6 steps beyond the 5 Whys - AMMJ

A good first analysis…
but is it enough?
In some cases the 5 Whys’ linear nature can
cause people to jump to conclusions and fail to
arrive at the true cause or causes of an incident
or accident. While the 5 Whys technique can be
successfully used for very basic investigations, it
does have a few limitations which any investigator
should be aware of before using it.
The limitations of the 5 Whys process include:
• Tendency to stop at symptoms rather than
finding lower level root causes
• Inability to go beyond the investigator’s current
knowledge – you can’t find causes for things
you don’t already know
• Lack of support to help the investigator to ask
the right “why” questions
• Results aren’t repeatable – different people
often come up with different causes for the
same problem
• Branching can occur – indicating that a more
in-depth analysis is needed to get to the root
cause
Given that the 5 Whys process may not be enough,
what follows? What should an investigator do
when a more thorough, structured investigation is
needed?