Purpose– In implementing Six Sigma and/or Lean Six Sigma, a practitioner often faces a dilemma of
how to select the subset of root causes from a superset of all possible potential causes, popularly
known as root cause analysis (RCA). Generally one resorts to the cause and effect diagram for this
purpose. However, the practice adopted for identification of root causes is in many situations quite
arbitrary and lacks a systematic, structured approach based on the rigorous data driven statistical
analysis. This paper aims at developing a methodology for validation of potential causes to root
causes to aid practitioners