NASA has implemented Root Cause Analysis (RoCA) technology from Fair, Isaac and Company to identify, analyze and track the root causes of ground processing anomalies in space shuttle missions.
"Fair, Isaac's RoCA system will help NASA and its contractors at Kennedy Space Center effectively investigate and significantly reduce the frequency and impact of human errors," said Robert Fung, Fair, Isaac technology fellow.
"By tracking human factor issues that could result in injuries to personnel, damage to facilities, additional costs or delay shuttle processing, the system will help investigators search for the root causes of those errors and recommend the appropriate changes to reduce the chance of error in the future," said Fung.
According to Fung one of the major strengths of RoCA is its ability to analyze a database that contains the results of many investigations for indicators of systemic root causes. Systemic root causes are usually more difficult to identify and correct than event-specific root causes, which the system also tracks.
"The contribution of human factors to industrial process errors have been the focus of recent attention at NASA," said Tim Barth, Office of the Deputy Director for Launch and Payload Processing, NASA.
"Once a space shuttle completes a mission, thousands of inspection, maintenance and reconfiguration tasks are performed to prepare the shuttle for its next mission. RoCA will enable investigators to gain insight into common trends and significant contributing factors in shuttle errors to prevent them from recurring," said Barth.
