More RCA Resources

I started this series ten entries and nearly one month ago. I hope you've been able to take away some useful information; in particular, I hope you've gained an understanding of just how much your business can gain from using RCA to help diagnose business problems and prevent them from reoccurring.

I've developed a real passion for RCA, and although I work in an industry that requires its use, nearly any business can benefit from it. In fact, I suspect that anyone who goes through a few RCAs will find that s/he too develops a passion for it.

Let's recap, shall we?

• Root Cause Analysis is the art and science of determining how and why a bad event occurred.
• The goals of Root Cause Analysis include learning and preventative action, and not problem-solving or assigning blame.
• You can remember the characteristics of root cause using the FERCS test, and the PHaTS Domino Theory can help you remember to dig a little deeper as you conduct RCA.
• Conduct RCA by doing the following:
  1. Assemble a team to conduct the analysis, and agree on the problem.
  2. Identify likely categories of potential causes.
  3. Brainstorm on potential causes, and enter them into a diagram.
  4. Use the Five Whys (or Five-by-Five Whys) to squeeze as much information as possible out of every possible cause.
  5. Create a FERCS matrix to measure the quality of each potential cause.
  6. Identify and implement CAPA.
  7. Monitor the effect of the CAPA, and document your work.

Additional RCA Resources

• This article by James J. Rooney and Lee N. Vanden Heuvel is a terrific resource for RCA beginners. In addition to root cause theory and some background, Rooney and Vanden Heuvel offer example charts you can use as part of the process.
• If you're having a hard time selling your boss on RCA, this analysis by Arthur M. Schneiderman could prove helpful.
• Bill Wilson has a wealth of articles about RCA on his site.
• This article found on the University of Alabama Web site provides more information about how an organization's culture can create problems.
• For more information on RCA tools, read this article by Dr. Anthony Mark Doggett.

RCA can help identify and mitigate the habits, assumptions, and management philosophies that lead to problems in your business. A good RCA program is good for business in a number of ways: it can improve profits (by reducing errors); it can improve customer relations (as your customers watch you really fix problems instead of placing bandages on the symptoms); finally, it can increase employee morale (when your employees see that you use RCA to do more than punish them for their mistakes).

Analyze, learn, improve, repeat. Your business will love you for it.

Comments

[Dean Gano]

If you want to add a really valuable reference to your link on More RCA Resources, take a look at www.realitycharting.com. This is the most comprehensive and most used RCA methodology in the world, taugh in ten languages to companies like Shell, GE, Boeing, and Dow Chemical.

[Mark]

Hi Kathleen

Since you seem interested in root cause analysis and CAPA, you might want to check out this blog site:

http://www.taproot.com/blog

You may also be interested in some of the reasons that 5-Whys and Cause-and-Effect have problems. For that see:

http://www.taproot.com/blog/2007/03/whats_wrong_with_causeandeffec.html

Finally, if you are interested in a Summit where people get together to discuss root cause analysis, CAPA and performance improvement, see:

http://www.taproot.com/summit

Hope this gives you some ideas to think about for future articles.

Best Regards,

Mark