SAE ARP9136

The objective of any organization, as part of continual improvement, is to reduce the number of issues (i.e., undesirable conditions, defects, failures) and to minimize their impact on quality, delivery performance, and cost. This includes having processes in place to detect and eradicate significant and recurrent issues, which implies having well identified problems, a common understanding of their impact and associated root causes, and having defined and implemented adequate actions so that these problems, including similar issues will not happen again. The objective of root cause analysis and problem solving is to not only reduce the number of issues (i.e., undesirable conditions, defects, failures), but to minimize their impact on quality, delivery performance, costs, and ultimately on the customer. Often big issues originate with small problems that were discovered too late or were discovered, but were never resolved due to a lack of understanding the actual issue(s), incorrect analysis of the root cause, and/or ineffective actions being taken. This guidance document was created to provide a methodology for performing root cause analysis to resolve a significant or recurrent issue [e.g., quality, On-time Delivery (OTD), process, documentation), as guidance within the aviation, space, and defense industry and/or when contractually invoked at any level of the supply chain.