Explanatory hypothesis generation during a root cause analysis: a multiple case study

Quality failures can be costly for organisations in terms of actual costs and harm to the organisation's reputation. Every root cause analysis should have an empirical aspect, which can be achieved by directly investigating the failed part and this paper illustrates the value in both experimenting with failed parts and directly investigating failed parts to identify causes, so that effective solutions can be implemented. A multiple case study approach is used in this paper. In one situation, the root cause was only found after multiple cycles of hypothesising and experimenting. In the other situation, a long sought after cause was finally found by investigating a failed part. The two investigations went in different directions, with one requiring multiple cycles of experimentation and the other requiring observation of failed parts. The insights from these investigations can be useful for organisation investigating failures.