Tools for Root Cause Analysis in Business
Root Cause Analysis Tools: In business problems tend to happen on a day to day basis; that’s normal. As business managers you shouldn’t allow those daily problems to hugely impact your overall business operations. Solving problems quickly will reduce the risk of those problems becoming potential disasters.
A tool that you could use that would help you solve those problems quickly is root cause analysis. What is root cause analysis? Root cause analysis is a process you use to get deep down the real cause of the problem. When you practice root cause analysis it can allow you to break down the problem to its most fundamental level. So when you solve it, it ensures that it wont happen again.
When you are implementing the basic root cause analysis process in your company. The first thing you have to do is describe and analyze the problem. You then have to investigate it to gather the necessary data associated with the problem. You are then going to evaluate and identify the possible causes of the problem. Lastly that you are going to make the necessary changes to solve and prevent the problem from happening again.
Despite the fact that you can use that method shown above. You have many different types of root analysis tools you can use.
These tools a more advanced and can make your problem solving process more effective, you can see them below.
Top Root Cause Analysis Tools:
Fishbone diagram
The fishbone diagram is one of the most used root cause analysis tools. It’s also pretty useful as well. You can use it to easily brainstorm possible causes of the issue. You can group causes into possible categories which would include, people, methods, environment, machines etc. It all depends on the issue at hand. You can then use it to analyze the different causes and effect of the problem.
Fault tree analysis
This is also another great tool you can use to get to the root of the problem. It mainly uses Boolean logic to get to real cause of the problem. You are firstly going to list the problem at the top of the tree. After that you are going to list all the possible causes down from the top. Every possible cause is going to be listed on the diagram in the tree structure. This helps you to visually view each possible problem. To see if you can break that problem down into a simpler issue until you get to the real cause of the problem.
5 Why’s
This strategy might seem simple but it’s very effective. You are firstly going to list the main problem down and ask why five times. Each time you ask why you are going to get an answer. Then you are going to ask why again for each answer until you find the root cause of the issue.
RPR problem diagnosis
The RPR stands for rapid problem resolution. This mainly deals with tackling an issue of problems that did occur again. It has three phases discover, investigate and fix. For the discovery phase you must get information about the problem and analyze the data. Then you have to investigate the issue, you are going to identify the fundamental causes of the issue. You are going to use the solution to fix the problem and continuously monitoring it to ensure that the real cause of the problem was found. This will ensure that it never happens again.
Practicing the different root cause analysis tools above will help you come to the realization of how useful they are. These tools are more efficient than the traditional root cause method and can help you solve complex problems faster. So that it don’t disrupt your overall businesses processes.