FRACAS improves production bottom line

Failure Reporting Analysis and Corrective Action System (FRACAS) process and procedures provide long-term corrective actions and short-term directives that reduce the cost of rework, increase production throughput and reduce lost material. Each failure mode adds a Failure Period (FP) to the normal build operation process cost, involving cost for troubleshooting and rework activities, which increases the Unit Production Costs (UPC). Long-term corrective actions eliminate failure modes, which reduce their inter-arrival rate, thereby reducing the number of tested units that deviate from the normal production process flow and enter an FP. Short-term directives characterize failure modes in such a manner as to provide a deterministic set of troubleshooting and rework procedures to restore the Unit Under Test (UUT) to performance acceptability and therefore reduce the FP cost and the number of tested units that enter a troubleshooting backlog.