Root Cause Analysis!

Root cause analysis (RCA) is a method of problem-solving that tries to identify the root causes of faults or problems. RCA is a process/procedure that helps guide people to discover and understand the initiating causes of a problem, intending to determine missing or inadequately applied controls that will prevent a recurrence. Root cause analysis is not a single, sharply defined methodology; there are many different tools, processes, and philosophies for performing RCA.

• Brainstorming
• Fish-Bone Analysis
• Pareto Chart
• Scatter Diagram
• Flow Chart, Run Chart
• Tree Diagram etc.

You’ll usually find three basic types of causes

1. Physical causes – Tangible, material items failed in some way (for example, a car’s brakes stopped working).
2. Human causes – People did something wrong, or did not do something that was needed. Human causes typically lead to physical causes. For example, no one filled the brake fluid, which led to the brakes failing.
3. Organizational causes – A system, process, or policy that people use to make decisions or do their work is faulty. For example, no one person was responsible for vehicle maintenance, and everyone assumed someone else had filled the brake fluid.

May be you are searching among the branches, for what only appears in the root  --  Rumi        

RCA looks at all three types of causes. It involves scrutinizing the patterns of negative effects, finding hidden flaws in the system, and discovering specific actions that contributed to the problem. This often means that RCA reveals more than one root cause. When carrying out root cause analysis methods and processes, keep these hints in mind:

• Many root cause analysis tools can be used by a single person. Nevertheless, the outcome generally is better when a group of people works together to find the problem causes.
• Those ultimately responsible for removing the identified root cause(s) should be prominent members of the analysis team that sets out to uncover them. 

A typical design of a root cause analysis in an organization might follow these steps:

• A small team is formed to conduct the root cause analysis.
• Team members are selected from the business process/area of the organization that experiences the problem. The team might be supplemented by:
• A line manager with decision authority to implement solutions
• An internal customer from the process with problems
• A quality improvement expert
• The analysis works between defining and understanding the problem, brainstorming its possible causes, analyzing causes and effects, and devising a solution to the problem. 
• During this period, the team meets at least weekly, sometimes two or three times a week. The meetings are always kept short, at a maximum of two hours, and since they are meant to be creative in nature, the agenda is quite loose.

• One person in the team is assigned the role of making sure the analysis progresses, or tasks are assigned to various members of the team.
• Once the solution has been designed and the decision to implement has been taken, the implementation process starts.

Core principles

There are a few core principles that guide effective root cause analysis, some of which should already be apparent. Not only will these help the analysis quality, but these will also help the analyst gain trust and buy-in from stakeholders, clients, or patients.

• Focus on correcting and remedying root causes rather than just symptoms.
• Don’t ignore the importance of treating symptoms for short-term relief.
• Realize there can be, and often are, multiple root causes.
• Focus on HOW and WHY something happened, not WHO was responsible.
• Be methodical and find concrete cause-effect evidence to back up root cause claims.
• Provide enough information to inform a corrective course of action.
• Consider how a root cause can be prevented (or replicated) in the future.

As the above principles illustrate: when we analyze deep issues and causes, it’s important to take a comprehensive and holistic approach. In addition to discovering the root cause, we should strive to provide context and information that will result in an action or a decision. Remember: good analysis is actionable analysis.