5 whys retro
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Transcript of 5 whys retro
A little history
Toyota production system
"the basis of Toyota's scientific approach . . . by repeating why five times, the nature of the problem as well as its solution becomes clear."
What is 5 whys?
Technique is to determine the root cause of a defect or problem
Iterative question-asking technique used to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a particular problem
Empirical observation
Example
The vehicle will not start. (the problem)Why? - The battery is dead. (first why)Why? - The alternator is not functioning. (second why)Why? - The alternator belt has broken. (third why)Why? - The alternator belt was well beyond its useful
service life and not replaced. (fourth why)Why? - The vehicle was not maintained according to
the recommended service schedule. (fifth why, a root cause)
people do not fail, processes do
the real root cause should point toward a process that is not working well or does not exist
classical answers : not enough time
not enough investments
not enough manpower
May be true -> but are out of our controlInstead of asking the question why?, ask why did the
process fail?
Example 2
My customer is unhappy (the problem):
Why? – I didn’t deliver the project on time. (first why)
Why? – The job took much longer than I thought it would. (second why)
Why? – I underestimated the complexity of the project. (third why)
Why? – I didn’t develop a proper plan and quickly made an estimate of the time required. (fourth why)
Why? – I was running behind on other projects and lacked the time to plan. (fifth why, a root cause)
Read more
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys