Source: Mind Tools
Published: October 2005

The Five Whys

The 5 Whys technique is an effective tool for root-cause analysis in the Lean philosophy. It is utilized by individuals and teams to protect their processes from recurring mistakes.  

The methodology, developed by Sakichi Toyoda in 1930, was originally used in the Toyota Production System. Asking why five times helped the team at Toyota to identify the nature of the problem and find a clear solution. 

Here is a simple example illustrating The 5 Whys in action. 

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