What Makes a Good RCA with Fred Schenkelberg
This episode is based on the discussion on Root Cause Analysis also known as RCA. It is a technique which is used to solve complex problems when finding the origin of any failure gets difficult. RCA includes a series of steps that lead right to the place from where the problem originated.
Sometimes, finding the root cause is easy and in other times, it just seems like it but causes iterative failures in the future over and over again. That is why, in good organizations, RCA is used to find the nature of incidents that occurred and then solve them using a tested mechanism by which we can avoid such errors in next projects. There are a number of reasons that can lead to such problems which are,
- Most of the times, an error occurs because the operator was not experienced enough or he did something mistakenly wrong which lead to this problem.
- The failure can occur because of the faulty apparatus as well.
- There is also a rare chance that the decision made by the management of the organization was not that solid and the resources being used were not suitable for the on-going process.
Now that we know what can go possibly wrong, you need to evaluate that what are the chances that the same problem can occur again while processing in future? If the probability is high, then you definitely need to find a permanent solution to get rid of it. There are always multiple solutions to a single problem but finding the optimum one is a time taking process.
So, firstly you need to identify the problem, then gather some details like symptoms, nature and proof about the existing problem. Next step is to find all the possible causes of it, prioritize them, and find the root cause. In the end, list down all the possible solutions for fixing it, determine the risk in implementing each of them and then choose the one most likely to stop this problem from appearing again. But this can also depend on the resources an organization has for proceeding with any particular problem-solving process.
Fixing problems immediately without wasting any time on such lengthy problem-solving process seems easy but in the long run when similar problems occur repeatedly, techniques like RCA are always reliable. Some cause and effect diagrams also help in this endeavor. For example, the Fish Bone diagram given by Kaoru Ishikawa is an effective one.
Using such detailed analysis techniques creates a Knowledge Management System of an organization. KMS always saves time when same problems occur again. Even, new people benefit greatly from it in the field as they don’t have to consult their seniors every time a failure occurs. They would just run some queries on the Data Base of the organization, find the detailed document and solve the problem accordingly. Best practices are obviously continuous training and laboratory tests to have expert teams for this purpose of achieving Total Quality Management.
References:
- Root Cause Analysis: Improving Performance for Bottom Line Results
- Root Cause Analysis Made Simple
- Accendo Reliability
- Fred Schenkelberg
- Reliability.FM Network
- FMS Reliability
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