Types of investigation in industry

Safety & Health Investigations

The most critical type, triggered by any event that causes or had the potential to cause harm.

• Fatality or Serious Injury/Illness: Mandatory, high-priority investigations involving regulatory bodies (like OSHA).

• Lost Time Incident (LTI): Investigation into injuries requiring the employee to miss work.

• Near-Miss / "Close Call": Investigated with the same rigor as an actual injury. The goal is to learn from events that could have caused harm.

• Occupational Illness Investigation: To determine the source of exposure leading to illnesses (e.g. chemical exposure, hearing loss, ergonomic disorders).

• Process Safety Management (PSM) Events: For industries like oil & gas, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Includes investigations into leaks, explosions, fires, or toxic releases in high-hazard processes.

Quality & Non-Conformity Investigations

Focused on defects, failures, and deviations from established standards that affect product integrity.

• Customer Complaint Investigation: Root cause analysis of a product failure or issue reported by the end-user.

• Out-of-Specification (OOS) Result: In pharmaceuticals and manufacturing, when a product test result falls outside accepted criteria.

• Deviation Investigation: When a process or material deviates from a written procedure or specification.

• Supplier Quality Investigation: To address defects or issues with incoming raw materials or components.

• CAPA (Corrective and Preventive Action) Investigation: A formal quality system process in regulated industries (like medical devices, aerospace) to address and prevent non-conformities.

Environmental Investigations

Triggered by events that impact the environment or violate permits.

• Spill/Release Investigation: For unauthorized discharge of chemicals, oils or pollutants to land, water or air.

• Exceedance Investigation: When monitoring data shows a permit limit (e.g. for wastewater emissions) has been exceeded.

• Ecological Impact Assessment: Following an incident to determine the extent of damage and required remediation.

4. Operational & Equipment Failure Investigations

Aimed at understanding failures that cause production downtime, inefficiency or asset damage.

• Unplanned Downtime / Breakdown Investigation: Focuses on why a critical piece of machinery failed.

• Supply Chain / Logistics Disruption: Investigates causes of major delays, losses, or failures in the supply chain.

• Energy or Utility Failure: Looks into causes of power loss, steam failure, etc. that halt operations.

• Major Project Delay or Cost Overrun: Forensic analysis of what went wrong in project planning or execution.

5. Security & Cyber Incident Investigations

Addresses breaches of physical or information security.

• Cybersecurity Breach: Investigates the source, method, and impact of a cyber-attack (e.g. ransomware, data theft).

• Physical Security Breach: For unauthorized access, theft, vandalism or sabotage on site.

• Intellectual Property (IP) Theft Investigation: To determine how proprietary information was compromised.

6. Financial & Fraud Investigations

Examines irregularities in financial reporting, assets, or procedures.

• Fraud & Theft Investigation: For suspected embezzlement, procurement fraud, or asset misappropriation.

• Forensic Accounting Investigation: In-depth analysis of financial records to uncover irregularities.

• Audit Finding Investigation: To address significant findings from internal or external financial audits.

7. Human Resources (HR) & Conduct Investigations

Related to employee behavior and workplace culture.

• Harassment or Discrimination Investigation: Formal inquiry into complaints of unfair treatment.

• Workplace Violence / Threat Investigation.

• Significant Policy Violation Investigation (e.g. conflicts of interest, code of conduct breaches).

• Whistleblower Complaint Investigation: A sensitive investigation into claims raised through internal reporting channels.

Common Investigation Methodologies Across All Types

Regardless of the trigger, professional investigations often use structured tools:

• Root Cause Analysis (RCA): The overarching goal.

• 5 Whys: Asking "why" successively to peel back layers of symptoms.

• Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagram: Visually maps causes (Man, Method, Machine, Material, Measurement, Environment) to an effect.

• Fault Tree Analysis (FTA): A top-down, deductive approach for complex system failures.

• Apparent Cause Analysis (ACA) vs. Root Cause Analysis (RCA): ACA addresses direct causes for less significant events; RCA is deeper for major events.

• FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis): A proactive (rather than reactive) "investigation" of potential failures.