5WHYS EXERCISE

The Printer Problem

During an exercise to map a process in a head office of a bank you
expressed concern about the time it takes to print a 3-page letter with the
time ranging from a minimum of 1 minute to a maximum of 26 minutes.
This wide range is caused because, the very large office where over 100
staff work, is served by a single, 'industrial-sized, multi-function Xerox
printer/photocopier. Because it is positioned at one end of the office those
who have desks near to the Xerox are able to pick up printed output
quickly while those who sit at the far end of the office have up to a 40m
walk - 80m round trip - to collect their printout. Additionally, with so many
users there are frequent delays with staff arriving at the Xerox to collect
print outs to find the machine is tied up with a long print run or a
colleague is photocopying several copies of a multi-page report, this may
result in more than one visit to the Xerox machine before a document is
finally retrieved. Further delays often occur because documents from
several staff members can become mixed together in the output hopper
which then needs to be sorted. Finally, there are other problems with the
arrangement, for example, if the machine runs out of paper it can take
several minutes to refill the hopper, which is a major source of annoyance
for the member of staff who finds the printer out of paper, and there are
occasions when the printer breaks down and staff have to wait for several
hours for it to come back online.
What you don't know is that printing arrangements used to be so much
simpler. A year ago each team of 6 staff had their own small printer/copier
- similar to a domestic machine that cost only a few hundred dollars. But
this arrangement caused a great deal of hassle for the IT department: the
machines were not particularly robust and, therefore, were prone to
occasional breakdowns and, with some 20 printers in the office,
supporting the machines was an expense IT targeted to reduce. The
installation of the Xerox machine (and the decommissioning of the team
printers) was their solution.
Not knowing this you decide to use the 5WHYS tool to help you
understand the problem so, you call a meeting of some of the staff
working in the office and ask the first, obvious, question; how do you think
the question and answer session would proceed from there?

www.alanmpower.com

2014

5WHYS EXERCISE
5WHYS
Q1:

why does it take so long to print a document?

A1:

___________________________________________________________________________

Q2:

___________________________________________________________________________

A2:

___________________________________________________________________________

Q3:

___________________________________________________________________________

A3:

___________________________________________________________________________

Q4:

___________________________________________________________________________

A4:

___________________________________________________________________________

Q5:

___________________________________________________________________________

A5:

___________________________________________________________________________

Recommendations
1. What recommendations would you make to management to address
this issue?
2. What arguments would you make to support your
recommendations?

www.alanmpower.com

2014