http://www.benlinders.com The presentation will show how Root Cause Analysis (RCA) can be applied in way that it supports reaching the business goals of an organisation. It is based on the results of an investigation done after applying RCA for several years. This has lead to effective RCA methods, applied at specific points in the processes, with significant results. Also the role of RCA in Total Quality Management and Statistical Process Control is explained, and RCA as a pragmatic implementation of the CMMI Causal Analysis & Resolution process area is elaborated.

1. Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003 1
Experiences using Root Cause Analysis for
Product & Process Improvement
ESEPG conference 2002, April 9-12, Amsterdam
Ben Linders
Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands, Rijen (N.B.)
Ben.Linders@eln.ericsson.se, +31 161 24 9885

2. 2Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
Overview
• Need for Root Cause Analysis
• Root Cause Analysis in Quality Systems
• Investigation of business results
• Conclusions, future direction
?

3. 3Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands
• Worldwide Ericsson R&D company
• Wide product range:
– Base stations, UMTS
– Internet Applications
– Intelligent Networks and Services, Announcements
– Bluetooth, Business Cordless
• 950 employees, in the south (Rijen) and the east (Enschede,
Emmen)
Root Cause Analysis is done at:
– Local design centre: Development Projects
– Ericsson Corporate: Crash Commission for Outages

4. 4Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
Need for Root Cause Analysis
• Product Quality
– In Service Performance
– Customer Satisfaction
• Process Performance
– Cost and lead-time reduction
– Efficiency
Combination of Product and Process focus

5. 5Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
Customer Focus: Product Quality
Issues like
– outages and downtime of telephone exchanges
– loss or duplication of Billing Data
are costly and highly undesired!
First criteria for improvement: A problem!

6. 6Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
Bottom Line Focus: Process Performance
Budget overdrawn, insufficient quality, and missed deadlines,
cannot be eliminated, but:
An organisation should at least learn from its mistakes!
(and don’t make the same mistakes again…)

7. 7Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
There is a Need for RCA
Product quality and process performance are both good reasons
to prevent problems from happening again, at the customer and
in projects.
Best way to save money is to prevent problems!
Root Cause Analysis identifies basic/most effective actions

8. 8Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
Root Cause Analysis in Quality Systems
Total Quality Management (TQM)
Capability Maturity Model - Integration (CMM-I)
International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
ISO 9001
Can models help us?

9. 9Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
TQM
Overall philosophy to continually improve processes, activities,
and operations to better meet customers expectations
Focus on achieving Customer Satisfaction
Key is management support, direction & commitment
RCA is performed:
• reactively on problems that have already occurred or
• proactively to anticipate on potential problems in the future
(risk analysis).

10. 10Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
CMM-I
Level 5 Process Area: Causal Analysis and Resolution (CAR)
• Select problems to investigate, based on quantitative criteria
• Analyse problem and determine the most basic causes
• Define corrective actions, and implement in the organisation
• Measure effect of improvements
RCA is done based on quantitative data (outliers), using
available capability of an organisation to improve.

11. 11Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
ITU
Recommendation E.436 Customer Affecting Incidents and Blocking Defects
• RCA is mandatory if failure occurs more than N times
• RCA is encouraged for failures that affect specific customers
and are triggered by chronic customer complaints.
• RCA is also encouraged if process failures occur less than N
times: could mask an underlying problem that could
potentially have had a much larger impact.
Criteria when RCA is to be performed are to be specified in a
company policy

12. 12Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
ISO 9001
Root Cause Analysis is part of corrective action process,
done to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the
processes.
Multiple sources of information are used, including:
• Customer complaints
• Process measurements
• Audits and assessments
RCA is used to define improvement actions based on
actual/potential problems

13. 13Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
Conclusions Quality Systems
• Either pro-active
or reactive
• Best if based on
quantitative data
Root Cause Analysis is a quality management approach, and
as a set of techniques for finding basic causes of problems
and defining actions to prevent them from happening again.

14. 14Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
Investigation of RCA Business Results
By student of Industrial Engineering and Management of the
University of Twente, Enschede
Research approach:
RCA according to literature
Investigate how RCA has contributed to goals
Look for potential future application of RCA
Recommendations for further implementation of RCA

15. 15Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
Actions & Cost/Benefit
12 RCA sessions done in a year within one unit
Resulted:190 Root Causes and 135 Preventive Actions
60% of actions done, average cost/benefit of 1:2
Cost - Benefit
0.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
6.0
Nr Root Causes/Actions per meeting hr
0.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
6.0
Nr Root
Cause
per hr
Nr
Actions
per hr

16. 16Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
Future Potential of RCA
Potential RCA applications
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Custom
erEm
ployeePrevention
Test/Verification
M
aintenance
ProcessIm
pr.Innovation
#applications
Potential for improving
customer satisfaction
Preventing problems iso
solving them, but with
process improvement
RCA as a means to
come to product
innovations

17. 17Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
CMMI applied: Causal Analysis & Resolution
Lessons Learned:
• CAR is a support area:
Guidance on
application needed
• Description of CAR in
CMMI has been usable
• Possible to implement
CAR in a non level 5
organisation
QPMCAR
Defects
Information
Improvement
proposals
M&A
Process
Data
Organization
OID
Outlier

18. 18Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
Recommendations Investigation
RCA processes are sufficiently defined at Ericsson
Insufficient institutionalisation of RCA, a policy is needed
RCA has significant positively contributed to business goals,
there is a good Business Case to continue them

19. 19Ben Linders, Ericsson EuroLab Netherlands 07 February 2003
Where to Go From Here
• Solid frameworks exist for RCA
– CMMI Causal Analysis and Resolution
– TQM, ISO & ITU
• RCA contributes towards business goals
– Cost and lead-time reduction
– Potential for customer satisfaction & innovation
Policy is essential!
Commitment and support
Budget for countermeasure actions
Assure that RCA is applied effectively