Have you ever watched a ThinkReliability team member build a Cause Map™ diagram and wished you were as proficient at using the Cause Mapping® template in Microsoft Excel? This course is designed to not only teach you Excel drawing functions, but to go a step further and make you a master of the shortcuts that drive speed and efficiency. We will be going in-depth into the tricks of the trade to get you on track to becoming a mapping pro.

Edward Deming, widely acknowledged as the leading management thinker in the field of quality once said, “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.” Your work processes dictate your results. When problems occur, they are the result of gaps and breakdowns in your process. So how do you make effective, sustainable work process improvements? In this online short course, you’ll learn about one of the most effective tools for evaluating and improving your work process: the process map.

Root cause analysis (RCA) is an approach for identifying the underlying causes of an incident, so the most effective solutions can be identified and implemented. Beyond solving problems after they’ve happened, RCA strategies can be applied before, during or after an event to prevent failures and mitigate risk.

Every organization wants to avoid injuries. From minor cuts and bruises to even loss of life, every safety investigation, regardless of severity, has specific elements that should be included. The objective of every investigation is to identify specific changes in the work process to prevent similar issues form occurring in the future. To do this, organizations need a defined workflow for conducting complete safety investigations.

The 5-Why Cause Mapping® Root Cause Analysis Online Short Course teaches people to apply cause-and-effect thinking to break down daily problems. This course is for frontline problem solvers, technical leads and management. It’s applicable to safety, environmental, operations, maintenance and administrative functions.

The Investigating Human Error short course focuses specifically on how to drive your investigation past many of the common generic stopping points such as “human error." Instead of providing a thorough explanation for the problem, we stop at just the point where further explanation is needed. As a result, solutions are often generic focusing solely on the person. We miss a valuable opportunity for lessons learned to improve and manage by work process.

Root cause analysis (RCA) is typically used for investigating why a problem did occur, so specific solutions can be implemented to prevent it from occurring again. Failure modes effect analysis (FMEA) is used to understand how a problem could happen in the future in an effort to identify what actions should be taken to prevent it. RCA is reactive, and FMEA is proactive. Connecting the two approaches can improve how your organization analyzes, documents, communicates and prevents problems.

You’ve defined a problem, analyzed it and found solutions using the Cause Mapping® method of root cause analysis. Now, it’s time to present your findings. Where do you begin? In this online short course, we’ll explain how to effectively present your Cause Map™ diagram to your colleagues or managers.

The 5-Why Cause Mapping Root Cause Analysis Online Short Course teaches people to apply cause-and-effect thinking to break down daily problems. This course is for frontline problem solvers, technical leads and management. It’s applicable to safety, environmental, operations, maintenance and administrative functions.

During this two-hour online training course, you will learn to dissect some of the troubled work processes within your company. Many organizations mistakenly believe “procedure not followed” is the end of an investigation. Using the Cause Mapping^® method, we will show you how it’s a gateway that reveals specifically how to prevent a problem from occurring again. The solutions implemented provide a great example that there’s more than one way to solve a problem.

Thousands of hand injuries keep workers from their jobs every year in the U.S.—costing more than $1.6 billion in medical expenses, lost productivity and worker’s compensation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hand injuries can range from minor contusions to amputation and include lacerations, fractions from being “struck by” or “caught in,” thermal and chemical burns, and even needle sticks. If we can better understand why hand injuries occur, then we can better identify ways to reduce the risk of occurrence. Every hand injury, regardless of industry or job task, involves the same cause-and-effect relationships, which allows us to quickly and consistently begin hand injury investigations using the Cause Mapping® method of root cause analysis.

You’ve defined a problem, analyzed it and found solutions using the Cause Mapping® method of root cause analysis. Now, it’s time to present your findings. Where do you begin? In this online short course, we’ll explain how to effectively present your Cause Map™ diagram to your colleagues or managers.