{"id":22347,"date":"2020-12-22T20:21:04","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T00:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=22347"},"modified":"2021-01-04T00:25:18","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T04:25:18","slug":"root-cause-failure-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/root-cause-failure-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Root Cause Failure Analysis: What it Means for Design"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is a root cause failure analysis? How can it help you create better designs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When a design fails, you can use a root cause failure analysis to figure out what happened. These anlayses are important to bettering designs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about how to do a root cause failure analysis and what it means for designs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>When Designs Fail: Doing a Root Cause Failure Analysis<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Root cause failure analysis helps us make sense of other people\u2019s behavior. To understand our <em>own<\/em> behavior, we turn to stories. Humans are born storytellers. When we\u2019re faced with a jumble of information, our natural instinct is to organize it into a story that explains cause and effect. <strong>Stories help us make sense of our world and our place in it.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Finding the Root Cause<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When accidents happen in industrial settings, a root cause failure analysis is usually performed. If the cause is technology-related, there is a full-scale investigation into the root problem, and engineers continue testing until the problem has been designed out. But <strong>if human error is discovered, the investigation usually stops immediately.<\/strong> Someone is held accountable and the system moves on unchanged.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/aviation-safety\/\">Aviation<\/a> history provides an example here too, this time of a 2010 crash involving a US Air Force fighter jet pilot. The particular type of plane the pilot was flying at the time had a history of malfunction that caused oxygen deprivation for the pilot. The official Air Force investigation into the crash concluded that the cause was human error\u2014the pilot had failed to recognize the problem and correct the dive. Years later, the Department of Defense reanalyzed the case and concluded that, while the Air Force report was technically correct, it stopped before asking the crucial question: <em>why<\/em> didn\u2019t the pilot notice or correct the problem? Given the nature of the crash and the history of the plane, it\u2019s likely the pilot was already unconscious due to lack of oxygen. Is that human error? A root cause analysis can tell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>One tool for a more effective root cause analysis is the \u201cFive Whys,&#8221;<\/strong> developed by Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota Industries. As the name suggests, Toyoda\u2019s idea was to ask \u201cwhy?\u2019 five times in order to find the true root of a problem. In reality, the number can vary, but the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/core-message\/\">core idea<\/a> is to push past the initial answer to a problem to find underlying causes. This technique is still in use today at Toyota.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even when a true root cause of an accident is determined, there is always pushback to the idea of changing the system, since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-change-is-hard\/\">change is difficult<\/a> and often costly. There is also a cultural element here: we are so used to the idea of human error that <strong>people deemed responsible for accidents usually agree that they were, even if other people have made the same mistake.<\/strong> This makes it hard to reframe as system error.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is a root cause failure analysis? How can it help you create better designs? When a design fails, you can use a root cause failure analysis to figure out what happened. These anlayses are important to bettering designs. Read more about how to do a root cause failure analysis and what it means for designs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,34,79],"tags":[179],"class_list":["post-22347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-communication","category-entrepreneurship","tag-the-design-of-everyday-things","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Root Cause Failure Analysis: What it Means for Design - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When a design fails, the next step is to look for the reason. In design thinking, this is called a root cause failure analysis. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/root-cause-failure-analysis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Root Cause Failure Analysis: What it Means for Design\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When a design fails, the next step is to look for the reason. In design thinking, this is called a root cause failure analysis. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/root-cause-failure-analysis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-23T00:21:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-04T04:25:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/getting-to-yes-negotiation-skills.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"766\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"510\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/root-cause-failure-analysis\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/root-cause-failure-analysis\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\"},\"headline\":\"Root Cause Failure Analysis: What it Means for Design\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-23T00:21:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-04T04:25:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/root-cause-failure-analysis\/\"},\"wordCount\":500,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/root-cause-failure-analysis\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/getting-to-yes-negotiation-skills.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Design of Everyday Things\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business\",\"Communication\",\"Entrepreneurship\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/root-cause-failure-analysis\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/root-cause-failure-analysis\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/root-cause-failure-analysis\/\",\"name\":\"Root Cause Failure Analysis: What it Means for Design - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/root-cause-failure-analysis\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/root-cause-failure-analysis\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/getting-to-yes-negotiation-skills.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-23T00:21:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-04T04:25:18+00:00\",\"description\":\"When a design fails, the next step is to look for the reason. 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