FRACAS with Brandon Weil

With changing technology in the reliability and maintenance industry, the best practices are always changing in order to improve the overall reliability for the long term. Failure reporting analysis and corrective action system or FRACAS is one of the best tools towards just achieving that goal. It is a process for collecting failure history, analyzing it for patterns, getting to root causes, implementing the corrective actions and then, monitoring the results of those actions. So, it is basically the collection of all the other reliability processes merged into one. In order for this to work, you can t just rely on the PMs.

In this episode, we covered:

  • What is FRACAS?
  • How can you use FRACAS effectively?
  • How do you start with a FRACAS process?
  • And much more!

You have to record every little problem and collect every instance because anything can lead you to a systematic vulnerability that you might not notice just by analyzing the asset data. The process is very simple; you just have to collect failure data, put it into your CMMS, analyze it against different failure codes, and then find the root causes of the failures. Once you have done that, you have to implement the corrective actions and then, see the results for yourself. It just widens your scope and area of monitoring goes on a macro level rather than just focusing on the assets.

You will be getting data from all the assets and start looking for larger patterns that may lead to potential risks in the components. You would also need to keep track of the work order data such as; who, when, how, etc. It helps in the decision-making process to have that extra information on hand. It is best if you have your failure codes in the CMMS because it makes it easier to run analysis against a code. You can also work with private databases and work through excel sheets but it really depends on the type of results you are looking for.

Whatever the way maybe, the goal is to keep a record of spare parts, their usage, failure causes, and all the information that can help you get to a consistent solution. It takes time to get all this done but the results are very far-reaching. You will also need the support of your senior management and all the relevant department but they would need some solid data and results of corrective actions to be convinced. The iteration of the process depends on the reliability engineers and doing it once a month would suffice.

To start with a FRACAS process, you need to have your failure codes in place with a CMMS. You can make a checklist if you have to make sure you have everything you need before implementing FRACAS. This list should be sorted and everyone should be consulted on it. It is very important to engage everyone regarding the process because anyone could help you where you need it the most. Once you have done that, you can start monitoring the results against a set of KPIs. If your work management system is better, it becomes easier to make it work. In the end, it s all about data quality and good communication.

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