot of information. We can learn from them and use it when we need to get to the bottom of an issue.

• The 5 why's refers to the practice of asking, five times, why the failure has occurred in order to get to the root cause/causes of the problem.
• It illustrates the importance of digging down beneath the most obvious cause of the problem.
• Failure to determine the root cause assures that you will be treating the symptoms of the problem instead of its cause, in which case, the disease will return, and you will continue to have the same problems over and over again.

Notes:

• The actual numbers of why's is not important as long as you get to the root cause.
• There can be more than one cause to a problem.

Example 1
Problem Statement:

You are on your way home from work and your car stops in the middle of the road.

1. Why did your car stop? - Because it ran out of gas.
2. Why did it run out of gas? - Because I didn't buy any gas on my way to work.
3. Why didn't you buy any gas this morning? - Because I didn't have any money.
4. Why didn't you have any money? - Because I lost it all last night in a poker game.
5. Why did you lose your money in last night's poker game? - Because I'm not very good at "bluffing" when I don't have a good hand.

Example 2
Problem Statement:

The Washington Monument is disintegrating.

1. Why is the Monument disintegrating? - Because of the use of harsh chemicals
2. Why are harsh chemicals being used? - To clean pigeon poop
3. Why are there so many pigeons? - They eat spiders and there are a lot of spiders at monument
4. Why so many spiders? - They eat gnats and there are lots of gnats at monument
5. Why so many gnats? - They are attracted to the light at dusk.

Solution: Turn on the lights at a later time.

Try asking "why" next time your presented with a problem to see how many it takes to find the solution.