Get to the root cause of any problem with the 5 Whys

Last Updated on 13 September 2023

The 5 Whys process is an effective technique used to uncover the root cause of any problem or fault by repeatedly asking ‘why’. It uses an approach loved by small children everywhere; keep asking ‘why’ until you get the real answer.

What are the benefits of the method?

It has many benefits that make it an effective tool for problem solving and root cause analysis:

• Hands-on problem solving: The 5 Whys technique tends to be most effective when the answers come from people who have direct experience with the process or problem in question.
• Targeting the root cause: The tool allows teams to pinpoint the root cause of a problem and helps prevent recurring failures.
• Encourages continuous improvement and learning: The method fosters a culture of continuous improvement and learning as it encourages teams to question assumptions and seek root causes.
• Simplicity and ease of use: One significant advantage of the technique is it doesn’t require any special training or tools to apply, allowing it to be used for any type of problem.

When is it useful?

The 5 Whys is a good way to start a problem-solving process. It can help you understand the root cause of a problem, and it’s useful in all stages of the Six Sigma DMAIC model.

For example: You are working on improving product quality by reducing defects. You have identified that your customers are receiving products with scratches on them, so you want to find out why this is happening and prevent future scratches from occurring.

The first step in this project would be to use 5 Whys questioning techniques with your team members who were involved in shipping out products or packaging them for shipment (or both). These people might come up with some ideas about why there were scratches on the products–perhaps they weren’t careful enough when putting together orders; maybe there were too many orders coming through at once; or maybe there was something wrong with how they were storing items before sending them off.

5 Whys method

It is an iterative process that involves asking repeated ‘why’ questions, each prompted by the answer to the last one. This process is as follows:

• Find the issue
• Ask why it is happening
• Ask why that cause is occurring
• Ask why the cause of that cause is occurring
• Ask why the cause of that cause of a cause is occurring
• Ask why the cause of that cause of a cause of a cause is occurring

By the time you’ve reached your 5th ‘why’ question, you should have reached the root cause of the problem. Obviously it won’t always take 5 ‘whys’ – sometimes the 1st will manage it, and some will take 6 or beyond, but most should be resolved by the 5th why, and you should always try to go at least that far, so that you can make sure you’re treating the cause, and not a symptom which looks like a cause.

Example

Issue: The company is losing money due to a large number of customer refunds.

1. Why? Customer payment disputes can’t be resolved as there’s insufficient documentation.
2. Why? The sales team doesn’t consistently complete the necessary documentation.
3. Why? They don’t see it as a priority or even something they should be doing
4. Why? Their performance evaluation (appraisals/goals) is primarily based on the number of new contracts and sales they secure, rather than on the accurate completion of paperwork or conversion to cash.
5. Why? The sales team is not mandated to focus on cash generation but rather on maximising sales.

From this process, it becomes clear that the frequent refunds (a direct cost to the company) are a result of a strategic decision regarding the sales department’s focus, which could even be interrogated further to understand how this decision came about. If the investigation stopped at the 2nd ‘why’, one might have wrongly attributed the problem to the sales staff’s laziness without truly resolving the issue.

In conclusion, the 5 Whys technique is a valuable tool for identifying the root cause of an problem within both a professional and personal setting, enabling the tackling of the root cause rather than the symptoms.