The “five why’s ” will help make intelligent decisions
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines an “Aha moment” as a moment of sudden realization, inspiration, insight, recognition, or comprehension. The immediate mental images the mind may produce is a “enlightened” person with a lightbulb hovering overhead.
My introduction to finding a moment was during a summer meeting when a superintendent explained the 5 whys. This unique method allows you to identify the root cause of a problem and make an informed decision.
This is a simple but effective tool for cutting quickly through the outward symptoms of a problem to reveal its underlying causes. Use it in troubleshooting, problem-solving, and quality-improvement initiatives.
The technique was originally developed in the 1930s by Sakichi Toyoda, the Japanese industrialist, inventor, and founder of Toyota Industries, who stated that “by repeating why five times, the nature of the problem as well as its solution becomes clear.”
The whole idea is to remove the layers of the problem and discover the root cause of it.
Toyota still uses it to solve problems today.
5 Why’s analysis in action
The Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C. was crumbling badly. The stone exterior of the monument was deteriorating and the first thought was the damage was caused by acid rain. The problem was that other nearby buildings were not experiencing the same issues.
A committee was formed to use root cause analysis tools.
(5) Questions and answers
Why was the stone on the building wearing so quickly?
Because high pressure washing was being done ever two weeks.
Why was pressure washing happening every two week?
Because of the extreme amount of pigeon and bird droppings.
Why was there so many birds in the area?
Experts determined that the birds were there because they were eating the spiders.
Why were there so many spiders?
The spiders were there because there were so many insects especially Midges. They are tiny sand flies that are common around bodies of water and come out around dusk to mate and die shortly afterwards.
Why were there so many Midges?
Floodlights were coming on to light the memorial which were a major attraction to the midges. After mating they would die and fall to the ground near the memorial which attracted the spiders.
