Root Cause Analysis

Course details

RCFA and Structured Problem Solving

• Cause Analysis
• Problem Solving Sequences
• Situation Analysis
• Action Generation
• Decision Making
• Where RFCA First in
• Planning for Change

Cause Analysis

• RCFA steps
• Failure Causes
• Benefits to RCFA
• Why we don't get around to doing RCFA

Two-Track Approach

• The RCFA Selection Process
• How to determine the Vital Few
• Different Approaches to RCFA
• Failure Classifications
• Exercise: Why we spend more time on problems than on opportunities

Failure Types

• Sporadic
• Chronic
• How Failure Appear
• Examples from your operation

The Three Levels of Cause

• Selecting the right failures
• Cost spreadsheet
• Exercise in selecting what failures need to be addressed to impact the bottom line

Collecting Failure Data

• The Five P's of Root Cause Failure Analysis
• Why a Logic Tree?

Parts and Position

• Physical agents of failure (FRETT)
• Metallurgical failures
• Equipment component failures
• Piping failures
• Examples of equipment component failures

The Analysis Process

• Describing the failure event
• Taking Failure Mode Inventory
• Building hypotheses
• Determining the causes
• Exercise featuring a valve cap failure on a reciprocating compressor

Describing the Process

• Exercise: Piston rod failure on a reciprocating process compressor

Data Analysis I

• Scatter plots
• Correlation
• Example using process pump failure management data

Data Analysis II

• Weibull analysis (Exercise using process pump and furnace tube failure data)
• Modeling and simulation

Data Analysis III

• Operating deflection (FEA)
• Vendor experience

Another Way

• Competing approaches to fault analysis
• The KT approach
• Example of an elusive centrifugal process pump failure (VPS Bottoms Pump Analysis)

Human Root Causes

• Human performance reliability (HPR)
• Unintended error
• Physical and mental limitations
• Purposeful wrongdoing
• HPR example

Solutions

• Requirements for good solutions
• Purpose and design of Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS)
• CMMS and its role in failure analysis

Stewardship of RCFA Results

• Life cycle of recommendation and follow-up
• Service factor committees
• Reliability teams
• Documentation and Reporting
• Example: A process pump failure reduction program
• Networking