INQUIRY INTO THE USE OF QUALITY TOOLS FOR ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS

Abstract

There are many possible quality tools available for RCA and this research seeks to identify which quality tools are used by quality professionals specifically when performing an RCA. An anonymous survey was emailed to an organization’s quality leaders at locations around the world. The survey asked the respondents to list the quality tools that they use when performing an RCA as well as the quality tools that they think everybody should know for RCA. The results were then statistically analyzed. The Ishikawa diagram is both the most commonly used quality tool and the most recommended quality tool for RCA. Five whys and is/is-not were also commonly used quality tools. This research identifies which quality tools are actually used by quality professionals in industry when performing an RCA. This information can be useful for organizations when selecting a limited tool set for RCA.

Keywords

• root cause analysis
• rca
• problem solving
• failure analysis
• quality tools