Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Yazaki Corporation
Toyota Business Unit
1
1. Introduction
Under the Toyota Production System, Why-Why Analysis
has an ironclad principle to repeat Why 5 times at Toyota,
in order to identify the root cause of a trouble.
This principle shows it is very important to identify the root
cause and complete the recurrence prevention as quickly as
possible when a certain trouble occurs.
These days, Why-Why Analysis brings about some
successful results in identifying the root cause of a quality
problem and implementing recurrence prevention.
I sometimes hear such complaints, I dont understand how
to do Why-Why Analysis, I cant repeat Why 5 times,
or I cant identify the root cause because Ive found many
possible causes.
2
For people in need, I give you tips to proceed WhyWhy Analysis in this document.
I hope this document helps you understand and
utilize Why-Why Analysis.
3. 5-time Why
If you ask Why only once, you cannot take a
permanent measure for recurrence prevention
because one-time Why provides superficial
causes, ending up first aid.
There are numbers of examples that repeating
Why 5 times has reached to the root cause, based
on the fact of actual product and production site in
an attempt to identify the root cause.
Followings are essential for the analysis.
Its not too much to say that you cant find out
the root cause if the processing/assembly
conditions are changed, because the existing
situation at the production site is also changed.
Processing and assembly must be checked right
after processed or assembled.
This is a very effective condition to identify the
root cause based on the fact.
8
10
As this example
shows,
You must confirm based
on the principles.
Phenomenon
(result)
1st cause
Machine
stopped.
2nd cause
Fuse blew
out due to
the
overload.
3rd cause
Lubricant
was not
enough.
4th cause
Pump didnt
pump up
enough.
5th cause
Axis wore out.
12came
Swarf
3) 4-time why
The axis of pump could be replaced. However, the
same problem would reoccur in a few months
because this measure is not taken for the root cause
as well. The cost would be cheaper than that in the
case of 2) above, but it takes long time to determine
the frequency of replacement.
4) 5-time why
Permanent measure can be taken, and the machine
will never stop due to the same reason. Production
problems come to the end when recurrence
prevention for the root cause is completed.
15
In this way,
if you pursue why 5 times,
you can find out the root cause and can
take permanent measures.
16
In this case,
18
Why
Swarf came
in.
Thus
,
Why
Axis wore out.
Thus,
Why
Fuse blew out.
Thus
,
Phenomenon
20
End
21