What is TapRooT®?

Root Cause Analysis

TapRooT® is an investigation and root cause analysis methodology used by major industries to solve problems and achieve world-class performance.

Developed in the 1980’s for the investigation of process safety incidents in the nuclear industry, TapRooT® set out to develop a problem-solving technique, that would change the philosophy behind investigations from one of blame and fear, to one of cooperative problem solving.

The systematic investigation process and robust TapRooT® tools, help people who have never had extensive human factors training, investigate human errors and equipment performance issues – find the real root causes, and fix them with effective corrective actions.

Few in-house investigators such as plant personnel and engineers have human factors training. The TapRooT® tools such as the RooT Cause Tree® and dictionary have ‘imbedded intelligence’. This allows investigators to see beyond their current knowledge to find root causes they previously did not have the training to identify. Taproot® tools are based on proven and extensive research into why people make mistakes and why equipment fails. The tools give the user advanced in-depth knowledge behind human error and human performance to help them know the right questions to ask and the right places to look.

The TapRooT® system is simple enough to be used by people in the field to investigate everyday problems and yet robust enough for even the most complex major process safety accident investigation.

Use TapRooT® root cause analysis reactively and proactively to improve performance in any of these areas:

Safety
Patient Safety
Process Safety
Quality
Environmental
Equipment Reliability
Operational Excellence

Who uses TapRooT®?

TapRooT® has been used to solve tough problems in a wide variety of global industries that require highly reliable performance, including:

TapRooT® Basic System

Collect, understand, and organize evidence about what happened. The TapRooT® tool, the SnapCharT® diagram, reduces investigator bias and makes the facts make sense without developing hypotheses.
Identify all the Causal Factors (the human errors or equipment failures) that led to the problem – the starting point for root cause analysis.
Use expert guidance to analyse human errors using the Human Performance Troubleshooting Guide and equipment failures using the Equifactor® Troubleshooting Tables.
Analyse the real root causes of problems guided by the Root Cause Tree® Diagram using the Dictionary.
Develop effective fixes for problems using The Corrective Action Helper® Guide and Safeguard Analysis to stop repeat incidents or significantly reduce their consequences.