Root cause analysis: definition, types and benefits
Using patches to fix issues is only sustainable for a short period of time. Understanding the initial cause of the problem is a much more efficient approach. The root cause analysis should be regularly used in the business environment. The section below explains what it is in detail, how it can benefit your organisation and what types of causes exist.
What is a root cause analysis?
The root cause analysis, also referred to as RCA, is a technique that aims to help businesses identify the source of a challenge that they are facing. It answers the ‘Why?’ by digging deep to understand the origin of the problem. RCA has a specific methodology that allows to find the cause of the issue. The idea is to be able to understand what is happening, why it is happening and how can it be stopped from happening again. The root cause analysis is a process that traces the issue back to its roots. It may be time consuming but it solves underlying issues and allows businesses to move forwards and be sustainable in the long run.
Three basic types of causes
Businesses typically have one or more of three types of issues. Let’s have a look at these three possibilities:
1. Physical causes
Physical causes refer to material failures. Depending on the nature of the business, physical causes can have a drastic toll on the company, even bringing operations to a stop.
2. Human causes
Human causes occur when staff have done something wrong or have not fulfilled their duty. This can often also result in physical causes.
3. Organisational causes
Organisational causes refer to processes, systems, policies and even the governance of a business. For example, a business that has a long chain of approval for decision making can be slow and therefore lose market shares. Or, if the business does not have a policy for expenses, they may see their expenses increase unreasonably.
When conducting a root cause analysis, the three elements presented above are investigated. The project lead on the analysis will investigate and identify the cause or causes for the issue they are studying. The RCA can and should be used for any type of challenge.
Benefits of the root cause analysis
The objective of the RCA is to pinpoint the cause of a problem. However, this is not sufficient in itself. A thorough root cause analysis should also dig and aim to find out how the issue can be fixed. It should aim to prevent future challenges. Below are some key benefits of the root cause analysis:
- Helps thoroughly define the problem
- Identifies the true cause or causes of the issue
- Creates an efficient workaround or fix for the issue
- Deploys a long-lasting problem-solving approach
- Prevents other challenges from occurring through lessons learned
- Improves processes and brings efficiencies
- Identifies improvement opportunities
There are many benefits to a root cause analysis. However, there are also some disadvantages to the approach, with for example the heavy reliance on data or the challenges of gathering evidence.
Techniques and steps to conduct a root cause analysis
In the previous section, we touched on the benefits of the root cause analysis. Although it might seem time consuming, the results will provide a long-term fix for the issue and increase business efficiency. Let’s take a look at the different techniques for conducting a root cause analysis to get a more concrete view of what needs to be done.
The different techniques for conducting a root cause analysis
There are several techniques for conducting a root cause analysis. Choose your strategy based on the issue itself as well as your style. Here is a snapshot of some of the types of root cause analyses out there.
The 5 Whys technique
This is a common technique for root cause analysis. The principle is simple: the issue is questioned and for every answer to the ‘Why?’ question, another ‘Why?’ follows. Five ‘whys’ should be sufficient to trace back to the root of the issue. This approach might sound simplistic but it is highly effective. It can be conducted as part of a brainstorm. Tracing back the ‘whys’ will lead to where the process failed in the first place and shed light on the underlying reason for the issue.
The event analysis
Another way to identify the cause of an issue is to thoroughly analyse the changes or the events that led to it. When there are several causes to an issue, this method is effective as it looks into the situation holistically. All the potential causes should be listed. They are then associated with a weight or a level of influence. This allows to determine the type of factor: unrelated factor, correlated factor, contributing factor or likely root cause.
Ishikawa’s fishbone diagram
Ishikawa’s fishbone diagram is a great way to visualise the different roots of an issue. It explores the main causes but also goes deeper by identifying the reasons for these causes. Similarly to the ‘5 Whys’ technique, the fishbone diagram digs deep and, for each branch of the cause, it associates other branches that will slowly show how the build-up to the issue occurred. To create the fishbone, use categories and subcategories. For example, a category can be ‘people’. It may break down into subcategories such as ‘leadership’, ‘training’ or ‘staffing’.
Key steps to conducting a root cause analysis
No matter the approach that you’ve chosen for your root cause analysis, there are key steps to undertake to perform the investigation.
- Step 1: Identify what the issue is and describe it in detail.
- Step 2: Work out a timeline from the event or issue backwards to its source.
- Step 3: Identify common factors in the timeline versus root cause of the problem.
- Step 4: Create a graph visualisation of the cause and the issue. By building this process flow, you can bring more certainty on the cause or causes.
- Step 5: Establish how to tackle the cause.
- Step 6: Implement your chosen solution and monitor the effects.
Use the steps above as a root cause analysis template. Together with the different types of root cause analyses presented above, it will help your organisation to tackle the issues at their source.
Businesses should not be shy with the use of RCA. They can use root cause analysis tools to assist them in this process. Doing so will help them find solutions to recurring challenges and will boost their business’ efficiency by creating long-lasting and efficient processes. For more on how to boost your business’ performance, take a look at the following content:
