In every method of improvement or problem-solving, identifying and understanding the problems are very important to decide the best actions or solutions. Therefore, it is crucial to determine the root causes of these problems and preventing the problems to occur again in the future. Two simple methods for identifying are Five Whys and Fishbone Diagram.
Five Whys is one of the simplest methods to implement since it has nothing to do with statistical analysis or any other type of calculation. This approach works by asking why iteratively until the root cause is identified. For example, you have small pizza restaurant and you notice your delivery sales are decreasing and you use Five Whys method to identify the problem:
1. Why the delivery sales decreases?
Because most customers were unhappy with the pizza condition
2. Why were most customers unhappy with the pizza condition?
Because pizzas were already cold when they arrived.
3. Why were pizzas already cold when they arrived?
Because pizzas were too exposed
4. Why were pizzas too exposed?
Because the delivery bags’ layers are too thin.
5. Why are delivery bags’ too thin?
Because most of these bags are already worn-out. And so on…
Keep in mind that “five” in Five Whys is only a ‘rule of thumb’, since it is possible to ask more whys for determining the root causes and they become apparent when the answer starts to sounds uninformative and irrelevant with the problem. Moreover, most problems have multiple root causes hence repetition of Five Whys is necessary for each possible ‘path’.
Additional more in-depth tools, such as Fishbone Diagram, FMEA, Cause and Effect Analysis, are also beneficial to help determine root causes. In conclusion, Five Whys provides easy-to-use approach for solving problems by asking whys iteratively until root causes are found and it encourages the user to evaluate current problems thoroughly.
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