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Root Cause Analysis

Finding the real cause of a problem. Explanation of Root Cause Analysis.

What is Root Cause Analysis? Description

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is a structured step by step technique that focuses on finding the real cause of a problem and dealing with that. Rather than merely dealing with its symptoms. Root Cause Analysis is a procedure for ascertaining and analyzing the causes of problems, to determine how these problems can be solved or be prevented from occurring. It is a process to help stakeholders to understand causes of a problem well enough to achieve permanent resolution of that problem.

 

Usage of Root Cause Analysis. Benefits

Most problematic situations which arise within organizations have multiple approaches to deal with them. These different approaches generally require different levels of resource expenditure to execute them. Because of the perceived immediacy which exists in most of these situations, there is a tendency to opt for the solution which is the most expedient in terms of quickly dealing with the situation.

In doing this, the tendency is generally to treat the symptoms rather than the underlying fundamental problem that is actually responsible for the situation occurring (root cause). Yet, through choosing this expeditious approach to deal with the symptoms, the problematic situation may likely occur again, and must be dealt with over and over again. The costs of these quick solutions can be high over time.

 

The goal of a Root Cause Analysis is to find out:

  • What happened.
  • Why it happened.
  • What can be done to prevent the problem from happening again.

A root cause is one of the most basic, or fundamental causes of the situation (condition) with which we are concerned. Since the situation (condition) is usually affected by many things (physical conditions, human behavior, behavior of systems, or processes), several root causes will usually be found. Compare: Cause and Effect Diagram

 

Steps in Root Cause Analysis. Process

The most common element of RCA method variants includes asking why today's situation (condition) occurred. While the answers are recorded. And then asking why for each answer, again and again. RCA attempts to identify contributing factors and all causes. This allows you to proceed further, by asking why, until the desired goal of finding the "root" causes is reached.

Finding root causes will lead us to the next step: to evaluate the best method to change the root cause, so we can improve our current condition. That is another process, commonly known as: corrective and preventive action. While we are searching for root cause, we must remember to review each found cause and factor for correction as well, since this can also provide for great improvements.

 

While the terminology RCA is generic, in the sense that there exist many different variants of the methodology, it does indicate that some kind of structural methodology will be used on the problem.

 

Limitations of Root Cause Analysis. Disadvantages

  • This method presupposes a single source of the problem. In reality, the situation may be more complex.

 

Root Cause Analysis Forum

Recent User Comments
Mark - USA Root Cause Analysis "If you are considering going beyond 5-Whys, check out the Root Cause Analysis Blog at: taproot.com/wordpress/index.php There's some interesting debate about the 5-Why techniques and a bunch of information (a couple years of postings) about root cause analysis, accident investigation, and performance improvement."    15
Editor - NL Quotes on Root Cause Analysis "Do you know some deep, famous or funny quotes on Root Cause Analysis? Quotations? Proverbs? Please share them as a reaction to this posting and mention the author. To get started, here's my favorite: 'The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing' - Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), US (German-born) physicist; discovered special relativity 1905 & general relativity 1915-1916; Nobel Prize in Physics 1921"    21
Rodney - US Latent, Organizational Causes "Latino and Latino consider in a 1999-paper called 'Root Cause Analysis – Improving Performance for Bottom Line Results' that causes of problems can be divided into three categories: 1. Physical Causes (the tangible causes of failures). 2. Human Causes - two subtypes: 2a. Commission (we did something we shouldn't have done) and 2b. Omission (We didn't do something we should have done). 3. Latent Causes or Organizational Causes. Latino and Latino argue persuasively that the most effective, sustainable solutions are those that address the Latent Causes of problems. Yet we often see “experts” – especially Reliability Engineers – focus almost exclusively on addressing the Physical Causes of problems. This is not surprising – it is due to their specialist knowledge in this area, and the biases that this brings to the problem solving process (source: Alexander Dunn: Getting Root Cause Analysis to Work for You)"    -1
Vincent - Canada RCA process with 8 stages "In an article called 'Investigating Accidents Using Root Cause Analysis' (Strategic Risk, September 1st, 2006), Roger Shaw mentions the following 8-stage Root Cause Analysis Process: 1. Preserve the site and evidence as far as possible. In other cases, identify and collect whatever data is available. 2. Determine the expertise required to conduct the investigation and set up the team, which will: 3. Define clearly the incident to be investigated. 4. Gather information, conduct interviews etc. and produce a narrative. 5. Identify the facts from the narrative, set them out clearly and generate a time line. 6. Identify and agree the causal factors (direct cause, contributory factors and root cause. 7. Produce a report and recommendations. 8. Implement the recommendations."    2
Vincent - Canada Critical Event Analysis "Another term which is sometimes used for Root Cause Analysis is Critical Event Analysis."    10
Best User Comments
Vincent - Canada The Five Why's of RCA "A straightforward individual approach to Root-cause Analysis is known as the "Five Why's." Starting with the basic question, the answer is used for the next "why-question." This process is repeated at least five times, in order to encourage respondents to dig down deeply for answers. A flaw with this concept is that failure does not always occur in a linear patten. Multiple factors can combine laterally to allow the outcomes to occur. Furthermore people using this tool often don’t rely upon a team or evidence to back up their asertions."    4
Vincent - Canada Root Cause Analysis Categories "5 schools of RCA could be distinguished depending on their origin: 1. SAFETY-BASED RCA descends from the fields of accident analysis and occupational safety and health. 2. PRODUCTION-BASED RCA has its origins in the field of quality control for industrial manufacturing. 3. PROCESS-BASED RCA is basically a follow-on to production-based RCA, but with a scope that has been expanded to include business processes. 4. FAILURE-BASED RCA is rooted in the practice of failure analysis as employed in engineering and maintenance. 5. SYSTEMS-BASED RCA has emerged as an amalgamation of the preceding schools, along with ideas taken from fields such as change management, risk management, and systems analysis (source: Wikipedia)"    -5

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  § Jane (UK) Root Cause Termination "Actually, any Root Cause Analysis is just the first step in a process that has as the desired outcome to take away the root cause of the problem or event. That's why sometimes you'll find also 'Root Cause Problem Termination' or 'Root Cause Problem Elimination' being used."

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  § Jane V. (UK) Five Whys "Of course, five is just a rule of thumb. Although this technique is called '5 Whys', you may actually need to ask the question fewer or more times than five before you find the issue related to a problem."

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