Three Indicators that Root Cause Analysis is not Important to your Business

How important is root cause analysis to your business? Before you answer that, think about your completed investigations to find out if your efforts are working. Here are three indicators that root cause analysis (RCA) is not important to your business.

1. The RCA stops short. There are many reasons a RCA will stop short of finding the real root causes. Political expediency, lack of valuable training, and failure to base the RCA on facts and evidence are high on the list among them. When the investigation stops after the first root cause is found, the problem will occur again because other paths to the problem were not identified and corrected.  Does your RCA system offer a way to examine a complete set of events and conditions so you never stop short?  Does it offer a way to document all of this efficiently?
2. Weak corrective actions. Are you finding solutions that fix the problem or are you simply treating a symptom of the problem? It’s easy to tell. If the incident happens again after corrective actions were implemented, your corrective actions are only treating symptoms. Your system may not be offering you well-developed definitions or giving you the questions to ask so that you are not forced to rely on your own opinions and knowledge for fixes. Your system of root cause analysis is wasting your time.  A good RCA system clearly guides you to define the problem, measure and analyze it, and develop effective corrective actions.
3. Lessons not learned. Is your organization learning from past incidents? Remembering what has occurred and how it was fixed will help your organization stay proactive. A focused set of root causes and effective corrective actions are important, but don’t forget the lesson.  A solid RCA system will help you identify generic causes. When you correct a generic cause, you’ll prevent problems from occurring across your organization.  Less work for you, more success for your business!

If you’ve noticed that your facility is running into one or more of the problems above, it’s time to consider training to make RCA more important to your business. RCA is mission critical knowledge worth the investment in training. Is the cheap answer working for you? Remember, you get what you pay for.

There is still time to grab a seat in our 2-Day TapRooT® Incident Investigation & Root Cause Analysis courses where you will learn ALL of the essentials to conduct a root cause analysis in just two days.  (CLICK HERE to learn more or register.)

And we have a few seats left in our 5-Day TapRooT® Advanced Root Cause Analysis & Team Leader Training courses where you will learn all of the essentials and advanced techniques PLUS receive a copy of our root cause software that will help you every step of the way.  (CLICK HERE to learn more or register.)