RCA RCA Tools and Techniques 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What does the '5 Whys' technique involve in Root Cause Analysis?
- Asking 'why' repeatedly until the root cause is identified (Correct answer)
- Listing five possible causes without further investigation
- Surveying five team members for their opinions
- Conducting five separate investigations
Correct answer: Asking 'why' repeatedly until the root cause is identified
The 5 Whys technique iteratively asks 'why' a problem occurred, typically five times, to drill down to the underlying root cause.
Question 2: Which RCA tool uses a diagram shaped like a fish skeleton to organize causes?
- Pareto Chart
- Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagram (Correct answer)
- Fault Tree Analysis
- Scatter Plot
Correct answer: Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagram
The Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram visually arranges potential causes into categories branching off a central spine, resembling a fish skeleton.
Question 3: What is a Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) primarily used for in RCA?
- Tracking corrective action deadlines
- Mapping logical relationships between failures and their causes (Correct answer)
- Documenting employee interviews
- Creating process flow diagrams
Correct answer: Mapping logical relationships between failures and their causes
FTA uses a top-down, deductive logic tree to map the relationships between a top-level failure event and its contributing causes.
Question 4: In RCA, what does a Pareto Chart help analysts identify?
- The sequence of events leading to failure
- The most frequently occurring causes using the 80/20 rule (Correct answer)
- The relationship between two variables
- The time required to fix each defect
Correct answer: The most frequently occurring causes using the 80/20 rule
A Pareto Chart ranks causes by frequency or impact, highlighting the vital few causes (roughly 20%) responsible for most problems (roughly 80%).
Question 5: Which tool in RCA is best suited for identifying correlations between two variables?
- Scatter Diagram (Correct answer)
- Control Chart
- Fishbone Diagram
- Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
Correct answer: Scatter Diagram
A Scatter Diagram plots two variables on x and y axes to visually reveal whether a correlation or relationship exists between them.
Question 6: What is the primary purpose of Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) in RCA?
- To document past failures after they occur
- To proactively identify potential failure modes and their effects before they happen (Correct answer)
- To assign blame for process failures
- To verify that corrective actions were completed
Correct answer: To proactively identify potential failure modes and their effects before they happen
FMEA is a proactive technique used to identify and prioritize potential failure modes in a process or system before they occur.
RCA RCA Tools and Techniques 1
What does the '5 Whys' technique involve in Root Cause Analysis?