Page 49 - Root Cause Failure Analysis

40 Root Cause Failure Analysis
Vendor Evaluations

The quality of new and rebuilt equipment has declined substantially over the past ten
years. At the same time, many companies have abandoned the practice of regular
inspections and vendor certification. The resulting decline in quality is another con-
tributor to equipment malfunction or failure.

Poor Operating Practices and Procedures
Poor operating practices and procedures play a major role in equipment-reliability
problems. Figure 3-9 illustrates the more common sources of problems caused by
procedures. Problems generally result because procedures are not used, are inade-
quate, or are followed incorrectly. Any one of these categories may be the root cause,
but it usually occurs in conjunction with one or more of the other causes discussed in
this section. For example, use not enforced also is a supervision problem and the true
root cause must include an evaluation. The key to evaluating a potential root cause is
to determine if the problem is inadequate procedures or the failure to follow valid
procedures.

Many SOPS used to operate critical plant production systems are out of date or inade-
quate. This often is a major contributor to reliability and equipment-related problems.
If this is judged a potential contributor to the specific problem being investigated,
refer to Figure 3-9 for the subclassifications that will help identify the root cause and
appropriate corrective actions. Procedure problems have a more universal impact on
reliability and performance in that there is an extremely high probability that the fail-
ure or problem will recur.

PROCEDURES >

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wrong
poor

q-) enforced L.C"f?%EF-)
use
not
Figure 3-9 Common root causes of procedure-related problems.