The Five Whys for Root Cause Analysis + Template

Supplement for paying subscribers

Image: Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash

This monthly supplement for paying subscribers includes:

• an explanation of the Five Whys technique,

• its uses (and drawbacks) for food safety root cause analysis,

• guidance for getting the most out of a Five Whys exercise,

• a downloadable template in Microsoft Excel format, with guidance notes.

A powerful tool for root cause analysis

The Five Whys Technique is a simple, yet powerful interrogative technique for exploring the causes of problems.  It was developed in the 1930s by Sakichi Toyoda, the Japanese founder of Toyota Industries, who used it to find the relationships between the causes and effects of manufacturing defects.  It is used by food safety experts for root cause analysis of non-conformances, and in other industries for both cause-and-effect analysis and for decision-making.

Why perform root cause analyses?

Imagine that you find a blue latex glove on a conveyor belt in your food production facility. It should not be there and could end up in a…