Root Cause Analysis

Root Cause Analysis, often called RCA, is a structured investigation method used to find the real underlying reasons why an incident, near miss, unsafe condition, equipment failure, or process failure happened.

The aim is not to blame people. The aim is to identify what failed in the system so that the same or similar incident does not happen again.

OSHA and the EPA describe a root cause as a fundamental, underlying, system-related reason why an incident occurred, and they encourage employers to conduct RCA after incidents and near misses to prevent recurrence