Root Cause Analysis Training: How to Find a Problem's Origins
Don’t look now but root cause analysis (RCA) has become a well-regarded technique that helps people answer the question of why problems occur. Organizations ranging from high profile companies to federal agencies (like the U.S. Department of Defense) have turned to RCA for help.
RCA seeks to identify the origin of a problem using a specific set of steps, with associated tools, to find the primary cause of the problem. This is necessary to determine what happened, why it happened and to figure out what to do to reduce the likelihood of something happening again.
RCA assumes that systems and events are interrelated. An action in one area triggers an action in another. By tracing back these actions, you can discover where the problem started and how it grew into the symptom you're now facing.
Most specialists in root cause analysis identify three basic types of causes:
1. Organizational causes – A system, process, or policy that people use to make decisions or do their work is faulty (for example, no one person was responsible for vehicle maintenance, and everyone assumed someone else had filled the brake fluid).
2. Physical causes – Tangible, material items failed in some way (for example, a car's brakes stopped working).
3. Human causes – People did something wrong, or did not do something that was needed. Human causes typically lead to physical causes (for example, no one filled the brake fluid, which led to the brakes failing).
When using the RCA approach it’s important to review all three types of causes. This involves investigating the patterns of negative effects, finding hidden flaws in the system, and discovering specific actions that contributed to the problem. This often means that RCA reveals more than one root cause.
You can generally use RCA in just about any situation. Of course good judgment is involved in determining how far to go in an RCA investigation.
In theory, you could continue to trace the root causes back a thousand years or more, but the effort would serve no useful purpose. Be careful to understand when you've found a significant cause that can, in fact, be changed.
Want to learn more? Tonex offers nearly three dozen courses in Root Cause Analysis Training. Some of our classes include:
Brainstorming Training (2 days)
Root Cause Analysis Training for Healthcare Professionals (3 days)
CAPA Management Training (4 days)
Problem-Solving Training Certificate (2 days)
Root Cause Analysis Training Crash Course (4 days)
For more information, questions, comments, contact us.