Root Cause Analysis (5 Why and Ishikawa)

Root cause is the fundamental, underlying reason for a problem. It identifies the cause of a problem, solve it, and prevent it from occurring again. This saves your organization time, money, and resources. Eventually all manufacturing processes will experience problems with non-conforming parts, equipment failure resulting in lost productivity or rework expenses and possible increased scrap. What must be prevented are the repeat problems. The problems you thought were resolved only to reoccur. Repeat problems can be experienced in everyday life. The goal of a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is to get down to the true cause of the problem, the root cause.