5 Whys Root Cause Analysis

1) First step of 5 Whys analysis is to define;

* Product/Supplier

* Department

* Completed by, and

* Date

details that are subject to apply the analysis

2) Second step is to clearly define the Problem, which should be specific, clear and concise.

When defining the problem, gather together people who are familiar with the specifics of the problem, and with the process that you’re trying to fix.

Include someone to act as a facilitator, who can keep the team focused on identifying effective counter-measures.

If you can, observe the problem in action. Discuss it with your team and write a brief, clear problem statement that you all agree on.

3) Third part focuses on the cause of the problem with starting to ask: “Why is this a problem?”

The goal here to explore the impact of existence of relevant issue that appears to be problem.

Following this, it is required to ask:

“Why is it happening?”

• Primary Cause
• Contributing Problem
• Other Contributing Problem
  
  

Following this process, four more times “Why is that?” is required to ask from three different dimension as well,        where the last question will enable to explore the root-cause of the problem.                                                                               

Ask your team why the problem is occurring. (For example, “Why isn’t Team A meeting its response time targets?”)

Asking “Why?” sounds simple, but answering it requires serious thought. Search for answers that are grounded in fact: they must be accounts of things that have actually happened, not guesses at what might have happened.             

This prevents 5 Whys from becoming just a process of deductive reasoning, which can generate a large number of possible causes and, sometimes,  create more confusion as you chase down hypothetical problems.