Root Cause Analysis Solves Complex Problem
System Improvements' TapRoot System

Huntsman Corp. manufactures basic products for a number of global industries, including chemicals, plastics, automotive, footwear, construction, paints and coatings, health care, detergent, personal care, and packaging.

Huntsman wanted to find a consistent, effective root cause analysis tool that it could use to solve problems and improve performance. During the testing and integration period for a large petrochemical manufacturing process, a large tank collapsed due to the rapid condensation of steam that was being used to clean the tank prior to maintenance work. The rapid condensation occurred when the deluge system was accidentally activated after an electrician removed a faulty bulb in one of the relays for that system's electrical power supply. The collapse of the process tank caused severe damage to the tank and significant costs for its replacement.

Huntsman sought to quickly investigate and learn how to prevent the recurrence of the collapsed process tank within the two weeks the repairs were being made and without requiring excessive support of plant personnel. The investigation was performed at a facility licensed to use the TapRooT System.

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Corrective Action Tracking System Improves Data Access
AssurX's CATSWeb

Solectron Corp., headquartered in Milpitas, California, provides a full range of global manufacturing and supply-chain management services to the world's premier high-tech electronics companies. The company grew by providing circuit board assembly services to the dense circle of electronics companies located in the Silicon Valley. Founded in 1977, the two-time winner of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was looking for an automated system to extend failure process analysis to customer locations.

Solectron had no way of tracking and reporting product problems nor querying information that needed to be addressed immediately. When customers would demand data, engineers would have to stop what they were doing, spend several hours per week compiling data and producing reports--all of which were completely paper-based. This caused numerous productivity and data-compilation problems; paper-based systems are known to be inefficient and can become outdated in a matter of hours.

CATSWeb was chosen by Solectron because customers who were standardized on Sun Solaris or other Unix-based systems were able to retrieve and enter data without problems associated with other Web-based systems that rely on Java, JavaScript or VBScript code on the client browsers. Any type of browser could be used to access CATSWeb around the world, and with CATSWeb, Solectron was able to produce instantaneous dynamic reports in real time, greatly increasing the visibility of the problem.

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