Root Cause Analysis – Definition, Benefits and Process

All Quality and Safety Management Standards emphasize the importance of determining the root cause of any problem to address it and find a long-term solution to prevent its recurrence more effectively.

Often, an issue has a surface-level cause, and in a rush to meet deadlines and other commitments, the root cause is overlooked, and only a reactive solution is implemented. This will cause the problem to worsen and recur, sometimes more severely. Enterprises can get to the “root of the problem” and approach it systematically with the goal of finding a long-term solution by conducting a well-designed root cause analysis (RCA) process.

Although RCA is a reactive process, meaning it is carried out after an event has occurred, once a root cause analysis has been completed, it takes on the characteristics of a proactive mechanism because it can predict problems before they occur.

The investigation process is a common practice that all quality and safety professionals are or should be familiar with. Because most incidents can be traced back to a variety of contributing factors as well as human error, a comprehensive RCA process that considers multiple layers of causality is required.

In this video whitepaper, we will talk about definition, benefits, and process of Root Cause Analysis. We will also talk about the various steps associated with the RCA problem solving process.