Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Yazaki Corporation
Toyota Business Unit
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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 don’t understand how
to do Why-Why Analysis”, “I can’t repeat “Why” 5 times”,
or “I can’t identify the root cause because I’ve found many
possible causes”.
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• For people in need, I give you tips to proceed “Why-
Why Analysis” in this document.
I hope this document helps you understand and
utilize “Why-Why Analysis”.
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2. Before beginning Why-Why Analysis
(1) Clarify the content of a problem, and
understand the fact exactly.
Clear up the problem with 5W1H.
When Date, Time
Where Place, Process
Who Person, Responsible person
What Component, Part
Why Reason, Cause
How Method, Means, Frequency,
Condition 4
(2) Understand the structure (mechanism) and
function (role) of the problem.
Check drawings, QC process chart, Inspection specification,
Operation standard etc. to completely understand the parts,
characteristics, functions and structures.
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(4) Check the actual processing/assembly sites of
defective products or relevant parts.
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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.
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4. Case study from Toyota
Production System
Here is a model case of “Why-Why Analysis”
for the phenomenon: “Machine does not work”
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Case study: “Machine does not work”
(1) “Why the machine stopped?”
Because the fuse blew out due to the overload.
(2) “Why the overload was applied?”
Because the lubricant for the bearing was not enough.
(3) “Why the lubricant was not enough?”
Because the lubricant pump did not pump up enough.
(4) “Why the pump did not pump up the lubricant enough?”
Because the axis of pump had looseness resulted from
abrasion.
(5) “Why the axis wore out?”
Because some swarf came in resulted from the fact that
there was no filter.
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Repeating “why” 5 times, Toyota reached to the
countermeasure: “Install a filter”
Phenomenon
You must confirm based
(result) on the principles.
1st cause
2nd cause
Machine
stopped. 3rd cause
Fuse blew
out due to 4th cause
Lubricant
the overload. 5th cause
was not
Pump didn’t
enough.
pump up Axis wore out.
enough. 12
Swarf came in.
• It is very important to stick to Genbutsu (actual
product), Genba (actual site), and Genjitsu (fact)
when you are trying to identify the root cause.
2) 3-time “why”
• The lubricant 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. Also, the measure costs too much.
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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.
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• In this way,
if you pursue “why” 5 times,
you can find out the root cause and can
take permanent measures.
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Now, if I repeat “why” further, followings come out.
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When continuing “Why”, stop analyzing a
possible cause if you could determine, based on
the investigation of actual products and
production site, that a phenomenon is not caused
by the possible cause.
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