5 Whys analysis
Tear drop, Ishikawa or indented list: what each format offers
The three animations work through the same case (flash on an injection moulding line) with the same corrections and reach the same root causes. What changes is how much the format helps or gets in the way as the analysis grows.
Tear drop
The effect at the top and the causes opening out below, joined by arrows. Levels show up as rows.
See the animation →Ishikawa (fishbone)
The effect in the head and the causes spread across bones by category (the 6Ms), which get adjusted as it grows.
See the animation →Indented list
The effect as the title and each why as a bullet; indentation marks the level. A text editor is all you need.
See the animation →| Tear drop | Ishikawa (fishbone) | Indented list | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it's organised | By causal relationship: each note is connected by arrows to the notes it explains | By categories set in advance (6M) and, within each one, by causality | By indentation: each line depends on the previous line with less indentation |
| Getting started | Blank page syndrome: it doesn't suggest where to begin | The categories suggest areas to explore and help a stuck group | Blank page syndrome, as with the tear drop |
| Mistake it encourages | Tunnel vision: the first branches get explored in depth and the drop looks finished even when whole areas are missing | Grouping by topic, filling empty bones out of obligation, culprits under "Manpower" | Short or unbalanced branches that go unnoticed |
| Causes shared by several branches | One note with several arrows, nothing duplicated | The note has to be repeated on each bone | The line has to be repeated, or referenced with a note ("see line 7") |
| Correcting a relationship or changing level | Peel off and re-stick; the drawing rearranges itself | Costly: sometimes it means changing bones and renaming them | Cut, paste and Tab |
| Reaching 5 or 6 levels | It fits: space grows downwards, where more causes appear | Chains stretch out, unbalance the fish and force a redraw | No limit |
| Seeing the whole and spotting short branches | At a glance | Empty bones are visible, depth much less so | Hard: you have to read the indentation |
| Reading the chain bottom-up | Following the arrows | Long: note by note to the bone, then to the head | Easy if each level has a single child; with sibling branches you have to skip lines |
| Face-to-face group work | Wall of sticky notes: everyone writes at once | Same as the tear drop | Usually one person types |
| Remote work | Digital whiteboard, if the group knows how to use it (still a fairly uncommon skill) | Same as the tear drop, with templates available | Any editor or shared document |
| Documenting in plain text | The photo has to be transcribed; today an AI can turn it into Markdown or code for viewers (Mermaid), and from there it is versioned like the list | Same as the tear drop | Already plain text: history and version comparison come built in |
| Materials needed | Wall and sticky notes, or a digital whiteboard | Wall and sticky notes, or a digital whiteboard | A text editor |
| When I would use it | Face to face, or remotely with a group comfortable with digital whiteboards, when seeing and correcting the structure matters | To widen the search at the start, then switch to the tear drop | Remotely with groups not at ease with whiteboards, to document the result or prepare the report |
By default, the links look for the animations in the same folder as this file. To point them to online addresses, add #configurar to the end of this page's address.