The Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Process: Steps, Tools, and Examples

The Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Process: Steps, Tools, and Examples

Thomas Magnum, Holmes, you, and them. When it involves cracking the toughest cases, maintenance specialists rank right up there with the famous Magnum P.I.

But what if there was an excellent, simpler approach to addressing those challenging issues? We see it because of the little method of Root Cause Analysis (RCA).

” Root Cause Analysis”: what’s it?

Root Cause Analysis is, by definition, the method of identifying the elemental reason behind an impact we see or feel. Root Cause Analysis is employed in failure analysis to spot the underlying explanation for recurring machine issues or a catastrophic machine failure.

Root Cause Analysis could be a reactive procedure, which implies it’s doled out after the occurrence. However, after a root cause analysis has been administered, it assumes the shape of a proactive mechanism because it can identify issues before they arise.

There is a decent possibility the failure will occur again if you address a symbol of the difficulty but leave the underlying reason unaddressed.

The Root Cause Analysis Procedure and Results

Root cause analysis may be quite challenging to carry out. It requires gathering and analyzing a large amount of information. A root-cause study doesn’t always yield a clear-cut answer. It sometimes can’t tell you whether the problem you’ve detected is the real issue.
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It’s common to merely find a transparent correlation between cause and effect instead of determining the precise cause. From there, you’ll need to make a choice on whether or not to conduct additional research using your experience and professional skills.

As a craft, Root Cause Analysis implies specialized knowledge and practical experience. Consequently, you’re probably the best candidate for this position. Otherwise, any fixes will most likely be a band-aid solution to the problem. The alterations made might, in the worst-case scenario, actually worsen the situation.
Despite these drawbacks, RCA is nevertheless an efficient technique for comprehending and enhancing the core characteristics of systems and processes.

Business applications

Root Cause Analysis has developed over time to function in an exceedingly wide variety of fields, each with its own special requirements and strategy. The medical industry is where RCA is most obviously used. The House on television may be a great illustration of RCA in action.

In the program, the hospital frequently receives an advanced or peculiar medical situation. The physicians are at a loss! That is, until Dr. House, the unorthodox wildcard, intervenes and rescues the day with his illogical beliefs and techniques.
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The good doctor investigates an issue using root cause analysis and keeps looking until the actual reason for the patient’s symptoms is found. Everyone gets a contented ending!

These sectors typically employ a specific root cause analysis because it most accurately fits their circumstances. The various Root Cause Analysis approaches utilized by various sectors and industries are illustrated here.

Different Root Cause Analysis Types

Root Cause Analysis might tackle several shapes, depending on the problem you’re seeking to resolve. They appear to be as follows:

Safety-based Root Cause Analysis has experience in both accident analysis and occupational safety and health. This type of root cause analysis is used to determine the reasons for workplace accidents, such as why a worker dropped a component from a height by mistake or why someone cut themselves. Production-based Root Cause Analysis is utilized within the manufacturing sector to ensure internal control. You may use this to work out the reason for the warped injection-molded plastic parts that are leaving the assembly line.

In business and manufacturing, process-based Root Cause Analysis is employed to spot anomalies during a process or a system. This might be used in accounting to find out why vendors aren’t being paid on time. Failure-based to spot the underlying reason behind any failure, Root Cause Analysis is utilized in engineering and maintenance. The Root Cause Analysis methods mentioned above were combined to form a systems-based Root Cause Analysis. This method may be a strategy that combines two or more Root Cause Analysis techniques. There’s a good range of applications and uses.
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1. Persistent Mistakes

It’s important to get into controversy if it keeps happening. You’ll infer that a flaw won’t be resolved if it keeps occurring if the observable issue isn’t fixed. Persistent errors have an underlying cause. These types of situations require Root Cause Analysis investigations.
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2. Severe Failure

You might consider the cost to the plant or the downtime caused by the particular failure to judge whether a failure is critical. When a significant failure happens, it must be looked into to work out the cause so as to help prevent a repeat of it. Examples of critical failures that need investigation include explosions at an oil rig and plane disasters.

3. The consequences of Failure

Any system has critical components and significant subprocesses. The method will come to a whole stop if one of these machines malfunctions because there might not be a backup or mitigation strategy for that specific unit. Whether to try and do a Root Cause Analysis in this situation will depend upon how crucial the machine is.
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Root Cause Analysis Example

Root Cause Analysis case study—The Issue with the Defective Parts

The creation of plastic in virtually any shape or form is made possible by the widespread usage of injection molding machines worldwide. Within the permitted tolerance, the part that the machine produces should adhere to the specifications.

Let’s imagine that there’s a high incidence of defective products and that we have to determine why.
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First, the matter must be adequately characterized. This includes describing the precise flaw the plastic product possesses. If one of all the four main injection molding flaws is present, we are able to tell by staring at the output of Root Cause Analysis.

Assume that the flaw may be a partial distortion. Write down the difficulty first, together with the proportion of flaws that are present. After it’s finished, gather all the information that’s accessible.

About Enteros

Enteros offers a patented database performance management SaaS platform. It proactively identifies root causes of complex business-impacting database scalability and performance issues across a growing number of RDBMS, NoSQL, and machine learning database platforms.