Bob,
	Without the original assembly you can not perform an accurate 8D. I
would inform the customer that you will issues a quality alert and open an
internal investigation/8D on your process, confirming that your process is
still with in your upper and lower control limits. If you currently keep
real-time data and history for that part of your process it should be quick,
if not then you will have to run the process and try and collect accurate
data. The down side of rerunning the process is that operators see you
hanging around and follow the process more accurately, which may not be what
is happening in full production. 
	Follow up with the customer and tell them for proper root cause
analyses please send the assemblies "as is" if they expect a proper
investigation. All too often they try and remove something or fix it and
destroy all the evidence or make the investigation more difficult.

Ted

-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of bob wettermann
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 4:00 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [TN] Determining Root Cause

Dear Technetters:

Here's a situation where your opinions would be helpful:

Assume
your company  have shipped a PWB to a customer and the customer
determines a functional failure and via XRAY determines that there was
problem via a solder short. As the builder you review the XRAY image
and you confirm that it is indeed a short. The customer asks you for an
8D analysis. You politely request that the board be returned so that
you can ask the 5 "Whys" or generate an "Ishikawa diagram" or a get to a
root cause.

Upon asking this question the customer indicates that the board is no longer
available. Do you:

A. Tel the customer that without the actual board (1 out of a lot size of
25) the root cause analysis is not possible and you cannot perfom an 8D
B. Ask for the balance of the lot back to see and begin the root analysis
and trust that you can actually get to a root cause
C. Guess at a root cause 
D. Do not answer your phone

Regards 
 Bob Wettermann
PH 847-767-5745

---------------------------------------------------
Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0
To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet
To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to
[log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL)
To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to
[log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest
Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives
Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16
for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or
847-615-7100 ext.2815
-----------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------
Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0
To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet
To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL)
To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest
Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives
Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815
-----------------------------------------------------