REASON is integrated expert system software that provides a repeatable process for uncovering and managing the systemic sources and solutions to your operations problems

RCA: The First Step

REASON is a scaleable process. Faced with an operations problem, you first use the risk assessment feature of REASON to determine which mode you will want to use to find your solutions: REASON Pro for the critical issues, REASON Express for the important operations issues, or REASON FrontLine for the day-to-day issues at the shop floor level. With REASON, you use the mode that takes the most appropriate amount of time and effort to match the significance of your problem.

The REASON process guides you through your investigation and analysis, making sure that you ask the right questions at the right time, challenging your thinking and checking your accuracy at each step to keep you on track. The process is not merely another way to record what you think you know about what caused the problem; instead, it is a discovery process that guides you to question your assumptions and to validate your answers. With REASON, you never have to wonder what to do next: REASON takes you through the process step-by-step.

The REASON process builds and displays in real time a tree model of your developing information. When you make an edit, the change instantly ripples thorough the model, resorting data and reordering the model for you. There is a parking lot to store ideas and details as you find the information for use later in your investigation. There is an idea generator to help your thinking when you get stumped. REASON is designed to work however you want. Users can just drag and drop facts where they belong, or they can use one of three other ways to enter facts into the system - whatever is easiest for the user.

REASON helps you keep all the facts and supporting evidence together in one place. So whatever your evidence is . . . whether it is in the form of audio files, text, pictures, video, spreadsheets, or notes, you can attach them to particular facts within the case, or to the case as a whole.

In REASON®, when you have finished gathering the data about the problem, your work is done. All reports are automatically generated with REASON®. REASON wants you to spend your time doing a professional job in getting the facts, not drawing charts and writing reports. The software now steps in to produce your decision support documentation. With a click of the mouse:

• REASON writes your case narrative that explains step-by-step how and why the problem occurred

• REASON prints a full color graphic tree model that shows how the different causal factors interacted and combined to generate the problem

• REASON produces a comparative decision support analysis of all root causes identified

• identifies all systemic root causes
• identifies the appropriate corrective steps to remove or control root causes
• compares root cause decision options for best prevention benefits
• compares decision options for most cost-effectiveness plans

Managers receive a decision support report that explains what happened, how it happened, what can be done about it, and which options provide the best control. It enables them to assess the need for corrective actions, determine cost-effective options, and validate options before allocating resources.

Corrective Action Tracking: Rubber meets the road

Now, with the press of a key, the REASON data that contain all of the knowledge you gained from the investigation and analysis flows directly into your REASON corrective action tracking system where responsibilities can be assigned, schedules set, and follow up provided. This integrated system enables you to manage your corrective action activities. Email notices, reminders and schedules are generated and communicated by the system. Full status and reporting capabilities enable you to keep a close watch and tight hand of your management of corrective action plans.

Lesson Learned: Maximizing Prevention

With the REASON integrated Lesson Learned system, the value and benefits from your root cause analysis efforts are communicated organization-wide. Your personnel can create and submit to the system a personal data profile of issues of concern relating to their responsibilities and processes. REASON watches as case information flows in to the system. It is watching for data that match an item in one of those personal data profiles. When it finds a match, it instantly emails the individual with a brief summary of the problem and access to full information. Thus, vital operations information gets into the hands of the individuals who need the data to head off similar problems in their operations. The System also serves as a powerful resource for information access. The unique REASON Lessons Learned search engine looks for factors that combined at one point in time to produce a step toward a problem in the past. Instead of long lists of hits from a traditional word search, REASON finds only directly relevant information to help deal with operations problems in real time.