RIMS releases root cause analysis report co-authored by Canadian energy risk manager

Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) Inc. released a report this week, co-authored by the risk coordinator of Calgary-based Suncor Energy Inc., intended to guide professionals on mitigating or avoiding losses ahead of time.

The report, titled Root Cause Analysis: More Than Just Cleaning Up the Mess, provides some detail on eight root cause analysis techniques.

“Root cause analysis is not a single, sharply defined methodology,” according to the report. “There are many different techniques, processes and philosophies that can be used to reach the desired goal of understanding the underlying cause(s) of risk.”

The report was co-written by Andrew Bent, risk coordinator at Suncor Energy, which has petroleum extraction operations in the Alberta oilsands and off the Newfoundland coast, as well as refineries in Sarnia, Ont. and Montreal. The other co-author was Carol Fox, director of strategic and enterprise risk practice at RIMS.

The authors noted in the report that information gained from root cause analysis “provides us with opportunities to take corrective action that prevents recurrence (following a loss event), or to take proactive action to remove, exploit or mitigate future risks.”

The report provides guidance on post-event analysis, which is intended to uncover errors that let to an incident or near-miss, as well as on predictive analytics, which “is used to uncover systemic weaknesses that may impact future objectives or proposed plans.”

The report is available for purchase from the RIMS store.