Failure Reporting, Analysis, And Corrective Action System

The following steps provide a roadmap for implementing a FRACAS methodology.

Remember, you must customize the final system to your industry, equipment, and way of working. Copying the system of another business will be sub-optimal and possibly doomed to fail.

1. Select a team and define your goals

A FRACAS system is at the core of your reliability program. However, this doesn’t mean that having technical personnel is enough.

Ideally, you will be able to pull people from the following departments:

• Maintenance and reliability engineers for obvious reasons.
• Someone from the quality department to help structure the methodology and align it to the company standards.
• Someone from the warehouse, as FRACAS, will inevitably impact them, and you’ll need their buy-in and support.
• The equipment operators will be key to making your new system work, so possibly include someone from production.
• Senior management should also be involved to help clear the inevitable roadblocks and make judgment calls on strategy.

As a team, spend time aligning and agreeing on the goals for the new system. It’s easy to become sidetracked by data collection. Keep in mind that your role, and that of the system you devise, is to improve reliability. Agree on and document what you hope to achieve.

2. Choose your software management system

While you can run a FRACAS system manually, it makes no sense in this day of technology. You will want to use a CMMS or EAM. Both allow real-time data collection, analysis, and reporting and provide a readily accessible archive of in-service history.

Designing and building your FRACAS workflow with the management system in mind is an efficient way to integrate your data capture, storage, and analysis requirements.

3. Decide what data you will collect

Avoid becoming bogged down in too much data. Use the information that enables making decisions and taking action. Your data may include failure modes and mechanisms, historical data, reliability information, MTBF, or mean time to failure (MTTF). You’ll certainly need product specifications. If you already use CMMS, much of what you need will be at your fingertips.

To ensure a rigorous and auditable process, create a table showing what data you need to collect and why. Identify how it will be collected and the tools you’ll use to analyze it.

When you first implement a FRACAS, start small. Your data may be as simple as the number of failures by component, system, or area.

4. Create standardized failure codes

A core principle of FRACAS is using a standardized taxonomy for failures for easier analysis. How would you sort and sift to aggregate the data if everyone wrote long-hand faults?

The aviation world does this well with its ATA codes which describe every system and subsystem on an aircraft and then extend to zones. For example, when using this system to search for failures in the landing gear steering, you’ll use 32-50 as the search criteria. The landing gear is ATA chapter 32, while the steering subsystem is 50.

Devise similar codes to suit your organizational context. All employees can use them to report failures and rectification efforts. You can even apply standard codes to failure modes for greater specificity.

Your CMMS is an excellent tool for enforcing this discipline by preventing the entry of any codes that do not adhere to the approved structure.

5. Define organizational roles and a RACI chart

Defining clear role responsibilities in new initiatives is crucial. Create a RACI chart with FRACAS tasks listed down the Y-axis and relevant roles along the X-axis.

A RACI chart is a project management tool used to clarify roles and responsibilities for tasks, milestones, and deliverables within a project. The acronym RACI stands for:

Responsible: The individual who executes the work required to complete a task.

Accountable: The person who has the final say and ultimate responsibility for ensuring the task is completed.

Consulted: Those whose expertise is sought during the task’s execution; they provide valuable input and advice.

Informed: Individuals who need to be kept in the loop about the task’s progress and outcomes, typically receiving updates once the task is finished.

At each intersection of a task and a role, decide whether that role is responsible for executing the task (R), accountable for its execution (A), consulted with (C), or simply informed (I). If the role has no involvement, place a horizontal line (-).

By using this chart, everyone can see who collects data, who does the analysis, and who is responsible for implementing corrective actions.

6. Develop the FRACAS policy, procedures, and process map

For those who dislike administration, this will be the least enjoyable part of the process. Unfortunately, this step is vital to ensure everyone is clear on what FRACAS is, why it is used, and how the system works.

Your FRACAS policy should include:

• The organizational roles
• A RACI chart that features key data required, the report formats, and the training each role should receive
• A process map that outlines the required steps and procedures.

7. Deploy the FRACAS

Distribute the policies and procedures manual and begin training the involved personnel while holding information sessions to update all employees on the new system. Data collection and analysis can commence.

8. Analyze received data

In the analysis phase, you will use your preferred tools. However, the intent is to reach the root cause of the failure to inform corrective actions. The data can be sorted into predominant failures using basic Pareto analysis, with common failure causes identified using Weibull analysis.

Standard root cause analysis techniques like Five Whys, Fish-bone Analysis, or an Ishikawa diagram can help drill down to actionable causes.

9. Generate corrective actions

Actions used to address failures can take many forms. You may work with a supplier or an OEM to modify equipment, change operating processes, or use alternative components to prevent future failures. There might be inspection tasks, condition monitoring, or life limits on components that reduce the impact of future problems.

Regardless, during the generation of corrective actions, it is important to remain focused on preventing the analyzed failure, achieving business goals, and not creating consequential impacts that shift the problem elsewhere.

10. Use KPIs to track FRACAS effectiveness

FRACAS is a closed-loop system that works on the principles of continuous improvement. The only way to close the loop after implementing corrective actions is to monitor the effectiveness of the outcomes.

Action monitoring aside, it is also wise to implement KPIs to monitor if the FRACAS system is being used and if corrective actions are properly implemented. Try to develop a few indicators that you can roll into a dashboard, providing a summary of the health and effectiveness of your FRACAS system.

Benefits of Implementing FRACAS 

Implementing FRACAS (Failure Reporting, Analysis, and Corrective Action System) can provide significant benefits to an organization. Based on the search results, here are some of the key benefits of implementing FRACAS:

Decreased Total Cost of Ownership/Lifecycle Costs:

• Fewer breakdowns in production systems lead to cost savings.
• Reduced expenditure on spare parts.
• Decreased labor costs for repairs and maintenance.
• The extended useful life of equipment.

Increased Asset Availability:

• Improved operational availability creates more capacity for new clients.
• Allows for amortization of equipment costs over larger product quantities.
• Decreases production cost per unit.

Increased Customer Satisfaction:

• Improved equipment reliability ensures planned quantities, quality, and delivery dates are met.
• Enhances customer confidence and loyalty.
• Contributes to increased client retention.

Better Regulatory Compliance:

• Allows for planned shutdowns and stoppages rather than emergency responses.
• Mitigates safety hazards and reduces the potential for environmental violations.

Reduction in Scrap Rates and Warranty Claims:

• Improved reliability reduces the occurrence of out-of-specification products.
• Lowers rework costs and improves product quality.

Improved Reliability:

• Systematic addressing of failures enhances overall system reliability.
• Promotes a culture of continuous improvement.

Data-Driven Decision Making:

• Provides valuable insights into asset performance.
• Enables more informed decision-making for resource allocation and risk management.

Risk Reduction:

• Helps identify and address potential failures proactively.

These benefits demonstrate that FRACAS can have a significant positive impact on an organization’s operations, costs, customer relations, and overall performance. By providing a structured approach to failure management and continuous improvement, FRACAS enables companies to learn from past issues, prevent future failures, and ultimately deliver higher-quality products and services.

How a CMMS Helps with FRACAS

Implementing new processes can be challenging, especially when you have established ways to do things in your facility. The good thing is that, in this case, software can make things much easier for you. Let’s look at some ways how.