root cause failure analysis

Reading Time: 9 minutes

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?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

First, a question: What is the difference between a child hitting a pitch and the ball breaking a neighbor’s window and the child throwing the ball at the window and breaking it?  One was a mistake and the other was a conscience act. In maintenance the first act, a mistake is a learning experience and requires little or no action

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Recently, most of our concerns stem around getting stuff done faster but wanting the same quality result. For instance, when loading a web page, we expect it to be loaded in one second and use the next five seconds to browse the content and find what we’re looking for. Let’s take a step back and think about loading a webpage

Reading Time: 8 minutes

In recent years, “Defect Elimination” has become a hot topic in the reliability world. But what exactly does defect elimination mean? How does it differ from other maintenance practices? Is it more than just a new way to describe planned and predictive maintenance? This article will seek to answer these questions in a very practical manner.

Reading Time: 6 minutes

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

Reading Time: 4 minutes

When issues arise within a company, there are a number of ways to problem solve. Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is an effective method to identify and solve problems in business by determining the underlying inefficiencies or imperfections and taking the necessary steps to address them to prevent the problem from arising again. Root Cause Analysis (RCA) can be an effective

Reading Time: 4 minutes

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

Reading Time: 2 minutes

In order to maximize the impact and objectives of Reliability Center Inc. worldwide, we are now publicly offering our Affiliate Program to new applicants! Our PROACT methodology provides a balanced step-by-step method to teach and train your clients how to maximize the ROI of their RCAs. Paired with our courses, consulting, and various software offerings – the potential for impact

Reading Time: 5 minutes

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

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Our newest software offering, EasyRCA, continues to grow with both an increasing user base as well as with strategic partnerships. One example is a partnership agreement announced this week with Uptake. Through this non-exclusive partnership, EasyRCA has once again validated itself as a powerful solution for helping Reliability Teams increase their ROI while completing better, faster RCAs. “Joining RCI’s root

Reading Time: 11 minutes

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

Reading Time: 10 minutes

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