If organizations want to be successful, they must quickly adapt to changing conditions in a competitive environment, must be flexible and must quickly resolve situations and problems occurring in organization. We use different tools and methods to solve these problems. One of these methods is Eight Disciplines Problem Solving (8D). The 8D method is a structured problem solving process. This method helps to correctly and timely solve problems. It is used when the cause of problem is unknown or when the solution to problem is beyond the capabilities of a single worker. This method is also used to improve products and processes

Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) is a method that directly focuses on the modes of failures. The FTA is a graphical representation of the major faults or critical failures associated with a product, as well as the causes for the faults and potential countermeasures. The aim of this research paper is to calculate the probability of the top event – the failure of the process using FTA and propose a technique to prioritize factors for action design and reduce the likelihood of a top event failure based on manufacturers' requirements. We have constructed a qualitative fault tree to produce office components packed and sealed in blister packs using a KOCH KBS-PL machine. We defined the top event G – the production of office components, packed and sealed in blister packs on the machinery KOCH KBS-PL. Then we defined events leading to top events down to individual failure factors. Based on the links between the fault tree and the probability of failure, we performed a quantitative analysis to determine the probability of failure of individual events. We found out that the probability of failure of G is 5.04%. Subsequently, we identified which factors most significantly reduce the resulting probability of failure of factor G. These are the factors: E – feed rate, F – cooling, AL – incorrect setting and D – break. It has been proven that by controlling these 4 factors, we can reduce the probability of failure of top event G to 2.36%, provided that effective measures are taken. The final proposal meets the requirements of several manufacturers for a fast, efficient, and cost-effective solution. We have created a proposal that saves time, has minimal software and hardware requirements, and is easy to use. The efficiency and effectiveness of the proposal was that we identified the weakest points in the fault tree that most significantly cause the top event to fail. This prioritized the factors for the design of the measures.

Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, the scientific journal of the Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic

The aim of the paper is to examine the requirements of producers in post-communist countries with lower economic level. The first requirement was how to overcome the limitations of conventional PFMEA to propose measures effectively. The second requirement solved the economic effect of failure modes. The aim of the paper was to create a new hybrid PFMEA–DEMATEL–ERPN model to manage failure modes to resolve the requirements. The DEMATEL model overcame the limitations of PFMEA. DEMATEL data were used to estimate the functionality of the proposed models. Criteria such as the occurrence of defective products and the probability of their occurrence (O and RPN) were monitored. ERPN also overcame the limitations of PFMEA. Internal and external costs arise as effects of failure modes. The costs were included in the economic evaluation of the models. We validated the models in a transfer pressing process. The estimation of models’ functionality proved to be correct. The economic evaluation refined the research results and resolved the second requirement of the manufacturers. The DEMATEL and ERPN models (compared to PFMEA) proved their validity when the use of PFMEA was limited. By using DEMATEL, we registered the lowest number of defective products and the lowest costs.

The aim of the paper was to determine the level of reliability of a carousel type device. Considering the improvement of reliability, we decided to use the basic tools of FMEA and FTA. Using FMEA, we identified the most critical part of the equipment, namely welding (RPN=320). The proposed measure only solved the improvement of detection. Based on the FMEA analysis, we chose the TOP event for FTA - bad weld. The detected probability of peak event failure by quantitative FTA analysis was at the level of 0.58%. We identified the basic events leading to the TOP event, i.e. an allowed sonotrode, incorrect position of the membrane during sampling, short welding time and insufficient weld depth. Subsequently, reliability indicators were quantified. We achieved almost 100% availability values. Despite this, the aim was to find out a more comprehensive level of reliability and follow up findings from FMEA. We used the DEMATEL model and our own proposed economic model. Using the DEMATEL model, we found out that short welding time and an insufficient weld depth are the causative modes, that means, they significantly influence other failure modes and do so with a high significance. The creation of an economic evaluation model based on the quantification of direct costs for failure modes with the consequences of a certain number of defective products contributed to the fact that we again determined that the failure modes short welding time and insufficient depth are the modes with the highest priority for solving the bad weld event. The costs incurred as a result of their occurrence and as a result of the occurrence of downtime were the highest with these regimes. These models create space for us to more effectively design measures to improve the level of reliability and production quality, what is a prerequisite for ensuring a reduction in downtime, an increase in production quality and reliability, and an overall cost reduction. This also leads to an increase in the reputation of manufacturers.