We often hear our organizations referring to their workforce as their greatest ‘asset’. But are they really? Let’s first define ‘asset’ from a financial perspective:
WE LOVE OUR POST-ITS! When I’m asked who our primary competitors are, I quickly and simply reply ‘Post-Its’
The majority of times that a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is ‘required’ is often due to some type of threshold of pain being met. Someone is hurt, we’ve had an environmental excursion, we lost a lot of money in throughput or equipment damage, we violated some regulation, etc. Essentially, when the ‘suits’ show up, something bad has happened and we…
Traditionally RCA is only utilized after an event has occurred, so how can one call it proactive? This perception is explored through trying to understand the current paradigms that exist about RCA, what it is and when it is used. Do we really have to wait for an undesirable outcome to occur in order to use RCA?
I recently presented a webinar for SMRP and Empowering Pumps, on the title above. There were several questions, post-presentation, that I felt were worthy of expanding on in the form of a blog. Question #2 How do you manage a situation where people just decide not to use simple tools like RCFA, just comfortable doing things same way? Even when you keep…
I recently presented a webinar for SMRP and Empowering Pumps, on the title above. There were several questions, post-presentation, that I felt were worthy of expanding on in the form of a Q&A style blog…
Trick question, it’s neither! When we hear people use the term ‘error’ it is normally associated with being the cause of some type of bad outcome. We hear it all the time with airline accidents where they conclude ‘pilot error’. ‘Error’ is neither the cause nor the undesirable outcome! Let’s see why.
We might be doing a Shallow Cause Analysis (SCA) if … 1. We blame and discipline the violator and that concludes the investigation. There is no attempt to try and understand the intent of the decision.
Note: Everyone has their own way to use cause-and-effect logic trees and we use the PROACT RCA Methodology that we teach in our root cause analysis training courses. Sign up for our free RCA 101 course. What is a Logic Tree? A logic tree, in a general sense, is a graphical representation or structure used to systematically organize and display…
There has been an ongoing debate for decades as to whether the use of pre-existing logic for conducting Root Cause Analyses (i.e. RCA templates and/or libraries) – helps or hinders the analysis results. Does the use of such pre-existing logic expand the thinking of the team members or does it lead the team to pre-determined conclusions, and away from other…
This article contrasts the application of preventive and predictive technologies in industry to those in healthcare. For years, risk managers have been discussing the rationing of care. This article presents the perspective of an engineering professional from the manufacturing industry who now consults with healthcare risk managers. The human being is often referred to as an “asset” in our society.…
Has your organization adopted Six Sigma? Lean manufacturing? What about Lean Six Sigma? If you already have any of these business process improvements in place, where will you go next? In this article we will focus on transforming your organization beyond Lean Six Sigma to the next level of performance.