RCA Tools and Techniques Flashcards

In a Control Chart, what do points falling outside the control limits indicate?

Answer: A special cause of variation that requires investigation

Points outside control limits signal special-cause variation, indicating an unusual event that warrants RCA investigation.

Which RCA technique involves breaking a problem into smaller components using a top-down tree structure?

Answer: Fault Tree Analysis

Fault Tree Analysis decomposes a top-level undesired event into lower-level causes using a branching tree structure.

What is the main advantage of using the Fishbone Diagram over the 5 Whys technique?

Answer: It organizes multiple categories of causes simultaneously

The Fishbone Diagram groups causes into categories (e.g., People, Process, Equipment) allowing teams to explore many potential causes simultaneously.

In FMEA, what does 'RPN' stand for?

Answer: Risk Priority Number

RPN (Risk Priority Number) is calculated by multiplying Severity, Occurrence, and Detection scores to prioritize failure modes in FMEA.

Which RCA tool is most appropriate when causes fall into natural groupings or themes?

Answer: Affinity Diagram

An Affinity Diagram organizes a large amount of brainstormed ideas or data into natural groupings based on their relationships.

What does 'Detection' measure in the FMEA RPN calculation?

Answer: The ability of current controls to detect the failure before it reaches the customer

In FMEA, Detection scores how well current controls can identify the failure mode before it impacts the customer or next process step.