The Five Whys – Tree Diagram

• simple method to get the root cause of a problem
• e.g. in brainstorming sessions with a few people
• the tool facilitates digging down beneath the most proximate cause of the problem
• facilitates objective analysis, because it’s in people’s nature to look for someone to assign blame, while in reality 80% of problems are caused by other factors, such as systems, procedures, etc.

5 Why How to

1. write the problem and brainstorm the potential reason for the occurrence of this problem
2. dig deeper by asking why and why again and developing your tree further to the right, continue until you feel you have reached the root cause of the problem
3. verify the brainstormed root causes with data analysis
4. focus your improvements efforts only on the issues that have a notable impact on the final result (use Pareto Analysis)

Don’t stop at the surface, look for the root of the problem.

The Tree Diagram is made with XMind .

Related Articles
 Fishbone Ishikawa Diagram (english)
 Mind Mapping und Brainstorming mit Xmind 2008
 Funktioniert das Pareto Prinzip wirklich?