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FOOD-SAFETY-MANAGEMENT5 MIN READ

Use 5 Whys Without Blaming the Cleaner

Use 5 Whys to move from a sanitation symptom to a controllable process cause.

Pre-op finds under-strength sanitizer on the slicer for the third Monday in a row. 5 Whys traces cause-and-effect from symptom to controllable process condition, while avoiding the blame shortcut. The common trap is ending the analysis at "the cleaner forgot," which creates retraining without changing the system that made forgetting likely. Why 1: start from the measured failure Why was sanitizer under-strength? The dilution station produced weak solution before sanitation started. Start with the measured concentration failure, not a judgment about the person. That keeps the team anchored to evidence they can test. Why 2: find the physical mechanism Why…

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