Failure Data Collection (FRACAS)

ALD is one of the world leaders in conducting failure reporting, analysis and corrective actions (FRACAS) activities as well as developing and customizing FRACAS software tools. Back in 1984, the first big projects contributing to the ALD's solid reputation in the world reliability community were several failure data collection and reporting systems for the big customers from aircraft and military industries. ALD established the failure data collection procedure, participated in actual data collection and developed software for easy processing, analysis and reporting of accumulated data. Since then we've created, customized and maintained FRACAS for dozens of customers from telecommunication, semiconductors, software, chemical, automotive and other industries.

Failure Data Collecting & Processing
Failure data collection and analysis are closely connected to all reliability activities. Failure data collecting should start at the early stages of systems design and go on through the entire product life cycle. Both the suppliers and the users must perform the detailed tracking and analysis of equipment malfunctions and failures. ALD FRACAS specialists establish the failure data collection procedure defining the most critical data types for each phase of the product life cycle and ensuring the comprehensive processing leading to corrective action and preventive maintenance. Timely failure data collecting, recording and processing supported by the ALD software helps prevent failures from recurring as well as simplify and reduce maintenance tasks. Providing data for statistical analysis Failure Reporting, Analysis, and Corrective Action System (FRACAS) is a closed-loop feedback path in which the user and the supplier work together to collect, record, and analyze failures caused by both hardware and software issues. The user captures predetermined types of data related to all problems with a particular tool or software and submits the data to the supplier. A Failure Review Board (FRB) at the supplier site analyzes the failures, considering such factors as time, money, and engineering resources. The resulting analysis identifies corrective actions that should be developed and implemented to prevent failures from recurring.

Trend Analysis
Accurate trend analysis is one of the most valuable outcomes of timely and well-defined FRACAS. ALD FRACAS experts will perform the trend analysis assessing historical dependability performance: MTBF, MTTR, availability, preventive maintenance, etc. Analysis of deficiency patterns allows to determine possible failure trends, and finally contributes to prevention of failures and unnecessary maintenance activities.

Corrective Action
Our FRACAS experts will assist you in development of corrective actions based on the collected engineering data. The benefits of early implementation of corrective action become apparent both to the manufacturer and to the user as the failure occurrences decrease at the manufacturing line and in the field. Therefore, your organization will be able to meet the ISO 9000 requirements for the corrective action. Determination of the appropriate corrective action sequence is one of the main goals of failure data collecting process.

Field Reliability Analysis
The collection of field performance data is a crucial element in reliability monitoring. Field data collection is a vital part of the whole FRACAS process.

Field data collection should include:
·         Incident/Failure technical info (part no. s/n, operation time/meters)
·         Description/Symptoms
·         Environment conditions
·         Suspected cause
·         Repaired items
·         Repair time and comments
·         Root cause

Collecting field data as a part of the FRACAS process enhances product reliability, safety, quality and allows calculation and prediction of the following:
·         Field MTBF ("real" failure rate) vs. Calculated MTBF (predicted failure rate)
·         Optimize ILS - Establish correct spares levels
·         Enhanced maintenance policy (RCM – reliability centered maintenance)

FRACAS Software Customization
Adaptation of FRACAS process is indispensable element of FRACAS success. Each organization has its own unique data collection sources, process and desired outputs. Forcing standard/universal data collection forms, pre-defined workflow and outputs, proved to constrain FRACAS success.
 
ALD offers a user configurable system which easily adapts to your organization's needs:
Customized workflow, data collection forms, user configurable output reports and much more.
ALD administrator mechanism allows organizations to retain their freedom with implementation of new projects into the existing failure reporting and analysis system, enhancing workflow and data collection by themselves.

See also:
Reporting, Analysis and Corrective Action System (FRACAS) Software 
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Our Failure Reporting and Failure Analysis projects and solutions 
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