A method for implementing RCA in outsourcing including many home workers

Abstract

To prevent quality accidents and troubles due to human inappropriate behaviors like unintentional error and intentional rule violation, an organization needs to implement RCA (Root Cause Analysis).However, it is not easy to implement RCA for the organization which outsources most of product and service provision to suppliers including many home workers. This paper clarified the difficulties in implementing RCA in such organization and then proposed a method for overcoming them.The proposed method was applied to quality claims in assembly of multi-color ballpoint pen and the applicability and effectiveness of the method was evaluated.As the results, it was found that identification of inappropriate behavior by comparing FMEA-based work analysis with accident/trouble reports as well as tailoring of the list of direct/organizational cause candidates based on the type of inappropriate behavior and the roles which each part of the organization plays in preventive activities enable the analyst to overcome the difficulties.