An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

Failure analysis is not just about finding the root cause of a failure; it’s also about preventing future failures. Yet, the process starts much like a crime scene. Understanding some basic steps and approaches helps you fully grasp the failure and its impact or implications.

Sometimes, just identifying a failure is the difficult part. Sometimes, it’s the collection of clues or evidence. Sometimes, it’s the skills and tools needed to fully understand the root cause. The intent of any failure analysis is to understand the problem well enough to craft and implement short and long-term solutions.

Let’s explore the basics of failure analysis, the basic steps, and some ways to identify and avoid ways a failure analysis may fail. If you like, grab your Sherlock Holmes cap and magnifying glass and prepare to improve your ability to learn from every failure.

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An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

Everyone knows how things fail … right? We know that we often have to deal with defects or design oversights that mean parts rub, crack, or erode quicker than we would like. And then something snaps, breaks or stops conducting, so our product stops working. But then there is software … which never fails. And that is because software only ‘fails’ when a coding error or bug makes it do something we didn’t want it to do. So it’s simple human error … which we can’t model, prevent, or create safeguards to prevent these errors … right? Wrong! And that is because software bugs are so common that we know how most of them happen. Which means we can work out what went wrong to allow that bug to happen. And that means we can quickly and efficiently improve software reliability!

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An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

At least one group called this the ‘Delta Phase.’ It is the period shortly after launching a product and provides a unique opportunity to reduce future field failures and improve customer satisfaction dramatically. The idea is to aggressively identify and resolve any field issues identified by your customers.

There are a couple of ways to implement the Delta Phase with your product launch. Yet, it requires creating a team from the design/development team that has the authority and capability to implement design changes quickly.

Let’s explore the concept of a delta phase and how to implement it in your organization. Plus, let’s examine a few situations that make significant short and long-term reductions in the field failure rate.

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An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

What is a ‘root cause’ of failure? It is something that you did (or didn’t) do that ultimately resulted in failure. It’s not corrosion (that’s a physical process that follows the laws of nature that you can’t change). It’s not a porous seal that allows moisture to enter your product to cause corrosion (that’s a defect or fault that you or your team made happen). Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is the process where we systematically work out what things we did or didn’t do that allowed failure to occur, and Fault Trees are often very helpful in finding this root causes. If you want to learn more about RCA or how fault trees can help RCA, join us for this webinar.

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An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

In my opinion, as I do not know if this is true or not, every product or system failure has a cause. Causes are not exactly the same as what we call ‘failure mechanisms’, yet they are related in many cases. One more term to consider is ‘failure mode’, which refers to the symptoms or results of a failure.

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An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

We all know what the ‘root cause’ is … right? It is the ‘thing’ that caused something bad to happen. The problem is the definition of ‘root cause’ has been abused, misconstrued, re-written, misinterpreted, and all sorts of other things that erode from what it is supposed to be. And by that, I mean it has to be something that we can do something about (and make better).

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An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

by Dan Jenkins

The goal of this presentation is to educate the audience on options to prevent electronic equipment failure used in enclosed spaces from corrosion through preventative maintenance practices.    As most know, the metals used in today’s electronics are processed but want to turn back to their original state as the iron components will oxidize, and the corrosion process begins.  Adding humidity, vibration, temperature swings, and acid environments (such as being in a tire plant or downwind from a refinery) will accelerate the process.  It is this corrosion and subsequent weakening or disfiguring of the metal that causes malfunctions and failures

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An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

Everything will eventually fail. I like to say that keeps us in business as reliability engineers. The trick is knowing what will fail and when. There are many potential causes for a product or system to fail. Design flaws, supplied component latent defects, assembly damage, and unexpected applied stresses exist.

The key to take away from this concept is we can learn when studying failures. We can work to prevent or delay specific types of failures. By learning about failures, we learn how to create reliable products.

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An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

The ability to determine the root cause of a failure is a skill. It requires agility, leadership, inquisitiveness, diligence, and technical skill. Successful RCA taps into your creativity and technical prowess. Using a structured approach helps.

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An Accendo Reliability recorded webinar event

Every failure has valuable information you and your team require to improve reliability. During the development process, each failure may represent a future recall. Celebrate every failure. Let your FRACAS prioritize which failures to resolve.

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