Operational Excellence · AI-Powered Investigation
RCA AI Engine – Live
Global 8D Live
Stop solving the same problem twice.
9 Yards Excellence combines three decades of Lean Six Sigma and reliability engineering expertise with a deployed AI investigation platform. The consulting and the technology are not separate offerings — they are the same practice, built on the same evidence, applied to the same problems.
RCA AI Engine – Live
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Define → Diagnose → Design → Deploy → Deliver
what we do
Two offers. One practice. One practitioner.
Whether you need an investigation tool your team runs independently, or a practitioner to lead the improvement work — both come from the same depth of industrial experience.
platform
AI-Powered Investigation
A deployed investigation platform — not a chatbot — that runs 13 analytical modules simultaneously against your evidence base and produces a structured, cited root cause report. Linked to a Global 8D corrective response workflow.
- RCA AI Engine — evidence-grounded root cause analysis
- Global 8D — D0–D8 structured corrective response, AI-assisted
- Audit-ready PDF — IATF 16949 and customer requirements
- CAPA — effectiveness verification (coming soon)
Consulting
Operational Excellence
Practitioner-led consulting in Lean, Six Sigma, and Asset Performance Excellence — the methodology is chosen by what the problem actually demands. VSM and Kaizen for waste. DMAIC for variation. Reliability engineering for asset failures.
- Lean Six Sigma — VSM, Kaizen, DMAIC, MBB coaching
- Asset Performance Excellence — RCM, FMEA, APE strategy
- Hands-on delivery — not report-and-leave
- Eight industries — automotive to defense to paper
The 9 Yards Approach
One methodology. Applied across platform and consulting.
Whether you are running the platform independently or engaging us directly, every investigation and every consulting engagement follows the same structured arc. Define the problem precisely. Diagnose with evidence. Design the response. Deploy the change. Deliver and verify.
D1 – DEFINE
Configure the work order — asset, failure mode, business context. Upload every evidence document: maintenance records, DCS exports, inspection reports, witness statements.
D2 – DIAGNOSE
The AI runs 14 analytical modules simultaneously — 5-Why, FMEA, FTA, Causal Model, Knowledge Graph, RBD and more. Every finding evidence-cited and confidence-scored.
D3 – DESIGN
Review the structured output. The introspection layer surfaces blind spots and assumptions. Annotate, challenge findings, and trigger targeted re-analysis with your feedback.
D4 – DEPLOY
D5 – DELIVER
Export the audit-ready PDF — IATF and customer-ready format. Every finding traceable to its source evidence document. Closed report feeds the KB for future incident detection.
Proof of Capability
See the platform output — a real investigation.
The automotive brake shudder case study ran the full RCA AI Engine pipeline against 20 evidence documents. The report is publicly available to download.
Case Study — Automotive Brake Shudder RCA
Chronic brake shudder across multiple vehicle platforms — root cause identified, three contradictions resolved.
Twenty evidence documents — maintenance records, DCS sensor data, metallurgical reports, operator logs, and inspection reports — processed through 13 analytical modules. Contradictions between sensor records and operator-recorded values identified and resolved systematically. Confidence score, evidence grounding map, and structured corrective action log included in the report.
98%Overall confidence score
20
Evidence documents analyzed
13Analytical modules run
3Contradictions resolved
Why Consulting and Platform Together
The platform was built by the practitioner who does the consulting.
Most investigation tools are built by software teams who modelled how engineers investigate. The RCA AI Engine was built by an engineer who spent thirty years doing exactly that — which is why the analytical structure reflects how experienced reliability and quality engineers actually think about failure, not how a product team imagined they might.
Clients who engage for consulting leave with the methodology embedded in their team and the platform as permanent analytical infrastructure. The investigation capability does not walk out the door when the engagement ends.
- Evidence-grounded, not assumption-driven. Every finding in the platform traces to a specific uploaded document. The consulting applies the same standard.
- The methodology is chosen by the problem. Lean for flow and waste. DMAIC for variation. Reliability engineering for asset failures. The platform accelerates the Analyze phase of each.
- Full lifecycle — not just root cause. RCA finds the cause. Global 8D structures the corrective response. CAPA verifies the fix held. One audit trail, end to end.
- Hands-on delivery. Principal-level engagement on every project. Not a framework handed to junior staff.
Consulting
Two disciplines. One practitioner. Eight industries.
Each consulting area has a dedicated page with the full methodology, services, and engagement model. Both are backed by the same 30 years of hands-on delivery.
Lean Six Sigma
VSM and Kaizen for waste and flow. DMAIC for process variation, defects, and quality improvement. DFSS for new product design. Master Black Belt coaching for GB and BB candidates. Statistical analysis across Minitab, JMP, and R.
VSM
Kaizen
DMAIC
DFSS
Asset Performance Excellence
Reliability-centered maintenance, failure mode and root cause analysis, asset criticality assessment, PM optimization, FMEA development, and maintenance KPI design. Deep hands-on expertise in SAP Plant Maintenance and Power BI reliability dashboards.
RCM
FMEA
SAP PM
Weibull
CSSBB
ASQ CRE
LSS Master Blackbelt
Azure AI-900
~30 Years
8 Industries
Principal-level delivery on every engagement
Ready to start?
Describe the problem — a recurring failure, a process that keeps drifting, an investigation that hasn’t produced a real answer. We will tell you whether the platform, the consulting, or both is the right fit.