This study presents a customized root cause analysis approach to investigate the reasons,
provide improvements measures for the cost overruns, and schedule slippage in papermachine-
building projects. The proposed approach is an analytical-survey approach that
uses both actual technical data and experts’ opinions. Various analysis tools are embedded
in the approach including: data collection and clustering, interviews with experts, 5-Whys,
Pareto charts, cause and effect diagram, and critical ratio control charts. The approach was
implemented on seven projects obtained from a leading international paper machine supplier.
As a result, it was found that the main causes behind cost and schedule deviations
are products’ related; including technical accidents in the Press section, damaged parts, design
issues, optimization of the machine and missing parts. Based on the results, prevention
measures were perceived.