Mateus Grippi

Going Beyond the Symptom: A Practical Look at Root Cause Analysis

In operations — and honestly, in any business — we face the same temptation:

Fix what is visible.
Move on.
Hope it doesn’t happen again.

Sometimes it doesn’t.
Often, it does.

That’s where Root Cause Analysis (RCA) comes in.

Root Cause Analysis is a structured way of asking a simple question:

What is really causing this problem?

Not the surface issue.
Not the convenient explanation.
The underlying condition that allows the problem to exist.

The 5 Whys Methodology

One of the simplest and most effective RCA tools is the 5 Whys method.

It is often associated with Toyota and their lean manufacturing philosophy.

The idea is straightforward:

When a problem occurs, you ask “Why?” repeatedly — typically five times — until you uncover the deeper cause.

Five is not a magic number.
Sometimes it takes three.
Sometimes seven.

The goal is depth — not counting.

The Bucket on the Floor

There’s a classic story often used in operational discussions.

A supervisor notices water accumulating on the warehouse floor. To prevent accidents, he places a slippery floor sign and asks the cleaning crew to mop the area.

A few minutes later, the water is back.

The team places a bucket under the drip coming from the ceiling. Problem contained.

For a while, the routine becomes normal:

• The cleaning crew empties the bucket every hour.
• The warehouse staff walks around it.
• Production keeps running.

Life flows.

Weeks later, the supervisor notices something else:
Productivity is down.

During a team meeting, the feedback starts coming in.

A warehouse employee explains that moving around the bucket slows down material flow.

A production operator mentions that the cleaning crew is now overloaded, so operators have to clean parts of their own work cells, affecting output.

The team agrees: productivity started declining after the bucket became part of the workflow.

The supervisor speaks with the cleaning team.
Their conclusion?

They need to hire another person to keep up with the extra workload.

At first glance, it makes sense.

More work → more people.

But before approving the hire, someone pauses and decides to apply what we call the 5 Whys methodology.

Why is productivity down?
Because teams are working around a bucket.

Why is there a bucket?
Because water is dripping from the ceiling.

Why is water dripping?
Because there’s a leak in the roof.

Why hasn’t it been fixed?
Because maintenance was postponed.

Why was maintenance postponed?
Because there is no preventive maintenance system in place.

Now the conversation shifts.

The issue isn’t labor capacity.
It isn’t floor management.
It isn’t productivity.

The origin of the problem is in another department that for some reason is not on top of maintenance schedule.

Then we can open a second round of WHY’s about the maintenance schedule. But  for us here, let’s go back to our bucket.

Hiring another person to empty buckets doesn’t solve the problem.

It institutionalizes the symptom.

This Applies Far Beyond Manufacturing

The “bucket” can look different in other businesses.

In a service company:

• Repeated client complaints may lead to hiring more support staff.
• But the root cause could be unclear onboarding instructions.

In a small business:

• Late deliveries may trigger pressure on drivers.
• But the root cause might be unrealistic scheduling assumptions.

In finance:

• Cash flow stress may lead to short-term borrowing.
• But the root cause could be misaligned payment terms.

When we treat symptoms, we add complexity.
When we address root causes, we add stability.

In future posts, I’ll share situations where applying — or ignoring — this thinking had very real operational and financial consequences.

For now, if something keeps repeating in your business, pause before assigning more buckets.

Ask why.

Then ask it again.