Articles by CBAssociates

Published, Newspapers and Technology, January 2000

Revisiting the Five "W"s... A method of Trouble Shooting

Those of you that have read my columns know my fondness for the five W's as a method of trouble shooting. This method requires asking and receiving answers to five levels of "Why". The purpose is to dig deep to the root cause of a problem.

For example, if a press has an emergency stop, the questions could go something like this:

Q: "Why did the press stop?"
A: "Because there was a web break."

Q: "Why did the web break?"
A: "Because it broke during a paster cycle."

Q: "Why did it brake during a paster cycle?"
A: "Because the sheet broke out above the unit."

Q: "Why did the sheet break out above the unit?"
A: "Because the tension was not right."

Q: "Why was the tension not right?"
A: "We do not know and we will figure it out."

As you can see, this process can become a bit tedious, but it is quite effective. Very seldom is it possible to get through the five W's across a table, which is as it should be. The purpose is, using a team based approach, to drill down to the root cause and then fix the problem.

This can be used to challenge, in the good sense, statements or answers to questions. It can be used to make sure the person has thought through the answer and to make sure the answer is to the question in the mind of the facilitator. Many times, a statement that does not fit the question is due to a misunderstanding about the question.

This method tends to drive some of us a bit crazy, but as you can imagine, when used in the proper circumstance, it is very effective and encourages mutual understanding.

I thought I was current on most quality, productivity, management tools and techniques. However, there seems to be a school of management techniques that I have not read. I was aware of the isolated use of the technique in the past, but lately it has been popping up more frequently.

It occurred to me that it must be a formalized concept as so many people are using it. I can only guess as to the formal structure and I do not want to even try and guess who invented it or popularized the concept.

This technique seems to be the five, or in some cases unlimited, "How's." I know we all have been involved with this concept. Some of the more common questions are:

"How much?"
"How soon?"
"How much savings?"
"How do I have no risk?"
"How do you insure there will not be problems?"
"How come it takes so long?"
"How can you be sure?"

These are all legitimate questions; however, it appears that some people seem to use the concept like questions on a game show. Their purpose is to ask enough of the "How" questions until the person answering them runs out of answers and fails.

That, according to what I guess to be the rules of the concept, makes the person answering the question the winner and the other person the loser.

The purpose of the "How" concept is not clear. Sometimes it appears to be designed to make the person asking the question the winner.

Other times the concept seems to be a go/not go line of questions. Give me an answer I do not like and the game is over.

This sometimes occurs when exploring equipment options and when the answer to the question "How much" exceeds some threshold number, no one knows where the number comes from but all of sudden the proposal is too high to even discuss further.

Suppliers have known about this level of the game for years and have reacted by making almost all initial quotes as low as possible. No air bags, no radio, no cup holders, and no floor mats-type of base bid.

When this happens, the manager trying to make the purchase is surely going to have to answer to the question "How come the final quote is higher than the initial quote, which is the amount I budgeted?"

It does appear that the "How" concept is to be used by individuals and is designed to perpetuate hierarchical structure and departmental separation.

Let me stipulate that many managers bring the unpleasant attributes of the "How" question upon themselves, because they have not done their homework before presenting an initial proposal.

Had they used the five W's to define the problem they were going to solve and the proposal addressed the defined needs, they would eliminate a lot of nonproductive internal Q & A.

The "How" concept will probably be around for a long time. The best approach to minimizing the unproductive aspects of this concept is to be better prepared. Using the 5 W's concept of team problem solving first will make short work of the "How" questions.

It is a lot more fun solving problems than defending a position that does not have a solid foundation.

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