Solving a Customer Problem – 5 Why

Previously standardization was discussed. So was the value stream. Now we discuss a customer problem. That is a problem where the standard allowed a process in the value stream to pass a defect on to the customer.

That said to resolve a customer problem requires inspection of the standard processes. Locating the offending process and correcting the issue that allowed the process to pass a defect on to the customer.

There are three different phases of resolving the customer problem.

• A containment phase with a stop gap or temporary solution.
• A corrective action phase where the root cause is determined with the solution to resolve the customer problem.
• A permanent action phase where the system issue that allowed the problem to escape and make its way to the customer is resolved.

Where management always goes wrong is in the development of a permanent action. For reasons of expediency they ignore the permanent solution. This is actually the most important part of the process. As this solution is the one that makes sure the problem never reaches the customer again.

In the Japanese process of problem solving one approach is to ask why 5 times, 5 Why Technique. This is a fair technique but can lead to the wrong result if the person utilizing the technique has built in biases or starts off in the wrong direction. The solution using the 5 Why Technique or any other method must always use actual data. No input to any method should be made based upon an assumption.  Although, an assumption as to the cause of the customer problem may need to be made to start the process of data collection, only data is pertinent to the problem solving process.

Also one set of 5 Whys does not resolve the entire problem. There needs to be at least 3 sets of 5 Whys. One set to determine the Root Cause, one to determine the Corrective Action and one to find the permanent solution.