4 Whys?

Yesterday, I showed how I intend to implement the results of my 5-Why Analysis, but you may have noticed...there were only four levels of why.

The point of 5-Why is not to fill up a chart with exactly five layers of causes. I know, it has the word "five" in the title, but that's just a guideline. The point is to get you thinking deeply about the issue. Quality guru Deming pressed that in order to really solve a problem, you had to have "profound knowledge," something that goes deeper than what's immediately apparent. What we want from 5-Why Analysis is to drive below the surface symptoms to the single item that, once fixed, clears up the problem once and for all. As we showed yesterday, resolving the surface symptoms will not clear up my oatmeal problem. However, I believe that we arrived at the root cause in only four levels, so we stopped. Sometimes it may take six or seven levels. The point is that five is not a magic number.

So how about that responsive buying list? Well, I've talked it over with my wife, and she's on board (at least with oatmeal); but we foresee some issues that we can address as we implement the thing. Oatmeal will be our pilot program. I'll keep the updates coming!