5 Whys Analysis
What is 5 Whys Analysis
The 5 Whys is a simple tool used to help you understand what's causing a problem by using an iterative interrogative technique to explore the root cause underlying a particular problem. As the name suggested, 5 Whys takes five iterations of asking 'Why' to drill down from one symptom to another until you reached the root cause. Visual Paradigm features an intuitive diagram editor and a rich set of 5 Whys templates that support your problem solving and presentation needs.
Who Invented It?
This is a technique advocated by Naiichi Ohno, the founder of Toyota Production System (TPS), which requires everyone to ask "why" five times when facing a problem, forcing themselves to think outside of their intuition and thoroughly understand the situation. And define the problem before thinking about the solution to ensure that the improvements made can bring the maximum benefit.
In other words, when a problem arises, don't be too eager to find the answer. It is best to find the real answer through systematic analysis methods. The "5 Problem Analysis Method" is an excellent tool to find out the cause of the problem.
To give a simple example: When your car is towed...
Why is the car towed? Because I stopped at the red line
Why stop in the red line area? Because I'm almost late for a meeting with the client
Why are you late for meetings with clients? Because the previous trip was delayed
Why was the previous trip delayed? Because I didn’t expect to talk to customers for so long
Why didn't you count the time to talk to the previous client for too long? Because I didn’t expect customers to ask so many questions, the schedule was too tight
Bingo, it turns out that the car was towed because his schedule was too tight! Don't blame the government, the police, or the towing factory...Next time you go out early or the schedule is looser.
When a problem arises, the answer you feel is not necessarily the correct answer; if you ask a few more "whys," I'm afraid you can find the true answer to the problem.