ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS
Batch Traceability Failure 5 Whys
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CASE ANALYSIS
Scenario
During a food safety audit, a batch of canned soup could not be traced back to its raw materials, triggering a root cause analysis using the Five Whys technique.
Key decisions
- Apply Five Whys to investigate the traceability gap
- Identify barcode scanner malfunction as immediate cause
- Probe for systemic causes (maintenance, asset mgmt, budget)
- Conclude root cause is lack of management commitment to traceability
When to reuse this
This flowchart template can be adapted to any root cause investigation in food processing by replacing the specific cause chain with the incident's unique failure points.
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