Scaling RCA Across 40+ Sites and 400+ Users: The CMC Journey with EasyRCA | Case Study

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is a key tool for enhancing reliability and efficiency in manufacturing. For companies with vast operations, standardizing RCA across multiple sites can be a monumental challenge. In this case study, we explore how CMC, a leader in steel manufacturing, scaled its RCA program to 40+ sites, onboarded over 400 users, and drove cross-functional collaboration with the help of EasyRCA.

The Challenge: A Lack of Standardization Across Sites

Before EasyRCA, CMC faced significant challenges in managing RCA across its wide-ranging operations. With over 40 manufacturing sites spread across the United States, each location had its own approach to RCA. Some teams used outdated methods like Excel, PowerPoint, and Word, leading to inconsistent results and incomplete root cause analysis.

Greg Evans, Maintenance Reliability Manager, and Brandy Heath, Continuous Improvement Manager, both recognized the need for a standardized tool to streamline RCA processes and enable better oversight. Without a unified system, there was no easy way to track action items, follow up on resolutions, or identify recurring issues across sites.

Greg Evans shared, “We needed a tool that could manage our RCAs and something that could be used across all of our sites to try to streamline our processes.”

Key challenges:

• Inconsistent RCA processes at different sites.
• No centralized tool for tracking action items or RCA progress.
• Difficulty in sharing insights from one location to another.

The Solution: EasyRCA as a Standardized Platform

To address their challenges, CMC launched a search for a standardized Root Cause Analysis platform that could unify processes across all sites. After evaluating multiple options and running side-by-side trials, CMC selected EasyRCA as its enterprise-wide solution.

According to Greg Evans, Maintenance Reliability Manager, “We needed a tool that could manage our RCAs and something that we could use across the board just to try and streamline our processes.” Teams across the country had been using inconsistent tools—Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and even Microsoft Planner—which made collaboration and tracking difficult. EasyRCA’s intuitive, visual workflow offered a better way.

Power User Strategy: Fueling Faster Adoption

CMC’s rollout of EasyRCA succeeded in large part because of its deliberate “power user” strategy—a scalable, grassroots approach designed to build internal champions at every site.

Rather than attempting a top-down implementation, CMC began by selecting two users from each plant to participate in an in-person training session at their Alabama mill. These users represented maintenance, reliability, and operations teams across the company’s 40+ U.S. sites. The goal was to train a core group of early adopters who could return home equipped to lead RCA efforts, support their peers, and act as local resources for ongoing questions.

As Greg Evans explained, “We started with a small group and had a couple of people from each site, two users per site, and we met out in Alabama last year in October. We trained those individuals to be kind of the go-tos at each of the locations.” This structure allowed every plant to have knowledgeable in-house support from day one, accelerating adoption without overburdening CMC’s central reliability team.

Brandy Heath emphasized how effective this approach proved to be: “It was really helpful to have people from each location who were trained and could support others. It allowed us to scale quickly without overwhelming any single site.”

By empowering local champions, CMC transformed what could have been a slow, complex rollout into a smooth, company-wide adoption. Within a year, over 400 users were onboarded across 40+ sites—a remarkable achievement for a distributed organization.

The Results and a Transformed Culture

Since adopting EasyRCA, CMC has achieved impressive traction across its organization. In just a year, the team onboarded more than 400 users, spanning maintenance, operations, safety, and IT. What started as a reliability initiative has evolved into a company-wide effort to strengthen problem-solving and collaboration.

Greg Evans shared that one of the most rewarding outcomes has been how quickly teams have embraced the software. “We’ve got over 400 people onboarded in the last year,” he said. “I’m really proud of the amount of willingness for the sites to actually pull in and use it. I didn’t necessarily expect that at first.”

With EasyRCA, CMC teams are conducting faster, more methodical investigations and leveraging the platform’s built-in tools to simplify reporting and follow-through on corrective actions. The system has also helped unify how RCAs are managed across sites—giving leadership better visibility into recurring issues and encouraging teams to address problems proactively.

Key results include:

• Over 400 users onboarded across CMC’s mills in the first year.
• Improved consistency and follow-through on corrective actions.
• Faster, more methodical investigations through guided workflows and in-app reporting.
• Broader collaboration, with safety, IT, and operations teams now actively using RCA.

Unexpected Use Cases and Cross-Functional Collaboration

One of the most surprising results from EasyRCA’s adoption at CMC was the expansion of its use beyond traditional maintenance and reliability teams. Safety and IT teams began using the platform to conduct incident investigations and track corrective actions. EasyRCA’s flexibility allowed these teams to move from basic 5-Why analysis to more advanced methodologies like Fishbone and PROACT for safety-related issues.

Brandy Heath shared, “We’ve got people starting to use it for safety-related issues. I would say we’re still adapting and evolving as it progresses and more people see it.”

Looking Ahead: Expanding RCA Across the Organization

CMC’s journey with EasyRCA is far from over. As they continue to scale their RCA program, the team is now working on integrating data from their MES systems to automatically trigger root cause investigations — a feature that EasyRCA developed in direct response to CMC’s feedback and collaboration. This automation will allow teams to respond to failures faster and ensure issues are addressed proactively.

Greg Evans highlighted, “We’re working on integrating RCA with our systems to automatically trigger investigations based on data,” said Greg Evans. “It’s exciting to see how far we’ve come, and I’m looking forward to what’s next.”

A Proven Formula for Success

CMC’s successful implementation of EasyRCA is a testament to the power of standardizing RCA practices across a large organization. By focusing on training, empowering power users, and maintaining a flexible, user-friendly tool, CMC has transformed its approach to reliability and problem-solving.

Greg Evans summarized his experience best:

“The more we invest in our teams, the better our investigations will be. The more we use the software, I believe, the faster those investigations will be — the more methodical — because we’ll just be that much better at using the system to help us get to the root.”

For companies looking to streamline their RCA processes and drive greater reliability, EasyRCA offers a proven solution that can scale across sites and teams. Learn more about EasyRCA or book a demo today to see how it can work for your team.