The customer’s description does not need to be correct it should reflect the customer’s words and be clear that it is a quote and not an observation. The customer’s description of the failure.The problem statement should include all of the factual details available at the start of the investigation including: Although critical for starting an RCA, the problem statement is often overlooked, too simple or not well thought out. Once a problem-solving team has been formed, the first step in an RCA is to create a problem statement. This is not necessarily wrong, but often the ideas listed do not clearly contribute to the failure under investigation. Often, failure investigations begin with brainstorming possible causes and listing them in an Ishikawa diagram.

RCA can progress more quickly and effectively by pairing an Ishikawa diagram with the scientific method in the form of the well-known plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle to empirically investigate the failure. Root cause analysis (RCA) is a way of identifying the underlying source of a process or product failure so that the right solution can be identified.

Ishikawa diagram used for