The Dan & Andrew Show #5 – Cause vs Root Cause

Welcome back to the Dan & Andrew show. This week we discuss the importance of finding the root cause of incidents, in order to ensure the corrective actions are designed effectively. Our discussion includes the use of the root cause analysis methodology, the importance of involving subject matter experts in the process (technical, operational or maintenance personnel) and a run through of an example from Andrew’s time working in a gold mine in Africa.

 

Investigations are an important part of ensuring the safety of personnel onsite, delivering production and improving the reliability of your assets. When an investigation only deals with the direct cause of an incident, significant gaps can still remain in operational processes, systems and capabilities, which leave the business open to a repeat of similar incident types. Hence the need to ensure the actual root cause is identified effectively, corrective actions address the root cause, and implementation delivers the identified improvements.

 

As Asset Management professionals, our ability to effectively conduct root cause analysis is one of our core functions in delivering safe, reliable and productive assets to the business.