Implementing an Effective FRACAS Program as a Key DFR Solution

Failure Reporting, Analysis and Corrective Action System (FRACAS) is a valuable tool for companies who take care of customers effectively. FRACAS is the mechanism that serves its namesake purpose for organizations during three major phases. FRACAS can be used effectively during the three stages of product life cycle, namely, the new product development (NPD), post-NPD manufacturing and at the hands of customers in field service. This paper explains this partially utilized reliability tool that can be deployed effectively for organizational success. The key stakeholders that FRACAS integrates are the design, manufacture, and field service organizations. The FRACAS process is monitored by the quality and reliability divisions of the organization. The FRACAS implements effective and efficient root-cause analysis and corrective action systems with stepwise approvals and feedback. It promotes teamwork and collaborates with the right team at the right phase. The FRACAS directly impacts customer care in the field, therefore impacts organization's reliability brand perception in the marketplace. Primarily, it is a closed-loop process that ensures failure incidents are not forgotten but captured and followed systematically through root-cause analysis and preventive actions. Making it an effective FRACAS system depends on the content in it, how it interacts with its stakeholders, and the way it is driven. Effective FRACAS provides a platform to welcome problems in, drive closed-loop solutions as throughput and provide output resolutions. The popular root-cause analysis (RCA) tool that is elaborated for practical use in this paper is 8-Desciplines (8D), There are other popular tools such as DMAIC and PDCA. These three RCA tools are used within three areas of product life cycles at different proportionality. For example, 8D is more popular for field failures related to suppliers while Design, Measure, Analysis, Improve and Control (DMAIC) cycle is popular among NPD community. In addition, Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) also known as Deming's cycle is popular among manufacturing communities. An effective FRACAS facilitates collaboration between design, manufacturing, and supplier base as sources of failure modes during and after product launch to improve and maintain reliability across product design life cycle.