- It is a root cause analysis technique used in the Analyze phase - DMAIC methodology.
- By repeatedly asking the question "Why” you can peel away the layers of symptoms which can lead to the root cause of a problem.
- Although this technique is called 5 Whys, you may find that you will need to ask the question fewer or more times than five before you find the issue related to a problem.
Let us see an example of 5 why analysis where you reached home late by an hour and your parents are trying to investigate the causes.
Result: You can see, the final Why leads the person to a root cause to take action upon. It is much quicker to come up with a system to teach a person to “analyze” a cricket match than to directly solve the stated problems above without further investigation.
Expert's Comment
- FiveWhy Analysis the easiest & useful technique to find the root cause.