The Two Most Powerful Root Cause Analysis Tools and How to Use Them

Overview

People are often frustrated when required to use a cause & effect diagram to find the root causes of problems. The diagram puts too many possible causes on the agenda simultaneously that it creates cognitive overload no wonder people often use a guessing/voting process to identify the most likely cause (which in itself isn’t logical).

One tool people often do know about is a flowchart. However, while the tool is widely used for process improvement it is highly underutilized for root cause analysis, partially because people don't know how it can be beneficial. And few know about the logic tree (it’s usually not even taught in six sigma courses), which is a much better way to look at and search through causal categories.

Both of these tools allow reducing the amount of noise and time required to find problem causes. Since they are based on systems design thinking and data are used for their deconstruction, greater confidence in results will also result.

This webinar will demonstrate the use of flowcharts and logic trees and how to use them in an iterative way to perform a structured where-where and/or why-why analysis that drills down to the level of system where the actual causes live.