Root Cause Analysis

Hi,
We have lots of tools available for RCA. If you are interested please contact me in [email protected]

Trisha,Fishbones and related charts are good at creating dialog around causal possibilities and informing folks “where” the known or alleged causes are located(man, machine, etc). However these often do not show priorities relative to other problems you could or should be solving. Since one of the biggest questions is always “What should we attack next?” I find a ranking system is very useful.I have found FMEAs do the best job of characterizing and ranking priorities. They often zero in on the root causes efficiently too. Adding FMEA RPN scores or priority rankings to the fishbone/charts would give you the best of both worlds.
Good luck.

Hi Trisha,
There are many tools available, and it really depends on the problem, which will be most effective. Fishbone is always a good place to start, especially if conducted using effective brainstorming techniques and open dialogue with the correct people to draw out possible root causes. However, it cannot find root cause alone – the tools suggested in other replies are good, esp Repeated Whys and FMEA. Is/Is Not is another effective tool where you are searching for differences between the ‘Is’ (where the problem does exist) and the ‘Is Not’ (where the problem could logically be found, but is not). This can help to rule out or prioritise possible root causes. Another good tool is Y2X matrix (looking at relationships between factors and outputs). I am also a strong believer in simple graphical analysis of the initial data to understand better what is going on and help drill down to possible root causes. Good luck!
Al