Don’t put a Band-Aid on a problem; fix the issue permanently. Root cause analysis (RCA) is a systematic approach applied to identify the real causes of a targeted problem or incident. RCA was first initiated to be used in industries and manufacturing plants, but RCA methods are currently being used broadly in multiple areas, including industrial, engineering, non-engineering, medical, healthcare, educational, etc.
A primary focus of RCA is to detect underlying issues that increase the chance of failures, rather than focusing on the surface and eliminating the symptoms. RCA is considered as one of the most widely used approaches for detecting safety hazards.