Rai Chowdhary, MS, CQE, CQM,
Six Sigma Coach
NOTE: These will be of
benefit only if you have some familiarity with FMEAs
FMEAs generally require the following steps (bottoms up approach):
NOTE:
1 Although presented sequentially, the above steps do not have to
be in the exact order - for instance steps 7 and 8 may occur simultaneously,
being pursued by different members of the FMEA Team.
2 Failure modes in the case of tops down approach will be different
Excellent training is available on
FMEA from TEAM 2000
Call today: 1-877-HOWNWHY, or 1-877-469-6949
There are some books and training that will get you started quickly, the books I found most helpful are:
1 The AIAG Manual
2 Basics of FMEA by McDermott
3 Inviting Disasters by James Chiles (Not a book on FMEA, but has very good information nevertheless)
Excellent consulting / training workshops are offered by TEAM 2000 with hands
on exercises customized to fit your needs
Please call 1-877-HOWNWHY, or 1-877-469-6949.
Website: www.hownwhy.com
Performing an FMEA does not have to be a frustrating experience. In fact it can be fun and very enjoyable, as you realize the extent of prevention you are building into your product, process or service.
When not conducted properly, there can be some frustration, and a few of the reasons for the same are as follows:
1 Team is dysfunctional
2 Unreasonable expectations from stake holders, example: Managers wanting it done in a matter of 2 days, where as the scope of the project may be much larger
3 Team did not understand the key steps and principles involved in conducting FMEAs, for example - they keep mixing up Failure Modes with Causes and Effects - a very common occurrence
4 Rating scales are constructed / used on a casual basis, rather than with due diligence
5 Enough time is not dedicated to studying the object of study (product, process, or service) - this can lead to guessing on the failure modes, effect, and causes. The resulting FMEA can be more harmful than beneficial.
6 ...
Make your FMEAs successful in preventing failures
Get the right training from TEAM 2000
Call: 1-877-HOWNWHY, or 1-877-469-6949
FMEAs as a rule should be performed as a team effort. One individual may not have the visibility or enough knowledge to look at failures from all angles. Knowledge about their effects resides with the user or customer of the product - thus, having the customer involved (if possible), or at least the customer's representative participate is very important. Similarly you will need people who understand the product / process in detail, as also a team lead to keep the FMEA on track.
Keeping the team size to a reasonable number is recommended; large teams can get bogged down.
FMEA is a structured approach to understanding "Risk." This is accomplished using analysis of the effects of failure, the frequency of occurrence, and the effectiveness of detection from the current controls in place.
FMEAs serve a very vital purpose - that of "Preventing" failures. Many failures are indeed preventable, although the same cannot be said for "Disasters", especially the ones caused by nature.
Unfortunately, for most folks taking steps to build in prevention is rather
rare. The business world by and large applauds those heroes who perform
feats after a disaster or catastrophe strikes, and save the day. While
there is merit to such behavior, and in some cases such actions are indeed the
right thing to do, such reward system reinforces "reactive", rather
than "proactive" behaviors. The oft repeated phrase "if it ain't
broke, don't fix it" has probably also contributed much to these thought
processes. Trouble is, when it breaks, often it is impossible to reverse
the damage. We would be better off saying - "if it ain't broke,
prevent it from breaking, but don't tamper with it."
Here are some common observations of situations that can benefit from proactive steps:
1 Fewer than 5% of the people have prepared a will. A will cannot prevent death, but it can save the survivors a lot of grief!
2 A vast majority of the population does not get flu shots, although the flu season occurs every year
3 Launch decisions made by NASA managers (For example: They decided to launch the Challenger, even though it was well known that the ambient temperatures were below the recommended operating temperatures for O Rings)
4 The tendency of killing pain using pills, rather than investigating the real causes of the pain (what if the pain is an indicator of some rather serious condition?)
5 ...
Ideally speaking the FMEA ought to be performed before the product / process / service is launched. Few companies / businesses however do this effectively. In some cases an FMEA gets performed after the product / process / service has been put in place. This leads to many constraints and costly remedial measures. Many times FMEAs are not performed at all - simply because of ignorance about their benefits. There have been cases too where it was thought that doing an FMEA is time consuming, and costly, therefore short cuts were taken.
Some professionals believe that FMEAs are the same as traditional hazard
analysis techniques. There are similarities, however FMEA is a more sound
approach because of the inclusion of current controls, and
"Detection."
Back to Top
I will mention 5 of the common mistakes I have seen occur: