Focused (continuous) improvement is an essential requirement for sustaining and gaining a competitive advantage for organizations. A successful, continuous improvement program is one wherein operational defects are eliminated at the root cause level and are prevented from reoccurring. It is necessary that employees at all levels of an organization are involved in problem-solving activities, and select and incorporate the changes that will eliminate the defects at the root level to prevent from reoccurrance. Organizations can increase productivity, reduce downtime, and increase profit. This is possible through the necessary cultural changes and involvement of the workforce eliminating equipment failures. A comprehensive root cause analysis tool is necessary to provide organizations with an effective, systematic and consistent process for individuals and teams. The 5-Why root cause analysis (RCA) technique is a practical and proven tool for elimination of root causes. This method can be used to solve the one-off problems and improve the existing conditions. This paper reports the benefits of using a systematic approach to problem-solving demonstrated by a case study in a manufacturing company. It is noted here that the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) of the equipment has improved from 34% to 65%.

In recent years, companies have to participate in an international market, which offers larger opportunities for increasing the customer base but along with increased competition. The company must deliver a product or service on time and ensure that customer requirements are met and satisfied. This needs a higher attention to be given to the reliability of the production lines to achieve the highest product quality at a minimum cost. In a manufacturing scenario, the desirable productivity, cost, inventory and quality all depend on the efficient functioning of the company’s production facilities3. The management of the company’s resources is of increasing importance in modern factories and the measurement of their utilization can bring important information about plant, process and equipment performance.

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