How and why did it fail or malfunction?
Failure analysis and problem solving
When failure or malfunction occurs, it is necessary to determine what happened and how it happened
– this constitutes failure analysis.
It is also necessary to determine why it happened
– this constitutes root cause analysis.
The root cause of any failure or malfunction can generally be attributed to one of the following:
- Inadequate design or inappropriate materials
- Errors in manufacture, construction or fabrication
- Incorrect operation, inspection or maintenance
- Previously unknown phenomena