Robert J.  Latino Author of Evaluating Organization Development
FEATURED AUTHOR

Robert J. Latino

CEO
Reliability Center, Inc.

Reliability Center, Inc. is a leading Reliability Engineering firm specializing in the practice and education of Root Cause Analysis and FMEA. We teach people how to think through why ANY undesirable outcome occurs. Many are mislead to believe that certain RCA approaches are better in certain industries. Truth be known, RCA is not specific to any industry but common to the human being. It is the human thought process that will be relied upon to determine how and why it occurred.

Biography

Robert J. Latino is CEO of Reliability Center, Inc. (RCI). RCI is a Reliability engineering firm specializing in improving Equipment, Process and Human Reliability. Mr. Latino received his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Mr. Latino is an author, educator and practitioner of Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) with his clientele around the world. Mr. Latino works in organizations ranging from Healthcare to Continuous Process Manufacturing to Homeland Security.

Mr. Latino is also co-author of Root Cause Analysis Improving Performance for Bottom Line Results and contributing author of Error Reduction in Healthcare: A Systems Approach to Improving Patient Safety.  Mr. Latino has been published in numerous trade magazines on the topic of RCA as well as a frequent speaker on the topic at conferences and trade shows.

Websites

Books

Featured Title
 Featured Title - Root Cause Analysis Improving Performance Bottom-Line 4ed - 1st Edition book cover

Articles

Published by Reliability Center, Inc.

Is All RCA The Same?


Published: Aug 15, 2019 by Published by Reliability Center, Inc.
Authors: Robert J. Latino
Subjects: Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing

When RCA is done properly, it does take more time to conduct an effective analysis. However, we should not have to do it again, if we did it right the first time! Remember, “We NEVER seem to have the time and budget to do things right, but we ALWAYS seem to have the time and budget to do them again!”

Published by Reliability Center, Inc.

Patient Safety: The Top Frustrations of RCA Facilitators & How It Prevents Them from Being Effective - White Paper Download


Published: Aug 14, 2019 by Published by Reliability Center, Inc.
Authors: Robert J. Latino
Subjects: Healthcare

Being an effective RCA analyst is tough work in the healthcare (HC) industry. It is fraught with administrative, technical and political hurdles that continually erode our will to be effective. However, for those ‘driven’ analysts, they just rise to the challenge, because the end game is the patient’s safety and it's worth it!

Presented at the 2019 SMRP Conference

Is There a Direct Correlation Between Reliability and Safety?


Published: Mar 06, 2019 by Presented at the 2019 SMRP Conference
Authors: Robert J. Latino
Subjects: Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing

I believe the Safety world has an inaccurate current day view of 'RCA' in general and therefore treats all RCA as a commodity equivalent to the limited capabilities of the 5-Whys (linear and identifies a single root cause). I believe how well we truly solve failures (losses resulting from deviations from an acceptable standard) has a direct impact on the safety of our workforce.

Patient Safety & Quality Magazine

Preventing Patient Identification Errors


Published: Oct 04, 2018 by Patient Safety & Quality Magazine
Authors: Robert J. Latino
Subjects: Healthcare

The author explains how patient identification errors are highly preventable with the right identification analyses, workflows, and safeguards in place. Deterrence requires instilling a culture—from the top down—that encourages and rewards proactive assessment of misidentification risk across the continuum of care. Here are three ways to diagnose the causes (and potential causes) of patient misidentification, and to prevent such errors so that a safety-focused culture can thrive.

Rob's Reliability Project

Podcast: Living Reliability


Published: Sep 26, 2018 by Rob's Reliability Project
Authors: Interview with Bob Latino
Subjects: Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing

On this week’s episode of Rob’s Reliability Project, I welcome Bob Latino back on to discuss why reliability is a way of life and the 14 principles of living reliability.

Rob's Reliability Project

Pod Cast – Reliability – Maintenance and RCA


Published: Aug 28, 2018 by Rob's Reliability Project
Authors: Interview with Bob Latino
Subjects: Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing

Pod cast with Robert J. Latino (Bob) of Reliability Center Inc. This episode includes reliability maintenance, root cause analysis, when to use RCA and how to leverage RCA for chronic failures and more.

Wisconsin Society for Healthcare Risk Management

A Manufacturing Industry Outsider’s Journey into the Healthcare Culture


Published: Mar 06, 2018 by Wisconsin Society for Healthcare Risk Management
Authors: Robert J. Latino
Subjects: Healthcare

In this paper I will seek to draw many parallels between the manufacturing, process and healthcare cultures, with an emphasis on dramatically increasing patient safety in the short-term. Keeping in mind the entire time my primary experience in healthcare has been as a patient!

Published by Reliability Center, Inc.

What is the Correlation Between Root Cause Analysis and Swiss Cheese?


Published: Dec 19, 2016 by Published by Reliability Center, Inc.
Authors: Robert J. Latino
Subjects: Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing

The holes in the Swiss cheese represent vulnerabilities that our safety systems are subject to. Many of these vulnerabilities are identified through our risk assessments such as Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA). This is where we seek to quantify risk by assessing our potential failure modes in a system

Published by Reliability Center, Inc.

Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me….Facing the Mirror!


Published: Nov 21, 2016 by Published by Reliability Center, Inc.
Authors: Robert J. Latino
Subjects: Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing

No matter where we work, we will experience failures or ‘undesirable outcomes’ of some kind. As long as we work with other humans, this will indeed be the case. These failures may surface in the form of production delays, injuries, customer complaints, lost profits, etc. Let’s get away from labels and specific industries and focus on the anatomy of a ‘failure’. Where does a failure come from? Think about this no matter where you work and see if it applies.

JOURNAL OF HEALTHCARE RISK MANAGEMENT

In healthcare, is the human being an asset or liability?


Published: Jun 14, 2016 by JOURNAL OF HEALTHCARE RISK MANAGEMENT
Authors: Robert J. Latino
Subjects: Healthcare

This article contrasts preventive and predictive technologies in industry to those in healthcare. For years, risk managers have been discussing the rationing of care. The human being is often referred to as an “asset” in our society. When preventive maintenance is routinely performed on a piece of equipment, the benefits are more reliable operations, increased productivity, and lower life cycle costs. If these same concepts are applied to humans, will we see the same benefits?

Videos

Down Hole Oil Well Failure Case History

Published: Aug 13, 2019

Root Cause Analysis Knife Injury on the Job Safety

Published: Aug 13, 2019

Why Current RCA Efforts Are Not Meeting Expectations

Published: Aug 13, 2019

Thermo-Compressor Cone Failure

Published: Aug 13, 2019

Root Cause Analysis Overview by Robert J. Latino, CEO Reliability Center, Inc.

Published: Aug 13, 2019

Root Cause Analysis Methods: 5 Whys + More in PROACTOnDemand

Published: Aug 13, 2019

PROACT RCA Software Templates for Industry

Published: Aug 13, 2019

PROACT RCA Software Templates for Healthcare

Published: Aug 13, 2019

RCA - What is the Goal of the Effort?

Published: Aug 13, 2019

Boiler Feed Pump Failure Root Cause Analysis

Published: Aug 13, 2019

Living Reliability - It's a Lifestyle Guiding Principles

Published: Aug 13, 2019

Proactive RCA - What About the Chronic Failures?

Published: Aug 13, 2019

MRI Coils - Healthcare: Taking Risky Business Out of the MRI Suite

Published: Aug 13, 2019

PROACT Root Cause Analysis for Healthcare

Published: Aug 13, 2019

Root Cause Analysis Proactive RCA: On the Failures That Have Not Occurred Yet

Published: Aug 13, 2019

PROACTOnDemand Multilingual RCA Feature

Published: Aug 13, 2019

Root Cause Analysis: Haul Truck Fire Case Study

Published: Aug 13, 2019

PROACT RCA Testimonials

Published: Aug 13, 2019

PROACT RCA Moment of Truth

Published: Aug 13, 2019

PROACT RCA Investigation System

Published: Aug 13, 2019

Root Cause Analysis in the Cloud - New Generation

Published: Aug 13, 2019

Patient Death Due to Medication Error and Missed Diagnosis of Anaphylactoid Reaction

Published: Aug 13, 2012

Medication Error case history performed in PROACT Root Cause Analysis software. Patient Death due to Medication Error and Missed Diagnosis of Anaphylactoid Reaction.

PROACTOnDemand Retail Pharmacy Medication Reconciliation Error - Case Study

Published: Aug 13, 2012

RCA on a pharmacy that made a wrong prescription based on a recorded message from the doctor's office. See how this uncovers the systemic flaws of prescription filling in VA.

PROACTOnDemand - Doing RCA the Way you Want to Do it!

Published: Aug 13, 2012

The 5 Whys and Other Root Cause Analysis Methods. See how Reliability Center's RCA Web application can accommodate most any method of RCA. Go FURTHER and drill down to the system root causes and find ALL the root causes.