The example embodiments are directed to a device and method for determining a root cause of equipment failure. In one example, the method includes storing a plurality of root causes of previous equipment failures, receiving textual data associated with a current equipment failure, determining a root cause for the current equipment failure by determining a similarity of keywords of each root cause with respect to the received textual data of the current equipment failure and selecting at least one root cause based on the determined similarities of the plurality of root causes, and displaying the at least one determined root cause for the current equipment failure via a display device. The example embodiments provide a system and method that automatically determine a root cause of equipment failure rather than rely on a subject matter expert.