Four Steps to Improve Your Root Cause Analysis Program

Many organizations lack a consistent RCA process and do not work to identify and address the root cause and prevent the failure from reoccuring. There are numerous reasons why an RCA is underperforming, including inadequate training, ineffective trigger points, or lack of ownership.

Program standardization is crucial for any successful long-term RCA strategy. Formal processes protect against assumption-based decision making that hinders effective solutions.

Triggers should reflect your facilitation resources – the knowledge of your facilitators, the financial funds and time accessible to deliver the fixes, and the availability of stakeholders to join the RCA investigation.

The RCA team should include maintenance, operations, quality, process engineering, and personnel familiar with the equipment or process under investigation. Holistic teams bring diverse perspectives and knowledge to the RCAs and deter siloed thinking approaches that can overlook important clues.

While teams often conduct RCAs to determine root causes and propose corrective solutions, frequently there is little follow-up to measure if the corrective action(s) results in measurable improvements – or if they have even been implemented at all. It is this final stage of root cause analysis, “closing the loop”, which determines the overall effectiveness of an investigation and prevents the failure from repeating.