The ‘5 Whys’ are a very important Six Sigma tool that can be used to identify important solutions to very real problems businesses can face on a day-to-day basis. When problems cannot be identified, they cannot be repaired, and if they cannot be repaired, overall improvement does not occur.  Tools such as the 5 Whys is a necessary part of problem solving.

The ‘5 Whys’ is a problem-solving Six Sigma tool in which you pose the question “Why?” to yourself or to your business team over and over in order find the root cause to a problem occurring within your business.  In order to start, you can simply write down a problem, and ask ‘why’ it occurs. You may have to ask this question multiple times, usually 5 times, and through the answers, you will be able to identify the true reason the problem is occurring, and not the superficial reason. You can then use the answers to reach resolutions. Another important aspect of using the ‘5 Whys’ is that it usually does not require the use of statistical data. There are, naturally, instances where providing such data may be necessary, but in general, this is not the case.

You will be better able to understand the 5 Whys by taking a look at a few examples that will clearly illustrate the types of problems where this Six Sigma tool may be applied. You will also be able to see the root causes as well as various possible resolutions through the answers.

You would begin by writing a problem statement. Your statement could be as follows:

Customers are unhappy because they are receiving products that fail to meet their specifications.

As you can see, this would definitely pose a problem for any company, and could result in decreased sales. It could also mean a loss of trust between customers and the company. This would reflect badly on the business as a whole, so you would definitely want to find the solution to this problem. After writing it down on paper, you could then as the question “Why?” and might get an answer like:

Manufacturing built the products to a specification different than what the sales person and customer agreed upon.

You could then ask “Why?” again and might arrive at an answer such as:

The sales person expedites work on the shop floor by directly calling the head of manufacturing to begin the work. An error occurred when the specifications were communicated or written down.

You could continue to ask “why” and would receive many answers that would help you to further break down the problem. Remember, the answers you are receiving are possibilities, but they are based on information you know to be true so they will definitely point you in the right direction. Often times, you will be correct. If you keep asking the question “Why?,” you will eventually arrive at a conclusion that will help you answer the question in order to find a solution.  This problem solving tool is used within the Six Sigma Methodology as a preliminary tool before more in-depth statistical methods are used.