The five whys technique: what it is and how to use it

There are many troubleshooting techniques, all of them very useful depending on the type of issue to be solved.

Among those that have reached the most popularity thanks to the simplicity of its application we have the five whys technique, a tool that allows us to find the root cause of a certain problem by asking questions.

Although easy to apply this technique, it requires a few steps to follow, taking into account a few tips and also assessing its drawbacks, something that we will see in the following lines. Stick around to learn more about this technique!

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What is the five whys technique?

The five whys technique, also called the why-why or whys ladder, is a strategy widely used in problem solving that allows finding the root cause of a complex problem or that is the product of a succession of causes. Its application is very simple, which is why it is so popular and used in the world of problem solving.

The ideologue of this technique is believed to have been Sakichi Toyoda, a Japanese industrialist and inventor who founded the Toyota company. Toyoda applied this tool for problem solving in automobile manufacturing. Then it would be the engineer Taiichi Ohno, also from Toyota, who would give continuity and fame to this technique, popularizing its application.

The premise of the technique is simple, so much so that we can summarize it in the following statement made to the colleagues of these Japanese manufacturers: "Look at the production shop without preconceptions and with a blank mind; repeat 'why' five times for each issue ".

Basically, it is a cause-effect analysis tool, which works through questions. With this strategy it is possible to analyze a problem by asking the question "why". Once the answer to that first “why” is obtained, we ask ourselves the same question again and, so on, until we find what has caused the problem that we have come to solve.

Usually, a minimum of five whys is required to find the origin of the problem, which is why the technique receives this name. However, despite what its name says, not doing the five whys does not mean that the tool is not being used. conveniently, since the question must be asked until it is considered that the root cause of the analyzed phenomenon has been reached, three reasons are enough or seven are enough.

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How to apply the technique to solve problems?

Although it is a fairly free technique, doing an analysis using the five whys technique appropriately involves taking into account some considerations.

It is necessary to involve management in the process of the five whys in the company. For the analysis itself, it is necessary to consider who are the right people with whom to form a working group. It is also advisable to use a person who can act as a facilitator of the process, in the sense that she is prone to ask questions about a certain issue.

It is essential that the process of finding the five whys is done on a sheet of paper or, even better, a blackboard. By proxy it can be done with a computer, but it is better to do the entire analysis process with something that everyone can participate in at the same time physically. Write the problem on the board and make sure that everyone understands it.

During the process, It is very important to reflect on what the real causes of the problem are and what symptoms or effects they cause, without confusing them. We must not forget that a symptom is still a consequence of something, and that it is that something to which a solution must be found. Therefore, it is essential to pay attention and follow the logic of cause and effect relationships.

We must make sure that we isolate the causes that have caused the failures, problems or inconveniences of the situation in which we find ourselves. For this, it is a very good strategy to make the sentences that we have raised but in reverse, using the expression "and therefore" or "and therefore". We should try to make the questions as precise as possible.

You should never resort to blaming solely and exclusively on human factors. There may have been a human error, inattention on the part of a worker or any problem that was in the hand of one or several people, but the whole process must also be evaluated and any problem, human or purely accidental, that could to have. This technique is not applied to seek responsibility, but to learn from mistakes and prevent them from being committed again. It is necessary to foster an atmosphere of trust and sincerity, and accusations do not help to achieve this.

The question must be asked "why?" until the root cause of the problem is determined. That is to say, If something is found that, once solved or eliminated, prevents the mistake from being made again, then the technique has been fully applied. It is highly recommended to ask yourself these "why?" from a customer's point of view rather than a worker's.

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Examples of application of this technique

Although the premise of this technique is simple, to better understand it we are going to present three examples that they are sure to make us understand in greater depth how the five whys strategy works and how useful What is it.

1. Toyota case

The first example we put is one proposed by Toyota herself. A machine has a malfunction.

• Why did the machine break down? The fuse has blown from an overload.
• Why was it overloaded? The bearings were not sufficiently lubricated.
• Why didn't they have enough lubrication? The lube pump was not circulating enough oil.
• Why was the pump not circulating enough oil? The pump was clogged with metal shavings.
• Why was it clogged with metal shavings? Because the pump does not have a filter.

Thus, after this analysis we can understand that the dirt in the pump due to the lack of a filter caused an overload in the fuse, which caused the machine to break down. In this concrete example we can understand that every cause has its own effect, so acting on the fifth why the problem should be solved.

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2. Replacement of personnel

A customer data system seems to be out of date:

• Why does the system give us outdated data? Because the analyst did not upload the updated data from the previous month.
• Why didn't the analyst upload the data for the previous month? Because no one taught him how to do it.
• Why didn't anyone teach him how to do it? Because nobody knows the procedure.
• Why does no one know the procedure? Because whoever did know him left, and did not explain it to the incoming worker.
• Why was the procedure not explained to the incoming worker? Because it was not documented, nor was it foreseen the possibility that the only one who did not know it would leave without showing it to the new one.

This problem, which at first seemed like it was just a system failure, is actually a human problem, in which the parties responsible for updating the data were not aware that this was their role and no one adequately informed or taught him. Nor was there a protocol in which it would be specified what to do in case the person in charge of updating the data left.

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3. Lower sales

In a company they have begun to register lower sales ...

• Why have sales decreased? because the sellers have not reached their monthly goals.
• Why haven't the salespeople reached their monthly goals? because they don't have enough time to focus on their sales.
• Why don't they have enough time to focus on their sales? because the daily errands are not solved quickly.
• Why are the daily errands not solved quickly? because the company has not implemented a tool that solves them quickly and efficiently.

In this specific case it can be seen that because the company does not have tools that allow solve day-to-day problems quickly, it is the workers who have to figure out how to fix them.

Since many of these problems are unfamiliar or more complex than your knowledge allows, take too much time and cognitive resources to resolve. As a consequence we have that they do not have time to focus on sales and they do less.

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Advantages of this technique

We can mention a few Benefits and Advantages of the Five Whys Technique:

• It allows you to quickly delve into the nature of the problem through various paths.
• It is a very easy technique to apply, simply asking yourself the right "whys" and finding out the cause behind each problem.
• Its use promotes teamwork. Ideally, it should be applied by people who have various roles in the company.
• It can be integrated with other problem-solving tools, such as the Ishikawa analysis or the six thinking hats.

And as the main advantage that stands out over the others we can mention that acts on the root cause of the problem, preventing it from reoccurring once it is detected, understood and solved.

critics

But despite having several advantages, the five whys technique also has some drawbacks, mainly because some consider it too poor a tool to do an analysis of what is the root of a problem.

This opinion was expressed by Teruyuki Minoura, former managing director of global purchasing at Toyota, considering that this tool does not allowed an analysis deep enough as necessary to solve problems in a world as complex as that of the engineering.

Added to this criticism, we have multiple more reasons:

• Researchers tend to dwell on symptoms rather than go deeper and see the root cause of the whole problem.
• Inability to go beyond the current knowledge of the investigator. The researcher cannot find the causes because he does not have to have the knowledge to detect them to begin with.
• Lack of support to help the researcher give the correct answer to the "why" questions.

Furthermore, the results are not replicable. Proof of this is in the fact that different people using the five whys technique for the same problem may end up finding different causes.

Tendency to isolate a single root cause and see it in a linear way, instead of considering the possibility that there are several causes that have originated the problem and as a consequence of the combination of several problems that give a result multifactorial.