Why does our Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) dictate that equipment is an asset and our employees are liabilities? How come during the Re-Engineering era we did cut a certain % of the working population and not a % of the equipment? What is the value of intellectual capital in your organization?

Try this easy to use calculator to see how much money is spent on Chronic Failures. Learn what is costing you the most then fix the ROOT of the problem rather than treating the symptoms.

When is an RCA Typically Done? What about the Chronic Failures? Learn in this “Video From The Vault” how PROACT RCA works on Chronic Failures for a PROACTive Reliability Environment!

If we have heard it once, we have heard it a million times – “let’s do an RCA on that failure”. The problem here is that phrase will mean something different to everyone who says it. What is an RCA? That is a question even the notable experts cannot agree on. With all of this RCA “chaos”, how do we make any progress? The…

When facilitating a Root Cause Analysis (RCA), the proper questioning process will make or break the effectiveness of the entire analysis. When we hear of the 5-Why’s as a valid RCA approach, is simply asking ‘Why?’ 5x good enough….or IS IT JUST OK?

Does procedural and/or regulatory compliance with RCA guidelines ensure Operational Reliability?  Does it ensure improved Safety? Operational Reliability involves the aggregation of Equipment, Process and Human Reliability methods and techniques. What is the difference between troubleshooting, problem solving and ‘RCA’?  Are the outcomes different when we use The 5-Whys, The Fishbone or a Logic Tree/Causal Factor Type Tree?  Can deficiencies…

We have all heard the term Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and we all likely interpret its meaning in a different fashion.  This is the primary reason we see for the ineffective use of “RCA”, lack of communication or miscommunication amongst the users.  If we are all using various forms of RCA, then when we compare our results we are not…

RCA’s are traditionally viewed as ‘hindsight’ (reactive) analysis… But what about the chronic failures (that happen daily), the near-misses and the unacceptable risks (identified using risk tools like FMEA)? Left unchecked, these types of events often lead to one-time sporadic failures (the triggered ones). How to Create a Proactive RCA Culture From a holistic RCA perspective… “What are the top…

Where does ‘failure’ come from? Why do some things not go as we planned? When bad things happen, at that time, it can be chaotic and appear very complex. Often, in hindsight (when the urgency has faded), we find that good people made bad decisions at that time. Most of the time such failures were not complicated and we find…

Abstract: An undesirable event occurs (fancy term for unexpected failure) a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is triggered. This usually means what occurred is a severe event as triggers are often set pretty high (i.e. – reportable injury/fatality, equipment damage in excess of >$$k, production losses in excess of > $$k, regulatory violation, etc.). Since there is urgency and visibility, how…

Abstract: I used to be on Facebook many years ago in an effort to keep up with old friends. However, I began to realize the forum was often used to create an illusion that someone wanted their community to have about them. I knew many of these people creating such illusions, that is how I know they were ‘illusions’. Their…

Chronic Failures = Hidden Treasures When we look at the widely used and misunderstood tool of Root Cause Analysis (RCA), we should reflect its interpretation in our own environments. Think about it: when is RCA typically requested and applied in our environment? Based on my experience, it is typically requested and applied when…