The Benefits of Relying on Accurate and Logical “5W1H” Information in Organizations
By Dr Goh Seh Kai
24 Jun 2021
After working in electronic industries for many years, I wish to share my views on the benefits of relying on accurate and rational “5W1H” information in organizations.
Generally, we ought to have accurate and sound “5W1H” information — why, what, where, when, who and how — before we can make wise decisions or take appropriate actions. We might risk causing errors when pursuing our endeavours without thoroughly understanding the five vital pieces of information of our plans.
To avoid blunders in our decision-making, we ask ourselves whether we have the correct and rational “5W1H” information. By always ensuring we have precise and logical “5W1H” information, we can minimize making mistakes during work.
Why — Richards Covey (1932–2012) was an American educator, author, businessman, and keynote speaker who once quoted: “Before you wonder ‘Am I doing things right?’ wonder ‘Am I doing the right things?’”
“Why” is the most critical question to ask before proceeding with our plans — why we should pursue our mission, objectives and goals or perform the tasks, etc.
It is essential to analyze if it is worth pursuing our plans or just a waste of time and resources. For example, it is futile to increase the production volume of obsolete products. It is again naive to add additional product features or provide other services that customers do not desire. Likewise, performing tasks that will not add value or incur more costs than profits is unwise.
It is like what a German-born American mathematician and electrical engineer and professor at Union College, Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865–1923), had said: “No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions”.
As a general rule, we shall stop proceeding with our plans or cease to do the tasks if we believe they do not benefit us in the long run.
What — If the “why” answer is rational, we shall ask ourselves in detail what tasks we shall perform, what products we shall make, or what services we shall deliver. For instance, workers shall have precise information before commencing work.
In many circumstances, they might rely on erroneous data to make products or provide services that customers do not want, which results in customer complaints. The ramifications might be orders cancellation, customers defection, compensation, etc.
Understanding the precise and sound “What” information will help prevent employees from making mistakes and reduce the associated costs.
Managers shall ensure their subordinates always understand and constantly follow the work requirements to do the right things. This premise is in line with what an Austrian management consultant, educator, and author Peter Ferdinand Drucker (1909–2005) had claimed: “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all”.
How — Knowing just what to accomplish is insufficient as it is equally vital to understand how to achieve them.
As Peter Ferdinand Drucker once said: “Efficiency is doing better what is already being done.” Managers have to strategize on implementing the appropriate strategies to attain their goals more efficiently and effectively.
On many occasions, managers might adopt unfeasible strategies or inappropriately implement them and result in huge losses. Similarly, they need to train workers to do their work according to standard operating procedures (SOP).
Frequently, workers might not strictly follow the SOP — for example, performing extra steps or missing some steps that will affect product quality and reliability.
The Hungarian-American businessman, engineer and CEO of Intel Corporation, Andrew Stephen (1936–2016), had mentioned before: “There are only two ways a manager can impact an employee’s output: motivation and training. If you are not training, then you are neglecting half the job.”
Ensuring employees work appropriately to meet customer specifications through constantly training and retraining is paramount to organizational performance.
Where — Without a proper organizational structure, enterprises will find it challenging to achieve their mission.
There should be required functions for realizing corporate objectives and goals. For example, enterprises’ decision-makers should determine the best locations for production and marketing to minimize risks and costs.
Likewise, they need to optimize their processes by choosing where each component of the products will be made, where workers shall perform their work or provide the services.
For instance, delivery men need to know where they shall deliver products to avoid customer complaints. Salespersons and marketers have to know where they should hold events to enhance sales.
Finally, production managers should understand the bottlenecks to improve productivity — They should ensure each process is synchronous by properly balancing its production capacity. By identifying where the jams are and eliminate them, managers can then uplift organizational performance.
When — It refers to when we should achieve our missions or objectives, make the products, deliver the services, or perform our tasks.
On many occasions, suppliers might provide materials to their customers at the wrong timing. As a result, customers do not have sufficient material to use when they need them urgently, or too much material is available when they do not require them.
Likewise, enterprises could not increase their revenue due to promoting their products during inappropriate seasons. In a production environment, since every job has a standard cycle time, slowing down in one process will delay the subsequent processes.
As an American educator, author, businessman, and keynote speaker, Stephen Richards Covey (1932–2012), had said previously: “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities”.
Any delay in project commencement may prolong its completion time and cause it to miss the delivery deadline. To improve productivity, engineers should also reduce each process’s cycle time by simplifying work activities. Likewise, managers should train workers to meet the standard cycle time of each task.
Who — It means who shall perform the tasks, make the products or deliver the services and which customers they need to serve?
For example, suppliers should provide their products or services to the right customers. Purchasers should liaise with suitable suppliers to supply them with the correct quantity and quality of material on time. Coordinators should communicate with the right staff to get things done.
The Polish-born French American mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot (1924–2010) had said before: “There is a saying that every nice piece of work needs the right person in the right place at the right time”.
Managers should delegate roles and responsibilities to the most capable subordinates. Placing the right employee in each task will help minimize jeopardizing efficiency and effectiveness.
Likewise, understanding which requires what types of assistance and renders help to them is also equally important. By uplifting each employee’s skills and knowledge, managers will improve organizational performance.
Each of the “5W1H” information is essential to enhance work performance. Business owners shall ensure the required data is truthful, rational and available for their employees to make sensible decisions to minimize mistakes.
The following are some examples of how accurate and reasonable “5W1H” information for decision making will benefit organizational performance:
· Cost Reduction: Enterprises can reduce costs by eliminating those work activities that add no value to them and their customers.
As workers perform work according to the SOP, no extra work activities and associated costs will incur.
Since products will be made according to customers’ demands and specifications, organizations can order appropriate quality and quantity of materials to minimize material wastage and storage costs.
Managers can make wise budget-allocation decisions on staffing, machines, etc., to reduce costs by appropriately balancing each process’s capacity.
Likewise, they can reduce overtime costs by minimizing extra work due to delays caused by unbalanced production capacity.
Finally, top-level managers can reduce costs by choosing the most suitable locations for their production and marketing activities.
· Productivity and Quality Improvement: Since workers strictly follow SOP, they will perform tasks that warrant productivity and quality performance.
Workers can help reduce defective parts by operating appropriate machines and using correct procedures. For example, they can refer to the proper bill of material (BOM) diagram and avoid neglecting essential processes or adding unnecessary processes.
Managers will know where they should expedite manufacturing activities to minimize productivity loss caused by insufficient material supply.
Managers will accomplish work more efficiently and effectively by deploying the right employees and assigning them appropriate roles and responsibilities.
They can motivate excellent subordinates through compensation and other rewards based on workers’ productivity and quality performance.
They can again form teams with proper members to enhance efficiency and improve productivity by reducing the cycle time of each task.
· Customer Satisfaction: Enterprises can satisfy customers by including appropriate product features or delivering extra services that they prefer.
Organizations can provide products with the correct quantity and quality that enhance customers’ satisfaction and loyalty.
Workers can provide goods or deliver services to the right customers at the appropriate locations and reasonable time to satisfy customers’ requests.
In conclusion, providing and relying on accurate and logical “5W1H” information in the workplace for decision-making and actions will benefit organizational performance.
Therefore, it shall be the responsibility of all workers, especially managerial staff, to provide correct and reasonable information to others in the workplace.
Likewise, all employees shall ensure accurate and logical “5W1H” information is available before pursuing their plans and work.
Thank you for reading, and your feedback is welcome and appreciated!
