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Management Forum

Root Cause Analysis and Critical Thinking Training Course

This programme will explore the key concepts of critical thinking applied to problem solving and decision making for pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical professionals.

★★★★★ "The speaker was excellent - she really knew her subject matter. She was clear and very reassuring"

25 November 2024
+ 13 March 2025, 15 July 2025, 24 November 2025 »

from £399

Need help?  Enrol or reserve

Course overview

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is the process of discovering the root causes of problems to identify solutions. When used with critical thinking, the ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding the logical connection between ideas this provides a highly effective method for identifying the source of faults, failures, decision making, and undesired outcomes for processes. This approach is extremely effective when used by the pharmaceutical and associated healthcare industries to solve problems. In addition, RCA procedures with the application of critical thinking are an increasing focus by regulatory inspectors.

Often organisations waste a great amount of time and money in fixing the symptoms of a problem, rather than the problem itself. Using Critical thinking applied to RCA will enable you to solve problems far quicker, and much more effectively.

This one-day course introduces delegates to different RCA and critical thinking problem-solving tools and techniques which are then applied throughout a series of highly interactive and practical exercises putting these theories into practice to apply a systematic end-to-end process for analysing problems and decision making.

This training course is part of our collection of Leadership & Management Training Courses which focus on leadership, innovation, strategy, communication, finance, problem solving and conflict management, to name a few key areas.

Benefits of attending

  • Apply best practice tools and techniques to identify, and document the root causes of problems
  • Propose and evaluate solutions to prevent problems recurring and manage regulatory inspection findings
  • Communicate your findings and recommendations to colleagues and senior management
  • Gain an overview of the increasing importance of RCA and critical thinking skills for pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical and associated healthcare sectors
  • Understand the critical thinking and application to RCA
  • Be aware of key tools and approaches to apply critical thinking to RCA for pharmaceutical and associated healthcare industries

Who should attend?

Anyone working in the pharmaceutical, biopharma, medical device and veterinary industries who wants to maximise RCA and critical thinking skills, particularly applied to problem solving and decision making including the following:

  • Managers responsible for process and quality improvements
  • Professionals working in R&D and production
  • Quality managers, internal and external auditors, inspectors
  • Line managers and supervisors
  • Anyone involved in managing customer and/or supplier/CMOs, CRO relationships
  • Problem solving team members and leaders
  • Product or process designers
  • Operational and production professionals

Enrol or reserve

This course will cover:

Background and defining RCA and critical thinking

Steps in RCA and applying critical thinking

Preventive and mitigating problems

  • Preventive action
  • Risk analysis
  • Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)

Diagnosing RCA

RCA methodologies

  • Brainstorming
  • Ishikawa Diagrams
  • The five “Whys"
  • Is/is not
  • Process maps

 

Critical thinking

  • Overview of background
  • Define critical thinking, decision making and problem solving and understand the differences
  • Examine types of decisions & problems in the pharma industry
  • Understand the focus of critical thinking in ICH Designing Quality
  • Applying critical thinking to thinking questions to go beyond checklists
  • Tools and approaches for critical thinking to use in the pharmaceutical and associated healthcare industries including
    • RED
    • thinking outside the box
    • ways to improve your critical thinking
    • application to RCA

Enrol or reserve

Laura Brown
Independent Pharmaceutical Consultant

Dr Laura Brown is a QA and training consultant in the pharmaceutical industry. She has also worked as an Associate Facilitator at Cranfield School of Management. She has worked in senior management roles for companies including Wellcome, Hoechst Marion Roussel, Good Clinical Research Practices and Phoenix International where she gained extensive experience of problem solving and decision-making using RCA and critical thinking skills. Since completing her MBA Laura has co-authored several books on management including: Strategic Thinking (Be Your Own Strategy Consultant – Demystifying) Strategic Thinking), Developing the Individual, The Ultimate Book of Business Skills and Project Management for the Pharmaceutical Industry.

More details

NEW higher discounts for multiple bookings - bring your colleagues to make your training budget go further:

  • 30% off the 2nd delegate*
  • 40% off the 3rd delegate*
  • 50% off the 4th delegate*

Please contact us for pricing if you are interested in booking 5 or more delegates

25 November 2024

Live online

09:30-17:00 UK (London) (UTC+00)
10:30-18:00 Paris (UTC+01)
04:30-12:00 New York (UTC-05)
Course code 14025

  • GBP 499
  • EUR 719
  • USD 819

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Not ready to book yet?

for 7 days, no obligation

13 March 2025

Live online

09:30-17:00 UK (London) (UTC+00)
10:30-18:00 Paris (UTC+01)
05:30-13:00 New York (UTC-04)
Course code 14612

  • GBP 399 499
  • EUR 579 719
  • USD 663 819

Until 06 Feb

View basket 

 
Not ready to book yet?

for 7 days, no obligation

15 July 2025

Live online

09:30-17:00 UK (London) (UTC+01)
10:30-18:00 Paris (UTC+02)
04:30-12:00 New York (UTC-04)
Course code 14868

  • GBP 399 499
  • EUR 579 719
  • USD 663 819

Until 10 Jun

View basket 

 
Not ready to book yet?

for 7 days, no obligation

24 November 2025

Live online

09:30-17:00 UK (London) (UTC+00)
10:30-18:00 Paris (UTC+01)
04:30-12:00 New York (UTC-05)
Course code 15089

  • GBP 399 499
  • EUR 579 719
  • USD 663 819

Until 20 Oct

View basket 

 
Not ready to book yet?

for 7 days, no obligation

* Early booking discounts may not be combined with other discounts or offers. As such, the discounts for 2nd/3rd/4th delegates are based on the full price; and apply only when booking multiple delegates on the same date.

Reviews of IPI's Root Cause Analysis and Critical Thinking training course


The speaker was excellent - she really knew her subject matter. She was clear and very reassuring

Nov 6 2023

Susan Reijntjes
Principal Medical Writing Scientist, Johnson & Johnson

Nov 6 2023

The speaker was excellent - she really knew her subject matter. She was clear and very reassuring.

Susan Reijntjes
Principal Medical Writing Scientist, Johnson & Johnson

Nov 6 2023

Laura Brown presented the information excellently, it was very understandable.

Anna Vasiljeva
Quality risks management specialist , JSC Olainfarm

Jul 25 2023

[The speaker was] very kind and was able to make a relaxed environment where people felt comfortable

Linda Nielsen
Drug Safety Manager, Pharmalex

May 6 2022

It was very interesting webinar, good content, interesting speaker who was able to engage all group in the activities

Aleksandra Cyba
Regulatory Affairs Associate, Terumo Aortic

United Kingdom

  • Grifols UK Ltd
  • Johnson & Johnson
  • Natures Aid
  • SPD Development Co.
  • Terumo Aortic

Ireland

  • Enfer Labs
  • Enfer Medical Ltd
  • Shorla Oncology

United States of America

  • Procter & Gamble
  • United Therapeutics
  • UNITED THERAPEUTICS Corp

Canada

  • Groupe PARIMA
  • Groupe Parima Inc

Italy

  • Orthofix
  • Zambon S.p.A.

Denmark

  • Pharmalex

Germany

  • Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica GmbH

Israel

  • Padagis Israel Pharmaceuticals

Latvia

  • JSC Olainfarm

North Macedonia

  • Alkaloid AD Skopje

Spain

  • TIGENIX S.A.U

Switzerland

  • Bazell Pharma AG

Enrol or reserve

Run Root Cause Analysis and Critical Thinking Live online for your team

1 day

Typical duration

Pricing from:

  • GBP 450
  • Per attendee, based on 10 attendees
  • Course tailored to your requirements
  • At your choice of location, or online

 

We can customise this course to your requirements and deliver it on an in-house basis for any number of your staff or colleagues.

Contact our in-house training experts Aleksandra Beer and Yesim Nurko to discuss your requirements:

Multiple colleagues? See above for details of our discounts for 2, 3, or 4 delegates. For more, talk to one of our training experts to discuss how to:

Run this course conveniently and cost-effectively in-house for your staff and colleagues

Aleksandra Beer

Aleksandra BEER
Training expert

Yesim Nurko

Yesim NURKO
Training expert

+44 (0)20 7749 4749

inhouse@ipi.academy