A Few Words About Root Cause Analysis

One of the most frustrating parts of a customer’s life is dealing with a performance issue that hasn’t been properly addressed at a supplier. A company can have all of the most effective Quality Tools at their disposal, but if not used properly, they will see little benefit. Most companies have some form of a corrective action system in place to handle customer complaints, returned goods, defects, internal scrap, etc. And while any system can always be improved upon, the source of the frustration is usually not the system, but the methodology. “Treating the symptoms” is a condition that afflicts many companies, and a general education in true root cause analysis methodology is sorely needed.

One of the most abused people in any company is the poor line operator. How many times has your company stated to a customer that the root cause for such-and-such a defect was “operator error”? More than you would be willing to admit I would venture. It is my belief that if a company did a true root cause analysis, it would discover that only about 5% of these claims would be actually attributable to true operator error, and that 95% would be directly attributable to a management issue. Without the proper training, tools and systems, the poor operator doesn’t stand a chance.

Next week we will look at some practical ways to avoid the symptoms and drive to true root cause.