Root Cause Analysis Masterclass: Principle and Tools

Root Cause Analysis (RCA), or Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA) as it is sometimes called, is a step-by-step methodology that leads to the discovery of the prime cause (or the root cause) of the failure. If the root cause of a failure is not addressed in a timely fashion, the failure will repeat itself, usually causing unnecessary loss of production and increasing the cost of maintenance. RCA is a structured way to arrive at the root cause, thus facilitating the elimination of the cause and not just symptoms associated with it.

Repeat problems can be experienced in everyday life. If you compare a manufacturing process to a garden, the process problems would be the weeds in the garden. If you pull up a dandelion and don’t get the entire root it will just keep popping back up. It is much the same with manufacturing problems – if you don’t get to the root cause of the problem, it is eventually (if not frequently) going to re-occur. The goal of a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is to get down to the true cause of the problem, the root cause. This training trains you to look into the roots rather than looking into symptoms.

Several studies by many organizations have repeatedly proven that 90% of the time unwanted situations caused by failures are related to process problems; only about 10% are related to personnel problems. Yet, most organizations spend far more time looking for culprits, rather than focusing on finding root causes. Because of this misdirected effort, we often miss the opportunity to learn and benefit from understanding the root cause of the unwanted failures and eliminating those causes.

This is why it has become so important to get trained professionally before just jumping into doing the Root Cause Analysis. The course discusses RCA Steps and the 3 most popular RCA techniques namely 5 Why, Fish Bone Diagram, and Fault Tree Analysis. Each of these techniques is explained beautifully with the help of visuals and case studies. Merits and Demerits of each technique are also discussed.

The course has been made intentionally short and crisp so that you can finish it in a flow and you become a master of the subject without wasting much of your time.