Okuzeka
Industrial Engineering & Manufacturing vocabulary · Process Improvement

Root cause analysis

Meaning in industrial engineering & manufacturing, with examples

nounCore term

In industrial engineering & manufacturing, root cause analysis means: A structured way of finding the deepest reason for a problem, so that it can be fixed for good instead of only treating the symptoms. Often shortened to RCA.

In Turkish: kök neden analizi

How it is used

Customers often ask for it after a complaint. Teams carry out or do a root cause analysis using tools like 5 Whys, fishbone diagrams and data analysis. Problem-solving reports such as 8D have a separate root cause section.

Example sentences

  1. The customer wants a root cause analysis and a corrective action plan within ten days.

  2. Our root cause analysis showed that the sensor had been moved during cleaning.

Common collocations

  • carry out a root cause analysis
  • root cause analysis report
  • find the root cause
  • RCA tools
  • 5 WhysA simple root cause technique in which you keep asking 'why?' about a problem, about five times, until you reach a cause you can actually fix.
  • fishbone diagramA cause-and-effect diagram shaped like a fish skeleton: the problem is the head, and the bones list possible causes in groups such as people, machine, method, material, measurement and environment.
  • corrective actionAn action taken to remove the cause of a problem or nonconformance so that it does not happen again, not just to fix the affected parts.
  • Pareto chartA bar chart that sorts problems or causes from the most to the least frequent, with a line showing the cumulative percentage, so a team can focus on the few that matter most.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Process Improvement

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: