Why Quick Fixes Become Deadly: Latent Cause Analysis of a Conveyor Crushing Injury

Why Most RCA Training Fails: How LCA is Different.

At Failsafe Network, we’ve been in the trenches for over four decades, helping organizations learn from the things that go wrong. What we’ve seen over all those years is that most traditional RCA training doesn’t fall short because people aren’t trying hard enough—it fails because the approach itself has some pretty fundamental flaws. Let's walk through why that happens and how our Latent Cause Analysis™, or LCA, brings something genuinely different to the table.

Human Performance and Latent Causes: Case Study

Case study of catastrophic hydrotreater explosion.

Why Quick Fixes Become Deadly: Latent Cause Analysis of a Conveyor Crushing Injury

In this episode of Human Performance and Latent Causes, Robert E. Statham, President of Failsafe Network, takes a deep dive into a real crushing injury and partial finger amputation that occurred during a routine jam clearance on a high-speed wrapper conveyor in a food packaging plant.

Latent Cause Analysis Brings Leaders to Life: Real Leadership Lessons

Latent Cause Analysis (LCA) is an evidence-based method for investigating incidents that goes beyond fixing immediate problems to uncover deeper systemic, human, and cultural causes. LCA strengthens leadership at all levels and transforms organizational culture toward continuous improvement, better decisions, and fewer repeated failures.

Root Cause Analysis Is Not Enough – How Latent Cause Analysis Changes Everything

Traditional Root Cause Analysis (RCA) often falls short because it stops at surface-level issues—like equipment failure or individual error—and tends to become a blame-focused, checkbox exercise. As a result, organizations see the same problems repeat. Latent Cause Analysis (LCA) is a more powerful alternative because it examines the underlying systems and human factors that create the conditions for failure.