Failure Reporting, Analysis and Corrective Action System (FRACAS) Application Guidelines

Effective use of a closed-loop failure reporting, analysis and corrective action system (FRACAS) during design and production is vital to preventing failures in delivered products. Those reliability problems that do occur in delivered products will be most quickly and efficiently resolved by continued use of FRACAS in the field. FRACAS is therefore an essential tool for achieving customer satisfaction. To help the user assure the efficiency of his FRACAS, this guidebook provides background to better understand FRACAS and its critical elements, defines how a FRACAS can be tailored to the user's needs, and suggests extensions of FRACAS beyond the traditional boundaries of hardware failures. Not recommending a cookbook approach, the guidebook encourages the reader to modify the techniques and guidelines in accordance with the constraints and opportunities inherent in his own circumstances.