Role-specific Failure Prevention Interview Questions & Answers:

1. What are types of failure?

Failure can be differentially perceived from the viewpoints of the evaluators. A person who is only interested in the final outcome of an activity would consider it to be an Outcome Failure if the core issue has not been resolved or a core need is not met. A failure can also be a process failure whereby although the activity is completed successfully, a person may still feel dissatisfied if the underlying process is perceived to be below expected standard or benchmark.

1. Failure to anticipate
2. Failure to perceive
3. Failure to carry out a task

2. The “bath-tub” curve indicates failure probability. Which stage is not normally associated with the Bathtub curve?

1. “Wear-out” where failure increases due to age.
2. “Pulling the plug” where production is halted due to unacceptable level of failures
3. “Normal-life” where few failures occur
4. “Infant-mortality” where failures occur early

“Pulling the plug” where production is halted due to unacceptable level of failures

3. Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) provides a checklist procedure. Which of the following questions is not likely to feature on the checklist?

1. What is the likelihood that failure will occur
2. How likely is such a failure to be detected before it affects the customer
3. What would the consequences of the failure be
4. What would be the cost of avoiding failure be

What would be the cost of avoiding failure be

4. The Japanese-inspired concept of fail-safe (poka-yoke) seeks to prevent human mistakes. Which of the following are not examples of poka-yoke?

1. Gauges through which parts must pass on a machine
2. Digital counters on machines to ensure all parts are completed
3. Light beams, which activate alarms if errors occur
4. Sampling and checking work in a thorough manner

Sampling and checking work in a thorough manner

5. The reliability of an operation is normally NOT improved by one of the following procedures:

1. Designing out fail points in the operation
2. Laying-off employees who cause faults in the operation
3. Ensuring some activities in the operation 'fail-safe'
4. Building redundancy into the operation

Laying-off employees who cause faults in the operation

6. Total productive maintenance (TPM) has 5 goals. Which of the following is not a goal of TPM?

1. Focus preventative maintenance when failure is most likely to occur
2. Improve equipment effectiveness
3. Achieve autonomous maintenance
4. Train all staff in relevant maintenance

Focus preventative maintenance when failure is most likely to occur