Root Cause Analysis
Delivery Performance Improvement
Statistical Tolerance Analysis
Clear Technical Writing
Berk and Associates
Cause Failure Analysis is an intense 2-day program that integrates Engineering,
Quality Assurance, Manufacturing, Manufacturing Engineering, and Supply
Chain efforts to identify and eliminate root failure causes occurring in
complex systems, subsystems, and components. The approach relies on fault
tree analysis for identifying all potential failure causes and an
associated set of technologies for evaluating each hypothesized potential
cause. Hardware analysis, statistical analysis, design of experiments,
technical data package evaluation, and other technologies are combined to
provide an effective root cause failure analysis procedure for
manufacturers, process industries, and other technology-based
pride ourselves on our ability to tailor this training to your industry
and your specific needs. This is not a canned "make your problem fit
our solution" training program. This training may well be the most
valuable training your organization ever receives. We literally
"wrote the book" on root cause failure analysis technology based
on decades of experience...experience and knowledge you can put to work in
Cause Failure Analysis course
provides students with the ability to:
dominant failure modes through quantity and cost-based Pareto
the root causes of systems failures
and implement effective corrective actions
as an inter-organizational, multi-disciplinary failure analysis team
prerequisites include a four-year technical degree or equivalent
industrial experience in an engineering or manufacturing
case studies are utilized extensively in the Root
Failure Analysis program, and during the program
students analyze failures occurring in their products.
Clients recover their training investment prior to course
completion as these failures are eliminated.
helicopter blade experienced a 50% rejection rate and a short
service life. Root Cause Failure Analysis techniques identified
inadequate bondline width as the underlying cause. Tightened tolerances and tool control
increased the yield to 100%.
We present onsite, focused training tailored to our
clients' needs. Please contact
us to discuss how we can assist your organization by
presenting onsite focused training tailored to your
organization's exact needs.
engineers, quality engineers, project engineers, design engineers, MRB
engineers, procurement specialists, manufacturing managers, and program managers
should attend this training.
1: Root Cause Failure Analysis Introduction. The need for efficient failure analysis.
Failure analysis philosophy.
The four-step problem solving approach. Systems and component failure analyses.
The inherent value of failed hardware. Failure analysis definitions and basic failure analysis concepts.
Continuous improvement concepts and the systems failure analysis
contribution. A framework for
systems failure analysis. Quality
measurement and reporting concepts. Nonconformance
data base approaches. Pareto
analysis. Integrating the cost
of quality of program. Understanding
systems interactions and how systems operate. The value of a priori
failure cause identification. Case
study assignment. Team
assignment. Homework assignment
related to in-house failure selection.
2: Fault Tree Analysis Introduction. Fault tree analysis history and applications. Fault tree analysis capabilities.
Fault tree analysis as the basis for further investigative work. Defining the problem and developing fault tree analysis top undesired
events. Developing fault tree logic. Relationships
between logic operators and events. Fault
tree analysis symbology. And,
or, and inhibit gates. Introduction
to fault tree construction. Post-fault-tree
fault isolation tools. Using
Failure Mode Assessment and Assignment (FMA&A) matrices for managing the
systems failure analysis effort. Computer-generated
fault trees. Case study
assignment. Team presentations. Homework assignment related to in-house failure analysis fault tree
3: Fault Tree Analysis and
Follow-On Assessments. Advanced fault tree construction. Gate usage and interpretation.
inhibit functions to model probability distributions. Complex fault tree class exercises.
Navigating from the failure site. Tips for identifying all potential failure causes.
Probability and statistics applied to fault tree evaluations. Quantifying top undesired events.
Failure rate sources. Using
fault trees to identify redundancy-defeating failure modes. "What's Different" analysis.
Use of test and inspection data, material certifications, and
statistical process control data. Environmental
effects. Use of flow charts for
product performance and process evaluations. Interviewing techniques for use with assembly, test, and inspection
personnel. Failed hardware analysis. Case
study assignment. Team
assignment related to in-house FMA&A preparation.
4: Design of Experiments and
Systems Failure Analysis. Basic experimental design concepts. Deterministic versus statistical thinking.
Hypothesis testing. The
normal distribution and other basic statistical concepts. Analysis of variance.
t-tests, and f-tests. Identifying
potentially critical design and process parameters. Identifying test objectives.
readiness reviews. Inducing
failures to confirm causes. Introduction
to Taguchi philosophies and Taguchi design of experiment technologies.
Designing a Taguchi experiment. Selecting test parameters. Two
and three level orthogonal arrays. Selecting
output parameters and data collection approaches. Strategies for minimizing test risk.
Signal-to-noise ratios. Defining
test specimen configurations. ANOVA
applied to Taguchi experiments. Typical
test strategies. Multiple level
experiments. Case study
assignment. Team presentations. Homework assignment related to in-house failure analysis.
5: Additional Specialty Analyses. Evaluating failed hardware compliance. Assessing technical data package adequacy.
Evaluating system/subsystem/component interfaces and requirements
flowdown adequacy. The nature
of build-to-print and “black box” procurements. Common technical data package shortfalls.
Quality Assurance compliance assessment tools. Optical microscopy, SEM,
FTIR, EDAX, X-ray, N-ray, SIMS, and Auger
analysis. Sneak circuit
analysis. Monte Carlo
simulations. Evaluating leaks. Basic metallurgical and electronic component evaluations.
Failure analysis of vendor-supplied items. Customer/supplier interface issues.
Commercial failure analysis laboratories. Other specialized analysis approaches.
Case study assignment. Team
assignment related to in-house failure analysis.
6: Corrective Action and Course
Wrap Up. Dispositioning nonconforming material and the material review
process. Common material review
errors. The advantages of
eliminating repair, rework, and use as is dispositions. Corrective action order of precedence. Advantages and disadvantages
of design modifications, process modifications, procedural modifications,
requirements relaxation, screening, and other potential corrective actions.
Use of statistical process control as a corrective action. Evaluating corrective action effectiveness.
Use of the FMA&A matrix for corrective action identification and
tracking. Suggested failure
analysis reporting format. Building
a product-oriented failure analysis library and data base. Utilizing evolutionary product development learning opportunities.
Creating a product-oriented Lessons
Learned document. Course
overview and summary. A
suggested failure analysis procedure.