Root Cause Analysis Methodologies
Root Cause Analysis Methodologies
The Five Whys, Fishbone Diagrams, Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Root Cause Mapping, and Pareto Analysis are the most prominent methodologies to Root Cause Analysis.
Let's have a look at each of these methods:
1. The Five Whys
The Five Whys approach is the first and most widely used technique in RCA. This straightforward strategy is asking "why" five times until the root cause of a problem is exposed (Serrat, 2017).
For example, if a manufacturing company has a high number of product faults, a 5 'whys' analysis may reveal that there is no budget allocated since management did not make one.
2. Diagrams of the Fishbone
Alternatively, Fishbone Diagrams or Ishikawa Diagrams can uncover leading causes by categorizing or sub-categorizing them (Shinde et al., 2018).
As a result, in circumstances where customer satisfaction at restaurants is low owing to service quality, food quality, atmosphere, location, and so on.
These subbranches are later used to determine the root cause of consumer unhappiness.
Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) is the third step.
Meanwhile, Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) offers an even more sophisticated path that use graphical data points to depict several possible origins of problems (Boryczko et al., 2022).
Assume an oil rig bursts. As a result, the FTA would investigate all potential causes, such as equipment failure, human mistake, procedure issues, environmental conditions, and so on.
4. Root Cause Analysis
When assessing multi-faceted problems, Root Cause Mapping employs a visual tool-based approach, utilizing human factors, equipment-related difficulties, process-related issues, and environmental components (Vanden et al., 2014).
So, when a psychologist investigates the cause of a child's sadness, they may include not only current issues in their lives, but also early development, how their parents behave, their routines, and so on.
5. The Pareto Principle
Finally, Pareto Analysis is a statistical technique that quantifies 20% of specific elements that account for 80% of all errors and problems (Vanden et al., 2014).
It simplifies the decision-making process by prioritizing what needs to be improved first.
Consider a restaurant: if it consistently receives client complaints, Pareto analysis may suggest that only a few menu items are responsible for the majority of them.
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