5-WHY

Description: The 5-WHY tool is used to find specific and systemic root causes of a problem. It is also used to find detection failure causes. It may be used several times in the MEA !"E phase or in #EA$ Manufacturin%phase pro&ects. Objective: tart 'ith the problem and analy(e it from a prevention and detection perspective and continue to as) WHY to each previous ans'er until the root cause is obtained. The tool name su%%est that repeatin% this process five times can %et to the root cause. It can ta)e %reater or fe'er *uestions and sometimes it may branch off in t'o or more directions. +eep drillin% do'n until the real root cause,s- is found. A revie' of Mista)e .roofin% is recommended prior to usin% the 5WHY tool.

It serves as an effective and simple tool to be%in the corrective and preventive action of any type of problem from in&uries/ *uality defects/ unplanned do'ntime/ and re'or). It0s %oal is to do more than correct the obvious/ but to d'ell further into preventin% it from happenin% a%ain in the specific instance and systemically across a company/ %roup of machines/ operators/ set of forms/ etc. It may ta)e more or less than five *uestions/ the point is to ta)e this e1ercise seriously and as) the difficult *uestion and %et to the bottom of the problem. 2nly then can solid corrective actions for the immediate term and preventive actions for the lon% term be planned. It is more important to %et the difficult/ ri%ht solution than to run 'ith the simple 'ron%. This module is easy to e1plain but challen%in% to complete. It is )ey to %ather all the inputs ,13s- into your problem. These inputs to some de%ree are creatin% variation or movin% the performance off the tar%et. The *uantification of this is done in the A$A#Y4E phase/ first it is critical to obtain and document all of them.

The causes and root causes should also be lin)ed into the 5ishbone 6ia%ram as the 7bones7 of the fish s)eleton. 1) Assign ONE person to the corrective actions of each root cause !) Assign ONE person to the preventive actions of each root cause ") Agree on a specific co#p$etion %ate for each assign#ent &) 'ecor% a$$ the na#es of the peop$e invo$ve% in the e(ercise 5) 'ecor% the %ate the e(ercise )as co#p$ete% This e1ercise should be done 'ith those familiar and unfamiliar 'ith the problem/ 5-89 people. Those involved 'ill present the most accurate revie' of the problem and those unfamiliar may have fresh perspectives for resolution.

*otto# +ine,
As the team leader the %oal is to ."E:E$T the problem from ever happenin% a%ain and pursuit 'ith this mentality until it is not economical or practical. Everyone must have it in their mind to implement actions to absolutely prevent the root cause from happenin%. This is similar to 'hen attac)in% hi%h ".$3s in a 5MEA/ specifically the 2;;!""E$;E scorin% component. THE$/ if it can not be prevented 899< of the time/ %o for'ard 'ith the same a%ressive mindset to 6ETE;T the problem 899< if the time if it does occur. If the root cause can still pass throu%h/ attempt to reduce the severity of the failure mode or its impact to the pro&ect output.