Where Do Your Problems Lie?
Why do you perform a root cause analysis? Most companies have very specific reasons for setting up investigation teams. For example, in the Oil & Gas industry, most companies perform RCAs for EHS problems (injuries, environmental releases, etc.). In the pharmaceutical realm, companies concentrate on quality issues (recalls, testing failures). These types of investigations are focused on the types of common problems that will most likely cause the most “harm” to their businesses.
But very few companies only have issues in these narrow areas of their business. For example, a refinery might concentrate on EHS problems, but what about equipment failures? While these types of problems might not always lead directly to an EHS investigation requirement, poor equipment reliability can still cause expensive downtime and loss of revenue.
Tackle Everyday Problems Before They Become Major Ones
I had a company recently tell me that they reserve TapRooT® only for fatality investigations. Hmm. While I am glad that they are using TapRooT® for these investigations, just imagine the lost opportunity to fix other problems! I assume there are VERY FEW fatalities, so this will only allow them to use TapRooT® extremely infrequently. Are they fixing environmental releases? What about “minor” injuries? Imagine if they were using a robust RCA system to find the root causes of smaller problems and avoiding those major issues completely!
Here are some ideas on the kinds of problems almost every company should be using TapRooT® for:
- Equipment downtime
- Quality escapes (even in non-manufacturing businesses)
- IT/computer issues
- SIFs
- Near misses of any type
- Projects that go over budget
- Results of audits and observations (proactive use of TapRooT®)
- Why the project was SUCCESSFUL!!
Every company, no matter the industry, has lots of problems to analyze. There is no reason to reserve TapRooT® for only “big” problems. Almost all problems have the potential to morph into major issues. There is no reason to wait until something really bad happens to decide to fix these issues. Think about all the opportunities for improvement that are happening every day at your company.
If your team only uses TapRooT® after something major happens, you’re missing hundreds of opportunities to improve performance, reliability, and safety. Take the next step and sign up for a 2-Day TapRooT® Root Cause Analysis or 5-Day TapRooT® Advanced Root Cause Analysis Team Leader Training and start solving problems before they grow.
