What is Root Cause Analysis (RCA)?

Root Cause Analysis (RCA)

Root cause analysis is a structured method for finding the underlying cause of a failure or problem, rather than treating its symptoms. Techniques include the 5 Whys, fishbone diagrams and fault-tree analysis. It is core to reliability and quality improvement.

RCA prevents recurrence by digging past the immediate symptom to the true origin — a design flaw, procedure gap or systemic issue. In maintenance it turns repeated failures into permanent fixes; in quality it eliminates defect sources. Good condition and process data make RCA faster and more conclusive.

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Where this applies

Rolling out reliability-centred maintenance · Running a defect elimination programme · Running a leak detection and repair (LDAR) programme · Running a bearing reliability programme · Rolling out structured root-cause analysis · Rolling out statistical process control (SPC) · Running a bad-actor review meeting · Rolling out a failure mode and effects analysis programme