Developing an Incident Causation and Corrective Action Framework through Real Industrial Case Studies

Industrial accidents continue to pose serious challenges to occupational health and safety despite significant technological advancements and regulatory improvements. Conventional accident investigation methods often focus on immediate causes while overlooking latent organizational failures and systemic deficiencies. This study develops an integrated Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and Corrective Action Framework based on real industrial accident case studies collected from manufacturing, construction, oil & gas, chemical processing, and power generation industries. The proposed framework integrates the Swiss Cheese Model, Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS), Bow-Tie Analysis, and the Plan–Do–Check–Act (PDCA) cycle into a unified accident management methodology. Five representative industrial accidents were analyzed using Root Cause Analysis (RCA), Five Why Analysis, Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), and Bow-Tie techniques. Results indicate that over 80% of incidents involved organizational failures, inadequate supervision, poor safety culture, and ineffective risk communication rather than purely technical failures. The developed framework demonstrates significant potential for reducing accident recurrence through systematic investigation, corrective action prioritization, continuous monitoring, and organizational learning. The study contributes a practical and scalable framework suitable for implementation across high-risk industries.