RCFA

Aladon Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA)



What is Root Cause Analysis (RCA) ?

Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA) is a structured process that uncovers the physical, human and latent causes of any undesirable event in the workplace. The objective of Root Cause Analysis (RCFA) is to identify the “root cause(s)” so that these latent failures may be eliminated or effects mitigated and future occurrences of similar problems or mishaps may be prevented. This technique and its variations have been applied to Military, Aerospace, Medical, Industrial and various other environments with quantifiable success.
Our Training Commitment
Learn from leaders in the application of reliability methodologies. Utilize a hands-on learning approach through interaction, group exercises and mentoring. Offer attendees the skills and knowledge geared to their appropriate level and role. Ensure participants are empowered with the knowledge to improve equipment performance where it counts: in their own organization.
Recommended Participant
Maintenance Managers Engineering Managers Plant Managers Operations Managers Trades people Operators Engineers

Quickly Diagnose and Resolve Your Asset Risk

Never again risk a loss in productivity and a drop in asset reliability to the unknown. Aladon’s RCFA methodology is a continuous improvement tool for your organizational asset strategy, and when used together with other reliability processes such as RCM and RBI, provides a holistic approach to asset failure management.

Whereas RCM is applied proactively (before the failure occurs) and delivers the best proactive failure management strategy for all types of assets (Operating Contexts), RCFA is applied reactively (after the failure has happened) to allow reliability engineers the ability to maximize equipment availability and improve asset performance.

The combination of RCFA and RCM is especially effective: improving resource planning, forecasting as well as the implementation of effective corrective measures. By joining forces with other risk-based approaches – RCD™, RCM3™ and RBI3™ – RCFA empowers businesses to diagnose and resolve risks and threats quickly and easily.

How Does It Work?

RCFA is the leading methodology for determining what must be done to ensure that any negative deviation in performance for any asset or system WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN (within tolerable levels of risk as defined in the organization’s asset management system).

The Aladon RCFA process follows two distinct approaches, which is based on the overall risk exposure:

For performance gaps leading to low and medium risks, an informal process (“5 Whys”) is sufficient.
For performance gaps or deviations resulting in high risks to the organization (safety, environmental and high economic impact), our formal approach is recommended.

Our decision logic assists companies in selecting the correct approach based on consequence and risk. Once the approach is determined, we then register the RCFA and one of our highly trained RCFA facilitators will lead the analysis.

Informal Approach – The “5 Why” steps:

Identify and define the equipment/process on which the event or failure has happened.
Define the problem (event or failure).
Brainstorm and list the possible causes.
Select the most likely cause (must be able to explain why it was selected).
Apply the “5 Why” principle (on the selected “most likely” cause).

Repeat asking why until the “root cause” is identified.

Suggest possible solution.

Implement and validate the solution.

Formal Approach – RCFA:

Define undesirable event.
Define equipment and boundaries for analysis.
Define problem statement/gap.
Perform cause and effect analysis.
A very detailed cause and effect procedure is followed and consideration is given to contributing conditions, protective devices, barriers, controls, etc.
Identify effective solutions.
Implement effective solutions.
Monitor and continuous improvement.