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84 The PCB Magazine • February 2016 by Steve Williams THE RIGHT APPRoACH ConSUlTInG Root Cause Analysis: CSI for the PCB Industry the right approaCh One of the most frustrating parts of a cus- tomer's life is dealing with a performance issue that hasn't been properly addressed at a suppli- er and continues to resurface. What it usually boils down to is not lack of effort, but lack of root cause analysis (RCA) training. Recognize the Symptoms Most companies have some form of a correc- tive action system in place to handle customer complaints, returned goods, defects, internal scrap, etc. And while any system can always be improved upon, the source of the frustration is not the system, but the methodology. It is somewhat embarrassing to observe the overall quality of the corrective action analy- sis that is published by the PCB industry as a whole. Of course, many companies excel at root cause analysis, but far more pale in comparison. Treating the symptoms is a condition that af- flicts many PCB companies, and a general edu- cation in true root cause analysis methodology is sorely needed. One of the most abused people in the in- dustry is the poor line operator. How often has your company stated to a customer that the root cause for such-and-such a defect was op- erator error? More than you would be willing to admit, I would venture. It is my belief that if a company did a true root cause analysis, it would discover that only about 5% of these causes ac- tually would be attributable to true operator er- ror, and that 95% would be directly attributable to a management or system issue. Without the proper training, tools and system, the poor op- erator doesn't stand a chance. Root Cause Analysis The goal of RCA is to find out what hap- pened, why it happened, and how to prevent it from happening again. Chasing symptoms instead of digging deep to find root cause will 84 The PCB Magazine • February 2016