Root Cause Analysis (RCA) in 5 minutes

RCA is a structured way to find out why something went wrong, so you can fix the cause and not just the symptom. Common methods include 5 Whys and the fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram.

ROOTS stands for Recognise the problem, Observe the facts, Obtain the root cause, Tackle the root cause and Sustain the fix. It turns an investigation into five clear steps that end in owned actions.

Either, or both. Choose "Ask AI" and RapidRCA picks the method that suits your problem, or select 5 Whys, Fishbone or Both yourself. Everything can be edited afterwards, and when you change a Why you can re-run the rest of the analysis from it.

Most of the cost of a failure sits in what happens again: repeat downtime, engineers re-investigating the same problem, and corrective actions that never get closed. RapidRCA cuts the time an investigation takes, gives every team the same structured method, and keeps each action owned until it is done. Fewer repeat failures and less wasted effort add up to real savings over time.

RapidRCA helps you structure an investigation quickly. The results depend on the information you provide, so, as with any analysis, we recommend your team reviews and approves each report before acting on it. Every report lists the points to confirm on site.

Start with a photo (JPEG, PNG or WebP) or a PDF, Word, Excel, CSV or text file, such as an incident report, a job card or a data sheet. You can then add up to six evidence photos, with captions, to the report itself. For Repeat Finder, upload an Excel or CSV work-order export.

You can export your actions and RCA list to Excel (CSV) and download each report as PDF or Word, then load them into your CMMS or spreadsheets. For a direct connection to a system such as SAP or IBM Maximo, we can discuss a custom integration. Contact us at info@rapidrca.com.

Repeat Finder reads an Excel or CSV export of your work orders, sorts each one by cause, and shows what keeps repeating on one asset, a group of assets or the whole site. It ranks repeats by how recent and how frequent they are and by the downtime they cause, and you can start an RCA on any of them.

At least an asset or property ID, a start date, and a problem description. It works best with start and end date and time, the work done, and the work order type (such as PM, CM or BD). Columns are matched automatically and you can correct them before analysing.

It looks at how recently and how often the same cause repeats, and how much downtime it caused. A cause with large downtime is flagged even if it has not repeated. Priority is shown as High, Medium or Low, and the time windows depend on the industry you choose.

Up to 10,000 work orders per file. Emails, phone numbers, postcodes and names after a title (such as Mr or Mrs) are masked before analysis. Your work orders are saved privately in your account for up to 12 months so repeats can be tracked over time, and you can delete them at any time. Please avoid uploading personal data you do not need.

We take data protection seriously. Your RCAs and evidence photos are saved privately in your account so you can come back to them, and you can delete them at any time. Work orders you upload to Repeat Finder are kept privately for up to 12 months, with emails, phone numbers, postcodes and names after a title masked, and you can delete them at any time. If you name someone as an action owner, we email them about that action. To produce a report, what you submit is processed by trusted service providers, including an AI provider, and we do not use your content to train AI models. See our Privacy Policy for details, or contact us to ask about, correct or delete your data.

RapidRCA is free for a limited time, and you will need a free account, which takes about a minute. If we introduce paid plans, we will tell you well in advance, and you will only be charged if you choose to subscribe. See our Terms & Conditions for details.