Leading/Facilitating Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA)

Onsite Training: Root Cause Failure Analysis, FMEA
  • Course:Leading/Facilitating Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA)
  • Course ID:RCFA-LEAD Duration:2 days Where: Your Office (7+ Persons)
  • Available as a private, customized course for your group at your offices or ours and in some cases as a WebLive(TM) class.

  • Download Course Description (PDF)

Course Outline

Day 1

  • RCFA Concepts
    • RCFA philosophy and the four-step problem solving approach
    • Troubleshooting vs. failure analysis
    • Case Study:  The Mast Mounted Sight
    • Group Discussion:  Current failure analysis challenges
  • Role of the RCFA Leader
    • Leadership, management, and motivation
    • Situational leadership
    • Instilling a sense of time-based urgency
    • Incident resolution vs. more in-depth root cause failure analyses
    • Keeping meetings short and maintaining analysis momentum
    • Boots on the ground:  Management By Wandering Around
    • Assuring rapid root cause identification and corrective action
    • Stress management
    • Group discussion:  Current leadership challenges
    • Activity:  Instilling a sense of urgency
  • Selecting the Appropriate Analysis Approach
    • Brainstorming, FMEA, mind-mapping, 5-Whys technique, Ishikawa diagrams, flow charting, and fault tree analysis reviews
    • Matching the analysis approach to the failure analysis challenge
    • Group discussion:  Current analysis approach challenges
    • Activity:  Analysis approach selection
  • The Failure Analysis Team
    • Selecting an appropriate team
    • Familiarity versus a fresh look
    • Functional discipline participation
    • Purchasing, Quality Assurance, Engineering, Operations, and Field Service contributions
    • Activity:  RCFA team member selection
  • Developing an Action Plan
    • Using Failure Mode Assessment and Assignment (FMA&A) matrices for analysis management
    • Failure analysis meetings
    • Addressing action item delinquencies
    • Conquering analysis plateaus
    • Activity:  Preparation of an FMA&A
  • Case Study Homework Assignment

 

Day 2

  • Case Study Review
  • Managing Potential Cause Evaluation
    • What’s different, pedigree, and conformance analysis
    • Basic metallurgical and electronic component evaluations
    • Specialty technologies
    • Welding, piping, pump, and leak failures
    • Intermittent failures
    • Integrating supplier inputs
    • Commercial failure analysis laboratories
    • Testing to confirm failure causes
    • The RCFA/Design of Experiments relationship
    • Activity:  Updating the FMA&A
  • Eliminating Recurring Failures
    • Drilling down
    • Overcoming the “we’re special” syndrome
    • Overcoming ego
    • Case studies
    • Activity:  Drilling deeper for elusive recurring failure causes
  • Corrective and Preventive Action
    • Corrective and preventive action definitions
    • Corrective and preventive action order of precedence
    • Using FMA&As for corrective and preventive action management
    • Assessing risk
    • Managing preventive action risk versus return
    • Corrective and preventive action case studies
    • Lessons Learned applications
    • Activity:  Selecting appropriate near- and long-term corrective and preventive actions
  • Looking for Trouble:  Proactive vs. Reactive Approaches
  • Troubleshooting vs. Failure Analysis
    • Troubleshooting definition
    • Speed and accuracy:  Obtaining meaningful results rapidly
    • Using the fault tree and FMA&A to focus and prioritize troubleshooting
    • Using the fault tree to expedite troubleshooting
    • Activity:  Streamlining troubleshooting and the RCFA investigation on a complex system failure
  • Keeping Management Informed
    • Progress reports
    • FMA&A distribution
    • A suggested failure analysis procedural
    • A suggested failure analysis report format
  • Defining Success
    • Establishing success criteria as an integral RCFA component
    • Monitoring corrective/preventive action efficacy
  • Course Recap, Q/A, and Evaluations