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Internal Audit - Root Cause Codes

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daveh11

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Posted 08 October 2018 - 09:41 AM

I am looking at how we can make better use of the findings from our internal audit program, we gather a lot of data from the audit, going to great lengths to identify the root cause and implement corrective actions, but probably do not use the information effectively to drive improvement, tending to focus on the single findings, overlooking trends.

 

At the moment we record details, but this makes any long / medium term trend analysis as to the root causes of non compliance very difficult to determine as a business.

 

One consideration is the introduction of a standard set of root cause analysis codes that would allow for better analysis across many different management systems.

 

Does anyone use generic root cause codes that could be applied to findings from Food Safety, Quality, Health & safety management system audits to help map trends, that they are willing to share?

 

Many thanks

 

David

 

 



FurFarmandFork

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Posted 08 October 2018 - 01:59 PM

We do a fishbone for any significant event and categorize root cause based on the fishbone:

 

Root cause category:

 

Manning (personnel/training failure)         

 

Material/Product (The material was out of spec and wouldn’t run correctly)

 

Method/Procedure (existing procedure caused the problem)            

  

Environment (Heat/Cold/uncontrollable factors like weather)

 

Machine/Equipment (Equipment did not work/broke or malfunctioned)            


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012117

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Posted 09 October 2018 - 05:33 AM

Above is an excellent grouping, should you find that it is still too many to focused on, you may further extend your pareto by doing 5Whys after the fish bone.

 

Normally, what we done for the audits, complain and quality (food safety) defects is to group them to which each grouping will able to tell story on its own.

 

For example, audit sometimes we group them into clauses and into causes (causes based on above man, material, method, machine, environment).

 

Complaints and quality defects we group them into defects (is the quality attribute you usually set to your products), lines and causes (causes based on above man, material, method, machine, environment).

 

Then we identify correlation that we complaint must also be in relation to quality defect as for example you find high a complain for example weak seal but in your quality monitoring you always have no issue, then it means what you monitor maybe is not really what the customer want.



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PollyKBD

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Posted 10 October 2018 - 08:23 PM

those (fishbone and 5 why's) are great systems for finding individual root causes but not trends in a facility. Maybe I'm missing something here. 

Like you, we correct individual problems (with fishbone and 5 why's) but do not identify trends. We do use a numbering system for customer complaints. Entering the data into an excel file, each type of complaint is assigned a number (i.e. dry=1, underbaked =2, etc...) and the file compiles a graph that we use to see what type of complaint is most common. It would be interesting to see that type of system used for all root causes but I imagine there could be an endless amount of root causes that don't relate to each other. One would hope that when a single root cause is identified and corrective action is taken that there wouldn't be a trend for it to be an issue again, but I can see how certain situations could actually trend even after corrected. 



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012117

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Posted 11 October 2018 - 12:56 AM

Hi, Polly.

 

As for mentioned above,  you can group it in defects, which is same as yours (underbaked, dry etc..), we use the same in Q-pillar, and by using QDA, it will provide you "other" means of prioritization different from the usual Loss tree analysis. Then again,if you grouped it into underbaked, what causes it to underbaked? Each underbaked line in the summary may need different resolution but it may fall into one cause only.

 

If 5 why is properly done and with use of pivot in excel, root causes can also be easily charted :) No need to have numbers, it can still be grouped as "counts".

 

While metrics is important,it is also highly important what you do with the metrics to help the organization to improve Q and FS :)



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daveh11

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Posted 15 October 2018 - 08:22 AM

Many thanks for the replies, from the feedback its obviously not going to be as straight forward as using an "off the shelf"  generic list, although it is still my objective to have a list of some description available, it may just have to be specific to the business for analysis purposes.

I like the thought of linking this is into the Complaints and other non conforming activities also.

 

Many thanks.



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Scampi

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Posted 15 October 2018 - 07:40 PM

or you could just add codes to an excel file like FFF listed above and then enter the generic details into that form for tracking.....................depends how good your company is at RC anylisis

 

at my PP, the QA manager and myself were the only ones who could close out NCR or CARS as we called them, and were the only ones to enter it into a spreadsheet. This was a very large company and the spreadsheet was also used to benchmark plants against one another as well as tracking within an individual plant

 

CAR #               Date                 Issue(s)              Corrective Action                RC                     then a drop down list to chose from

 

It may have included areas of the plant and/or organizational groups, I just cannot remember now


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Posted 16 October 2018 - 07:57 AM

or you could just add codes to an excel file like FFF listed above and then enter the generic details into that form for tracking.....................depends how good your company is at RC anylisis

 

at my PP, the QA manager and myself were the only ones who could close out NCR or CARS as we called them, and were the only ones to enter it into a spreadsheet. This was a very large company and the spreadsheet was also used to benchmark plants against one another as well as tracking within an individual plant

 

CAR #               Date                 Issue(s)              Corrective Action                RC                     then a drop down list to chose from

 

It may have included areas of the plant and/or organizational groups, I just cannot remember now

Dear Scampi

I found something very interesting and I would like to learn more from your system. I do also implement a RCA but I fail to find an easy way of tracking the CA records or its implementation. From the above format (which is real good and will be practicing it here), what the last column does include in its list? is it list of defects or? 

regards

Kibunje 



Scampi

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Posted 16 October 2018 - 12:24 PM

Sorry Kibunje, yes the last column would be your classification drop down........so root causes: mechanical failure, training, sanitation, maintenance etc whatever makes sense for you. Then you can at least track by area or issue and generate charts or tables from that information

 

Usually managers/directors only want to see the high level information, you can always pull the file if someone wants more information that the excel sheet provides


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