Comments on: Innovate like a three year old:Why you should always ask why

By: Charles Cohon

Charles Cohon — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:56:35 +0000

From "Toyota Production System" by Taiichi Ohno, page 17

1. Why did the machine stop?

There was an overload and the fuse blew.

2. Why was there an overload?

The bearing was not sufficiently lubricated.

3. Why was it not lubricated sufficiently?

The lubrication pump as not pumping sufficiently.

4. Why was it not pumping sufficiently?

The shaft of the pump was worn and rattling.

5. Why was the shaft worn out?

There was no strainer attached and metal scrap got in.

Taiicho Ohno also said 5W=1H, Five Whys equals one How. Five is of course not a magic number, but by saying to ask why five times Ohno makes the point that asking why once or twice is too shallow an investigation.

By: Michael A. Dalton

Michael A. Dalton — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:52:45 +0000

Thanks for pointing that out Michael. Clearly, if you can get to an actionable root cause in less steps you should do it. They key is whether it's actionable from a new product perspective. If not, digging a little further doesn't cost anything

I'm happy to admit that I'm only re-purposing Toyota's great idea. Seeing companies integrate these concepts into the front end of new product development to become more innovate themselves – that's the important part to me.

Best regards,

Mike

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:21:18 +0000

I agree with your criticism but I do not think that your thinking is innovative. When I learned Five Why, I also learned that 5 is an average – sometimes you get to the root in 3 or 4 and sometimes it takes 6 or 7. Anyone that literally has been stopping at 5, did not learn the technique properly.