Maintenance, Repair & Operations

Was the Root Cause Analysis Wrong?

April 6, 2021

Don’t try to measure its effectiveness by measuring outcomes.

Suppose that after a long stretch of failing electronics, failing motors, and high rates of bad test results from cable testing, a consultant finally convinced management to spring for surge protection. His root cause analysis showed that transients were responsible for nearly all of these failures.

Thus, transient protection was installed three months ago. The failure rate has remained about where it was, however. Was the root cause analysis wrong? Probably not:

Damage from transients tends to accumulate. The seeds of today’s failures were planted yesterday.
Define “transient protection.” Did someone engineer a tiered system that addresses the known surge voltage values arising from within the plant? Or, was the solution to buy a surge protection box or device and call it a day?
Is power monitoring in place to capture transient events? Has anyone done a “before and after” analysis?

When implementing a root solution, also implement a way of measuring the root causes it solves. Don’t try to measure its effectiveness by measuring outcomes.

About the Author

Mark Lamendola

Mark is an expert in maintenance management, having racked up an impressive track record during his time working in the field. He also has extensive knowledge of, and practical expertise with, the National Electrical Code (NEC). Through his consulting business, he provides articles and training materials on electrical topics, specializing in making difficult subjects easy to understand and focusing on the practical aspects of electrical work.

Prior to starting his own business, Mark served as the Technical Editor on EC&M for six years, worked three years in nuclear maintenance, six years as a contract project engineer/project manager, three years as a systems engineer, and three years in plant maintenance management.

Mark earned an AAS degree from Rock Valley College, a BSEET from Columbia Pacific University, and an MBA from Lake Erie College. He’s also completed several related certifications over the years and even was formerly licensed as a Master Electrician. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and past Chairman of the Kansas City Chapters of both the IEEE and the IEEE Computer Society. Mark also served as the program director for, a board member of, and webmaster of, the Midwest Chapter of the 7x24 Exchange. He has also held memberships with the following organizations: NETA, NFPA, International Association of Webmasters, and Institute of Certified Professional Managers.