Repeat FOD Investigation Worksheet
The five investigation prompts and root cause methods used to stop debris from coming back — free form included in the Complete FOD Prevention Program Guide. Get the Free WorksheetQuick answer: A repeat FOD investigation worksheet guides an investigator through item identification, occurrence pattern analysis, contributing factors, containment, root cause hypothesis, corrective action, and verification. It is triggered when the same debris keeps showing up in the same place, not just logged and cleaned up again. It is Form 05 in the Complete FOD Prevention Program Guide toolkit, referenced in Section 25.
When to Trigger a Repeat Investigation
- The same category of item is found in the same zone three or more times within 30 days
- The same specific item type (e.g., “3/8-inch steel washer”) is found twice in the same zone within 30 days
- A single finding scores 8 or higher on the risk matrix, regardless of whether it is a repeat
- A tool or suspected part is found, regardless of whether it is a repeat
- The program owner or leadership determines a pattern warrants investigation even if the numeric threshold hasn’t been met
The Five Investigation Prompts
If the answers are vague, the investigation is incomplete.
1. Where is this item introduced into the area?
2. Who handles it before it becomes FOD?
3. What control should have prevented this item from becoming FOD?
4. Why did that control fail or not exist?
5. How will we know the fix worked?
Five Whys: A Worked Example
Best for simple, linear cause-and-effect chains. Ask “why?” five times, each answer becoming the basis for the next.
- Finding: Safety wire on hangar floor, Bay 2, third time this month.
- Why is safety wire on the floor? It falls during maintenance tasks and is not always recovered.
- Why is it not always recovered? Technicians cut the wire, and the offcut drops — there is no designated place to put offcuts during the task.
- Why is there no designated place? The work stands do not have offcut collection containers. The procedure says “clean as you go” but does not specify where offcuts go.
- Why don’t the work stands have collection containers? Nobody has specified them as a requirement, and the procedure does not reference them.
Solution: Add small magnetic collection containers to every work stand used for tasks involving safety wire. Update the procedure to reference: “Place all wire offcuts in the work stand collection container immediately after cutting” — not “remind technicians to be more careful.”
Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagram
Best for multi-factor problems where several contributing factors interact. Branch six major cause categories off the problem statement — People, Process, Equipment, Materials, Environment, and Measurement — and brainstorm contributing factors for each.
Choosing the right method matters: single occurrences with clear, low-severity causes just need to be logged and fixed. High-severity or repeat findings warrant a formal method — Five Whys for simple linear chains, Fishbone when multiple factors interact.