RCA
Root cause failure analysis, step by step
Root cause failure analysis is a disciplined way to explain a specific failure and to recommend actions that can be checked. It is not a workshop to confirm a cause someone already chose in the hallway. The sequence below is a working order, not a branded method with a trademark.
- Write a problem statement that is observable: what failed, when, under what conditions, and what the effect was. Avoid causes in this sentence.
- Preserve evidence. Parts, photographs, settings, process data, and the work-order history. If the part is already in the scrap bin, say what you no longer know.
- Collect physical, documentary, and human evidence before you lock a mechanism. Talk to the people who were there.
- Build a causal chain from the failed state back to the conditions that allowed it. Separate what is demonstrated from what is still a hypothesis.
- Recommend actions that address those causes, and say how you will verify that the action held — a follow-up inspection, a recurrence check, a process measure.
- Write it down in a form someone else can read in six months.
When the hardware itself has to be examined, bench failure analysis can sit inside the same investigation. For a facilitated RCFA, see root cause failure analysis services. If you are still choosing which failure to investigate, start with bad actors.