Last week I introduced Failure Reporting, Analysis and Corrective Action System, otherwise known as FRACAS. This week, I’ll talk about the “FR” … Failure Reporting.
Let’s start by defining what a failure is. There are many, but I prefer this one:
A failure is a condition where an asset, system, piece of equipment, software or process is unable to perform a specific function, as designed, to a level of performance acceptable to the owner/user. This could be either a total loss of function or a partial (or degraded) loss of function.
The worldwide cost of failures is in the trillions of dollars! Just think of lost revenue (immediate and long term) and/or the cost to fix the failure.
Problem is, many organizations don’t know where to start when it comes to better understanding losses associated with either total or partial functional failure. Here’s a start:
- What are your top 10 functional failures that result in losses?
- How much have failures cost you in lost revenue and/or increased costs in the last year?
- Can you name and quantify the repeat failures that you experience, i.e., the same darn thing that keeps happening over and over?
It’s probably easier for you to remember, and possibly even have data on, those major “holy craps” that resulted in chunks of revenue lost and/or additional costs. But can you quantify those smaller repeat failures … you know … the ones you thought had been fixed, or even worse, the ones that keep repeating but you’re unaware of them? Many organizations will have something in place to track losses associated with major breakdowns of equipment or process; the total loss of function. But unfortunately, the number of organizations that can quantify the costs related to a loss of function is substantially less.
I’ll leave with a few questions to ponder:
- Does your organization have a formal failure reporting process? Someone assigned to actively manage the process?
- Does your organization quantify losses associated with functional failures?
In the next FRACAS tip, I’ll talk about what type of data to report and the quality of that data.
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