Root Cause Analysis

 Root Cause Analysis is the method by which you look for reasons as to why you have the problem in the first place.

Root cause Analysis runs through many methods from the simplest “Five Whys” to the “Ishikawa Fishbone” to the “Root Cause Analysis” method above.

The Five Whys is a technique where you are “why” five times. The rationale being that as you keep asking “why something happens” you gradually get to the point where you’ve found the root cause of the problem. Of course, you might get there in less than five or it might take more - please don’t stop just because you done the five prescribed!

The 5 Whys is included in Promax as part of the 5W’s + H method which has been covered in a separate blog. The difficulty with this method is that, in most practical examples, the cause and effects are much more complex than a simple linear flow. There may be lots of possible causes and these are awkward to capture without creating multiple 5 Why’s with links between them.

Another extremely common technique for root cause analysis is the Fishbone Diagram – named because the original style looked rather like a fishbone. Essential it is a branched diagram with headings for each branch under which you place the possible causes. Common headings are to use 6 M’s which stand for Management, Man, Machine, Measurement, Material, Method. I think that this method has many flaws and creates more problems than it solves because rather than asking as you do in the 5 Whys, “why something is happening”, teams just place potential faults under each heading – there isn’t a logical rationale. This means you end up with a very long list of “Issues” which may or may not be actual causes of the problem. You then need to sift through the myriad of issues to find the most pertinent ones, which is time-consuming and not at all systematic. We haven’t included a Fishbone Diagram in Promax for that reason. By all means categorise your causes after identifying them to make managing their resolution easier, but not before.

Probably the best technique for more complex problems is to use a diagramming technique. This gives the ability to create multiple routes for causes and is therefore more applicable to real-world problems.

The diagramming technique is widely used in accident scenarios where trained investigators analyse everything they can. To do this properly is not a trivial exercise and a proper analysis will take weeks if not months. They are highly trained individuals and will go to the nth degree on everything.

It is unlikely that you will have the luxury of taking many weeks to carry out a root cause analysis but it is obviously worth spending some quality time on it. After all the result of the exercise will point you in the direction of how to solve your problem!

Promax has a “root-cause” diagramming tool where you can list your causes and draw links between them. We have introduced two types of lines: a solid line indicates you have “Proof” that it is causing the problem and a dotted line indicates that it is an “Opinion” that it is the cause of the problem.

Obviously it’s up to you to decide upon the burden of proof but I would hazard a guess that just sitting in a room drawing up the diagram without any reference to some evidence will not provide for a very good analysis. This is particularly the case when dealing with managerial change issues where ideology and prejudice skew the analysis considerably. So it’s worth developing the diagram using dotted lines (opinion) and then spend some time trying to get some evidence for those opinions (where the lines can be turned to solid). If you can’t find any evidence they obviously stay dotted. If you have a diagram full of dotted lines then you’re unlikely to have a good basis for trying to solve the problem. You’ll just end up randomly trying some resolutions with no realistic idea whether they will work.

The process is as follows:

Step 1: Identify the problem
Step 2: Identify the main causes of the problem
Step 3: Identify causes of the causes
Step 4: Draw the Root Cause Analysis diagram
Step 5: Determine how the causes occur.
Step 6: Identify ideas that can resolve the problems