Root Cause Analysis

Introduction

This course is designed to teach the attendee how to use three of the most popular and useful problem-solving techniques available today and Five Whys, Logic Trees, and Causal Factor Mapping. The class lectures will be reinforced with numerous practice opportunities, so the attendee will feel comfortable going back to the job and attacking chronic plant problems and incidents right away.

Objectives

By the end of this course participants will learn:

• What are the 5 Whys technique for failure analysis
• How to get everyone at the plant engaged in doing 5 Whys
• How to find root causes that can benefit corporate goals regarding OEE, injuries, environmental incidents, etc
• Using Logic Trees to uncover the physical, human and latent causes of failures
• When it is appropriate to use the Logic Tree
• What the primary benefits of the Logic Tree approach
• Why gathering and preserving evidence is critical to root cause analysis
• How to find the best solutions once you have found the causes
• How to ensure solutions are implemented and that they are effective
• The Causal Factor Mapping technique for failure analysis
• When it is appropriate to use Causal Factor Mapping
• What the primary benefits of the Causal Factor Mapping approach are
• How to establish triggers to know when RCA is appropriate
• How to find the chronic failures that are creating the most losses
• How to implement an RCA process at your plant
• How to use an RCA Playbook to determine when each method is appropriate
• What circumstances trigger the use of RCA
• How driving to the root causes of failures can significantly increase OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness), as well as, reduce injuries and environmental incidents

Target Audience

Craft, first-line supervisors, engineers, reliability and maintenance engineers, and managers who may participate in root cause analysis investigations of chronic equipment problems, or serious incidents related to the environment or safety. Upper-level managers who want to understand how rigorously applying Root Cause Analysis techniques can bolster bottom-line results should also attend.

Reliability Engineering Outline

The course covers the following topics:

• Introduction to Root Cause Analysis concepts
• Finding root causes of unreliability and incidents versus fire fighting with chronic problems
• Compare RCA to FMEA and other reliability improvement techniques
• The simple 5 Whys method of failure investigation
• Finding how root causes impact business goals
  • OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness)
  • Injuries
  • Environmental incidents
• Review OEE concepts and how increasing OEE benefits business
  • Examples of RCA techniques improving OEE
  • Calculate OEE and revenue improvements from RCA techniques
• Causal Factor Mapping for incidents and failures
• Using an RCA playbook and spreadsheet to determine when each method is appropriate
• What circumstances trigger the use of RCA
• How to use FMEA and Pareto to determine which problems to work on
• How to implement an RCA process
  • Selling the benefits of RCA to management
  • Possible approaches to RCA implementation and how to overcome resistance
  • Develop an action plan resulting from RCA