The Development of Questions to Determine the Effectiveness of the Incident Investigation Process for Electrical Incidents

Abstract

Electrical incidents occur globally, providing valuable opportunities for practical-knowledge-based learning and improvements. The underlying root causes of an incident are not always apparent, and an incident investigation method or a loss causation model is required to analyze the facts gathered from an incident. It is important that an incident investigation is effectively executed in order to add value. An ineffective investigation may lead to recurrent incidents and the wastage of resources. Investigators performing an incident investigation can be biased and subjective. Incident investigation methods can be also subjective. Adequately resolving root causes is another subjective area. In order to mitigate subjectivity and biases, various models such as the cause and effect diagram, the five whys method, the sequential cause analysis technique, the management oversight and risk tree, effects and causal factor charting, change analysis, barrier analysis, and casual factor analysis are examined. This aims to improve knowledge on the application of a technique and to establish a review method to determine the effectiveness of an incident investigation process. The review method consists of the development of survey-type questions that can be applied to industry, and this serves as the aim of this research paper.