What is “The Five Whys” technique?

Five whys is a simple but powerful tool that helps to dig deeper into the problem to find the root cause and look for an opportunity to solve it.

The origin of the “Five whys”:

This technique was invented by (SAKICHI TOYODA) the Japanese industrialist and founder of TOYOTA industries. He developed the “five whys” technique in the 1930s and it became popular in 1970.

The concept of “Five whys”:

This method is based on the “go and see” philosophy. This means you need to get closer to the problem to find the hidden details which will help you understand what is happening on the ground rather than what you or somebody thinks might be happening.

For that reason, your problem-solving team must include people who have hands-on experience with the process or the problem.

How to implement “five whys”?

To apply this method, you need to address the problem and dive deep into its root causes by asking “Why” five times, so you can use a fundamental solution or a countermeasure rather than a symptomatic solution to prevent the problem from recurring.

Alike “appreciation”, five whys can restrict your thinking to one direction after asking the first “why”. To avoid this you need to apply this method several times until you cover all contributing factors. Still and all it combines well with other methods and techniques which are used for complex problems such as to cause and effect diagrams.

The “five whys” process:

How to Use the 5 Whys:

The model follows a very simple seven-step process:

Step 1: Assemble a Team

The problem-solving team must include experts and people who have hands-on experience and know all details of the problem or process.

Step 2: Define the Problem

Defining the problem is the most crucial step in any problem-solving technique. You may use any tool to define the problem accurately, (for example CATWOE analysis) to be able to collect all relevant data that may help the team to specify the problem. In order to base the process on facts instead of assumptions.

Step 3: Ask the First “Why?”

Ask your team why the problem is occurring. (For example, “Why our customers complain about quality?”) Asking “Why?” the answers must be accounts of things that have actually happened, not guesses at what might have happened. To avoid confusion and analyze hypotheses instead of facts.

Your team members may come up with one or two obvious reasons, and then they should not stop. This stage of “root cause analysis” is about finding all possible casual factors which might be hidden, not only the obvious ones.

Step 4: Ask “Why?” Four More Times

For each of the answers that you generated in Step 3, ask four further “whys” in succession. Each time, frame the question in response to the answer you have just recorded.

Five Whys Example (Single Lane):

The Five Whys method also allows you to follow multiple lanes of inquiry. An example of this is shown in the Figure, below.

In our example, asking, “Why was the delivery late?” produces a second answer (Reason 2). Asking “Why?” for that answer reveals a single reason (Reason 1), which you can address with a counter-measure.

5 Whys Example (Multiple Lanes)

Step 5: Know When to Stop

You will know when to stop when you cannot find any more answers when you ask “Why?”, then the root cause should be evident.

Step 6: Address the Root Cause(s)

After identifying one or more root causes, your team should discuss the possible solutions before applying them to prevent the problem from recurring.

Step 7: Monitor Your Measures

This is a very important step. Monitoring the implementation will give you an indicator of whether you are on the right path or not so that you can make the necessary amendments or review the whole process.

TIP: The “5” in 5 Whys is just the basic tool, in some cases, you may need to ask “why?” a few more times, or even less if the problem is simple. Make sure that you haven’t stopped too soon, and that you’re not simply accepting