Often, outside my work, I come across people who are curious about problem-solving and root-cause analysis (RCA). Most of the time I have observed that they do have a basic idea about RCA, but do not know exactly how to do it. As a Quality Engineer in my previous role, I have conducted RCAs and trained people on the various tools for this purpose. These days a lot of material is available on internet with very good step-by-step process on using the Quality tools like 8D, Fishbone, Affinity Diagram etc. But before starting such investigation or quality improvement initiative, it is imperative for one to thoroughly undertsand a few things. From my experience, I would summarize following:
1. Do not focus your on the problem or issue as visible to you. No matter whether you are fixing a manufacturing or transactional process, often the problem as seen or observed is a mere symptom of a bigger problem hidden underneath. For example, a fever is a measurable symptom of a disease. The disease can be a simple flu, a stomach infection or something else. Combination of such symptoms help a doctor to identify the root-cause, i.e. the disease itself.
2. Avoid the human tendency to run to fix the most easily identifiable causes while failing to see their impacts on other processes. Such a behavior can result in creating other problems in future. Essentially, get rid of "fix it" or "putting a band-aid" or "jumping to solutions" mentality. Rather, try to develop investigative mind-set.
3. Avoid to rush to do what you yourself really like to do. This is the most common pitfall. Depending on our own area of expertise and sometimes our passion, we try to find root-cause(s) in areas/processes we like ourselves.
4. Make sure to dig deeper into a problem to identify the root-cause or causes. Root cause is most fundamental underlying cause of a problem. Use tools like 5-Why, and Process-maps for this purpose. Be prepared to dig a few levels to find it. See the figure above. I took this screen-shot from a slide I prepared to conduct RCA training for other employees.
In continuation to this post, I will write about Cause & Effect relationships in problem-solving.
1. Do not focus your on the problem or issue as visible to you. No matter whether you are fixing a manufacturing or transactional process, often the problem as seen or observed is a mere symptom of a bigger problem hidden underneath. For example, a fever is a measurable symptom of a disease. The disease can be a simple flu, a stomach infection or something else. Combination of such symptoms help a doctor to identify the root-cause, i.e. the disease itself.
2. Avoid the human tendency to run to fix the most easily identifiable causes while failing to see their impacts on other processes. Such a behavior can result in creating other problems in future. Essentially, get rid of "fix it" or "putting a band-aid" or "jumping to solutions" mentality. Rather, try to develop investigative mind-set.
3. Avoid to rush to do what you yourself really like to do. This is the most common pitfall. Depending on our own area of expertise and sometimes our passion, we try to find root-cause(s) in areas/processes we like ourselves.
4. Make sure to dig deeper into a problem to identify the root-cause or causes. Root cause is most fundamental underlying cause of a problem. Use tools like 5-Why, and Process-maps for this purpose. Be prepared to dig a few levels to find it. See the figure above. I took this screen-shot from a slide I prepared to conduct RCA training for other employees.
In continuation to this post, I will write about Cause & Effect relationships in problem-solving.
Mary McDonald, Efficiency/Integration "Doctor"
Said
Great post! I'm writing something similar on my blog (http://www.improvemybusinessnow.com)- will be interested to see how we each evolve these concepts...
Unknown
Said
Good post Rasto..
Goel