Resumen en español

A heuristic model is proposed to determine the capacity of the manufacturing companies to analyze their processes from the failure. For its development, thirty companies, located in the Aburrá Valley (Antioquia, Colombia), were analyzed through descriptive transverse study. The model is a function of 16 items about collecting, documenting, and updating of information relating to possible failure events. For validation are selected two methods: first, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (0.85) approach; second, the comparison between answer categories (low, medium, and high) and description of five industrial features: age, utilization of SGC ISO 9000, employee turnover, failure records, and competitive interests. This study shows that 57 % of enterprises studied were classified as high capacity, 26 % as medium capacity and 17 % as low capacity. SMEs show disadvantages. With this model can be identified mature companies in the field and others that deserve support to analyze and respond with data and facts to the elimination of the root causes of their problems.