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.