Sometimes, problems can be stubborn and refuse to completely disappear despite trying different things. They just keep coming back in one way or the other. It is at this point that it is important to understand that the reason the problem keeps happening, again and again, is because the underlying issue isn’t resolved. 

That is the problem with employing quick fixes instead of long-term solutions – you only fix the problem on a superficial level (mask the symptoms). Worse still, those resources wasted on the quick fix could have been used in identifying and eliminating the root cause of the problem. To prevent this from happening, Six Sigma has root cause analysis (RCA).

RCA brings several tools that teams can use to get rid of a problem indefinitely. One of the most popular tools is known as the 5 Whys. It involves looking at the problem and asking “Why?” five times until the root cause is identified.

In this post, we are going to outline how organizations can implement this tool.

Implementing the 5 Whys

A big part of successful implementing 5 Whys is understanding the issue and then making changes to eliminate it once and for all. Many teams who have used the tool have been surprised to find that the cause of the problem is something they didn’t expect. This speaks to the true power of the 5 Whys since underlying causes are not always obvious.

Here are the steps to implement it:

Put Together a Team

When assembling the team, make sure it has people who have been directly affected by the problem. If not, make sure they at least noticed it. A team leader should be selected who will be in charge of the meetings and delegating responsibilities to team members.

Define the Problem

Since the problem has already been identified, the team should focus on coming up with a problem statement. It should be clear, concise and agreed upon by everyone in the team.

Ask Why 5 Times

Here, the team leader should start asking “Why?” and team members should contribute. Their contributions should be fact-based and data-backed. Keep in mind that it is not a hard rule to ask why five times. The team leader can ask it until the root cause is identified, even if it is less or more than five times.

Make Changes

With the root cause identified, the team then moves on to suggest, agree on and implement effective changes that will make the problem go away and never happen again.

Monitor Changes

The changes need to be monitored to ensure they have effectively eliminated the problem. If not, improvements need to be made – they can also be replaced. The team shouldn’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board and ask “Why?” again in case they identified the wrong underlying cause.

Conclusion

When facing a problem that refuses to go away, Six Sigma can help. Specifically, it can help organizations identify the root cause of the problem using tools like the 5 Whys. Only by getting rid of the underlying cause can you rest assured the problem has been dealt with and will not be a recurrent issue.

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Why Understanding Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Is Critical to any Organization

It doesn’t matter how big your organization is or what area it operates in, there are some core concepts to project management and general leadership that are critical to understand if you want to ensure things are moving in the right direction. When you encounter ­a problem during the regular course of the organization’s operation, for example, it’s important to know how to get to the true underlying cause of the issue, so you can prevent it from resurfacing in the future.

The basics of root cause analysis

As the name implies, the method seeks to identify the root cause for any issue. Keep in mind that RCA is typically not concerned with developing a proper solution, but rather it will point you in the right direction with regards to what the problem is in the first place.

What’s a root cause, specifically? In technical terms, it’s an aspect of the organization which, when changed, completely resolves the original problem. Knowing how to differentiate the root cause from the various intermediate issues that may arise during its analysis is a skill every leader should possess.

Most often, this involves a process breakdown in the business. We cannot assign the cause to the worker who made the mistake, or the department that hired the employee. We need to determine the lack of on-boarding process for the employee, or the lack of qualification process that needs to be improved.

Dr. Edwards Deming said that 94% of all business problems are management’s fault, since they control the processes. Before we look at individuals as the root cause, we must first review all processes and make sure they are not to blame. In almost all cases, we will find an undefined or lacking process that has many opportunities for improvement!

What if there is no root cause?

When we are investing a problem, it is often assumed that every problem is a result of something going wrong. A step was skipped, a part was put in backwards, a typo was made, a field was left blank, or an item was shipped to the wrong person.

However, not all process failures are due to mistakes or errors. When we first mentioned the concepts of special and common cause variation, we learned that we need to separate these defects from those that are a result of typical variation in the process. If a problem results from common cause, there is no root cause! It is the stack up of variation within the process, that allowed us to exceed customer expectations. Too often, teams are looking for root causes, instead of the largest sources of the variation. This is the heart of Six Sigma thinking. If we identify that it was an error or mistake (special cause), then we can move forward in our root cause analysis.

A systematic, structured approach

The important thing is that you follow the issue step by step until you’ve traced it to its source,  which would be a step you can no longer continue from.  We often use the 5 Why’s approach to make sure we trace it down deep enough. There may even be multiple factors contributing to a problem, all serious enough to be classified as a root cause. If you determine that solving this process issue will eliminate or prevent the problem from happening again, you have found the root cause!

Without analyzing the root cause, you will likely spend a lot of time and resources applying solutions that either work as a temporary fix, or don’t do anything to address the problem at all. Often these temporary fixes end up costing way more money than the root cause solution. It gets even worse when you consider that those solutions often affect the operation of the company in some negative way while you’re experimenting with them. It’s definitely not a good a good idea to go about this blindly and rush your decisions.

It will likely take you a few tries to truly nail it down, as root cause analysis requires some experience, not just with your specific organization’s field of work, but with the method in general. You may also meet some resistance from within the organization, as root cause analysis almost inevitably leads to changes, often permanent ones. Depending on the complexity of the problem, you might even need to get as detailed as the analysis on the Exxon Valdez Oil Tanker spill (see video below)

Conclusion

Root cause analysis is not a new technique, but it’s still popular today due to its simplicity and flexible nature. It can be easily applied to a variety of environments, and it’s one of the most useful tools in the arsenal of a leader looking to implement continuous improvement in their organization. And if you’re able to teach a good number of your employees the same skills as well, the organization is going to benefit even more.

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