Root cause analysis

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A management technique designed to systematically identify the cause of problems on an established manufacturing process. From the little I know about it, involves behaving like a five-year-old and asking the same question — “why?” over and over again.

This makes some sense in a production-line context, where there are defined inputs and outputs, and one has already reduced the world to a nomological machine. It works less well when you are a pioneer, fighting through jungle thickets, seeking the Indies via a western route, or rolling in your wagon train into the salted deserts of what is now, but wasn’t then, Utah.

Wikipedia gives the following, somewhat implausible example:

An example of a problem is: The vehicle will not start.

• Why? – The battery is dead.
• Why? – The alternator doesn’t work.
• Why? - The alternator belt has broken.
• Why? – The alternator belt was worn out and not replaced.
• Why? – The vehicle was not maintained according to the recommended service schedule. (the root cause!)

Notice the industry here: to reduce all problems to a fundamental breach of a process: a heuristic or algorithm designed to defend against the intractable messiness of the universe.

See also

• Toyota Production System and the seven wastes