ROOT CAUSE

ANALYSIS (RCA)
What is
RCA?
Root Cause Analysis is a structured step-by-step technique that drills on
any problem to extract its real cause. It is a widely employed technique in
corporate houses to find the exact cause of any loophole in their process.

• It ascertain and analyze the causes of problems and chart out

solutions to prevent problems from further occurrence.
• It is a process to help stakeholders to understand the causes of a
problem well enough to achieve permanent solution of that problem.
 THE
PROCESS
5 WHY
One of the most employed problem – solving technique in
RCA to find the main cause of any problem. The technique
focused on the cause – effect relationship in case of a problem
or a process failure.
1. WHY did the car stop? Because it ran out of gas Car stopped at side of
in a back street on the road.
way home.
2. WHY did gas run out? Because I didn’t put any Fuel gauge showed empty. Contact work and get
gas into the car on my someone to pick you up.
way to work this morning.
3. WHY didn’t you buy Because I didn’t have any Wallet was empty of Keep a credit card in the
gas this morning? money on me to buy gas. money wallet.
4. WHY didn’t you have Because last night I lost in Poker game is held every Stop going to the game
any money? a poker game I played Tuesday night.
with friends at my buddy’s
house.
5. WHY did you lose Because I am not good at Has lost money in many Go to poker school and
your money in last night’s bluffing when I don’t have other poker games. become better at bluffing.
poker game? a good poker hand and
the other players jack-up
the bets.
6. WHY
Benefits of RCA
RCA helps in process improvements for
organizations, chart out lasting
improvements and most importantly,
create a roadmap to follow for
thorough understandings of
relationships, causes and effect and
solutions.
By practicing RCA, you eliminate
taking actions on redundant
symptoms, and help you to work
on actual root cause of problem
thus bringing lasting solutions to
an organization.
You establish solid step-by-step
procedure with process mapping
for your process that improves
your overall organizational
efficiency.
Limitation of RCA
RCA presupposes a single source of the
problem. The model assume linearity and
the existence of cause and effect
relationship for problem solving. However,
in the real corporate world – things are not
as simple and straightforward. Business
processes are complex systems involving
many known and unknown components. In
such scenarios, other business problem
solving tools need to be considered.
THANK YOU!