Root Cause Analysis Tip: You Can Use Root Cause Analysis for More than Safety
Hydrocarbon Processing reported that an independent US refiner has agreed to pay a $1.1 million dollar civil penalty for compliance problems with recordkeeping, reporting, sampling and testing at 4 US refiners. The EPA said it was the largest penalty ever for violations like these (related to testing the quality of conventional gasoline).
The question in my mind was … “Why didn’t they apply advanced root cause analysis to the early problems to avoid repeat violations at multiple refineries?”
Also … “Wouldn’t it have been better to learn proactively (applying root cause analysis techniques before violations occurred to catch and correct problems)?”
Root cause analysis isn’t just for safety. It can be used for many issues, including:
- quality
- environmental
- production
- maintenance
- hospital errors
- cost overruns
Find out how to use root cause analysis to improve performance at our 5-Day TapRooT® Advanced Root Cause Analysis Team Leader Training.
