5 Why Analysis

5 Why Analysis
By, Amit Shrivastava
Hyderabad, India.

Why 5 Why ?
To find the…….

When to Use 5 Why
 Complaint from the Client
 Observation from the Client
 Recurring Errors
 First Time Quality
 Internal Quality Issue
 Quality System Audit Non-conformances

5 Why Analysis
 A cross-functional team should be used to
solve the problem
 Don’t jump to conclusions or assume the
answer is obvious
 Don’t be bias
 Be absolutely objective

General Guidelines
 Ask “Why” until the root cause is
uncovered
 It may be more or less than 5 Whys
 If words like “because” or “due to” are
coming in the answer, move to the next
Why
 If you don’t ask enough “Whys”, you may
end up with a “symptom” and not “root
cause”

General Guidelines (Contd…..)
 Corrective action for a symptom is not
effective in eliminating the cause
– Corrective action for a symptom is usually
“detective”
– Corrective action for a root cause can be
“preventive”

Criticism of 5 Why:
 We generally stop at symptoms rather
than going on to lower-level root causes
 Lack of support to help the investigator
ask the right "why" questions
 Getting right answer for the "why"
 Different people using 5 Whys, come up
with different causes for the same problem

Criticism of 5 Why (Contd…..)
 Tendency to isolate a single root cause,
whereas each question could elicit many
different root causes

Solution:
Verify the answer to the current "why"
question before proceeding to the next.

5 Why Analysis

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