Equipment Failure Root Cause Analysis
TapRooT® Root Cause Analysis takes complex, subjective, opinion-based, wickedly messy human error, and guides troubleshooters through an intuitive, standardized, and objective process of deducing root causes. Human performance difficulties (HPD) fall into seven basic cause categories (BCC) covering 103 possible root causes. TapRooT® RCA uses that same structure to find equipment failure root cause analysis.
Once you prove how the equipment failed using Equifactor® equipment troubleshooting, you still need to prove the root causes.
Equipment only has four failure categories:
- Tolerable failures
- Design
- Defective Equipment / Parts
- Preventive / Predictive Maintenance
Everything else is a Human Performance Difficulty, including repeat failures. “Tolerable” failure is a root cause that tells us the equipment strategy was run-to-failure for this mechanism. “Normal wear and tear” is NOT a root cause!
Humans are much more complicated, so Equipment Difficulty is a smaller category: ~10% of the Root Cause Tree®. How much does your company spend on unplanned equipment maintenance and repair? How would your Maintenance & Reliability budget change if you eliminated repeat failures from your problem asset class?
The first question is the most obvious and easy to answer: “Did the equipment break or wear out?”
If you can answer YES to that question, you have an EQUIPMENT DIFFICULTY! There are many other more specific questions; that’s just the first. Dig deeper into the Root Cause Tree® to find the true root causes for the equipment failure. If an equipment failure is due to errors in maintenance performance, installation, operations, etc. then you will ALSO evaluate Human Performance Difficulty. Those pesky humans!
Six Ways to Improve Equipment Failure Root Cause Analysis
To learn more about Equifactor®, correcting equipment and process failures, and designing operational troubleshooting procedures:
- Read the latest!
2. Sign up for the monthly Equipment Reliability Network™ Newsletter
3. Set up a demonstration to see how it works: Schedule an Executive Briefing
4. Attend an in-person or virtual Equifactor® course!
5. Purchase the Equifactor® Book.
6. Attend the Equipment Maintenance and Reliability Best Practice track at the Global Summit on Root Cause Analysis.
