Once you have identified the scope of the FMEA project, made the scope visible, it is time identify the FMEA team members. This article discusses the composition of the FMEA team, including why each member is needed, and the underlying reason for a cross-functional team.
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” Helen Keller
correct
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “correct” as “most appropriate for a particular situation or activity”
team
BussinessDictionary.com defines “team” as “a group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to complete a task, job, or project. A team becomes more than just a collection of people when a strong sense of mutual commitment creates synergy, thus generating performance greater than the sum of the performance of its individual members.”
Why is FMEA a team activity?
One of the most important steps in preparing for an FMEA is selecting the right team because FMEA is a cross-functional team activity. Doing an FMEA by one person, or with an inadequate or incomplete team, is unacceptable and inevitably results in poor quality.
There are three primary reasons for the necessity to have the correct team when doing an FMEA.
1. People have “blind spots.” A well-defined cross-functional team minimizes the errors inherent with “blind spots.”
2. The FMEA analysis requires subject-matter experts from a variety of disciplines to ensure incorporation of all necessary inputs into the exercise, and that the proper expertise is applied to the design or process being analyzed.
3. One of the indispensable values of an FMEA is the cross talk and synergy between subject-matter experts that occurs during the meetings. Well-defined groups can discover things that individuals often miss.
Who should be on an FMEA team?
The make-up of an FMEA team is specific to the scope of the FMEA for the product or process.
A typical core team for a System or Design FMEA might include representatives from system engineering, design engineering, manufacturing engineering, test engineering, field service, and quality or reliability. Large systems or subsystems may require more than one design representative.
A typical core team for a Process FMEA might include representatives from manufacturing engineering, plant assembly, product engineering, supplier quality, end-of-line test, maintenance, and quality or reliability.
FMEA Tip
Tip 1: The FMEA core team can invite other experts for specific topics during FMEA meetings, when their topic is being discussed. Supplier partners may be included for critical parts on a need to know basis.
Tip 2: Management often has to be involved in empowering FMEA teams to ensure attendance and support. However, a management representative is not usually part of the FMEA team, unless he or she is a subject-matter expert and is needed in that capacity.
Problem
You’ve been asked to do a Design FMEA on a widget. You put together the correct team, do the preparation steps and schedule your first FMEA meeting. Only one of the team members shows up for the meeting. What should you do?
[Select one of the responses, and explain why it is the correct answer.]
1. Begin the DFMEA yourself. You can review it later with the team members when they show up.
2. Reschedule the meeting and hope more people show up for the re-scheduled meeting.
3. Cancel the meeting and request support from management to get better attendance.
Solution
Each of the responses will be explained below.
1. Begin the DFMEA yourself. You can review it later with the team members when they show up.
Many practitioners have found themselves in this situation at one time or another. Some companies have adopted this strategy to solve lack of attendance at FMEA meetings. The problem with one person doing the FMEA and later reviewed with a team is people can see and critique the verbiage entered in a column, but they often do not see what is missing in an FMEA. Remember, one of the important values of an FMEA is the cross talk and synergy between subject-matter experts that occurs during the meetings.
2. Reschedule the meeting and hope more people show up for the re-scheduled meeting.
Unfortunately, if the reason for lack of attendance is not addressed, the follow up meeting will probably be sparsely attended as well.
3. Cancel the meeting and request support from management to get better attendance.
Successful FMEAs require management support to provide the needed incentives and resources. Management support should be solicited to address attendance problems. It should be noted that well-run meetings tend to be supported with subsequent attendance. Conversely, it is very difficult to get people to show up for poorly run meetings.
Reader question:
Currently I am doing research on all the FMEA’s that are available within my company. To get an overview of all the items I would like to make a list all the “potential failure modes” of all the FMEA’s. Is there a list available, which describes typical failure modes (and shortly describes the background of that typical failure mode)?
Examples:
Untimely operation
Failure to operate when required
Loss of output
Intermittent output
Erroneous output (given the current condition)
Invalid output (for any condition)
Answer:
In my experience, there is no single list of failure modes that apply to all products. Some companies try to develop such lists for their specific products.
Depending on the nature and complexity of the product and the degree of technology change versus time, I have used what is called “generic FMEAs” which contain the typical functions, failures, effects, causes and controls for the product. “Generic FMEAs “do not apply to all product lines, so you have to understand where they apply and where they do not apply. Generic FMEAs are input to the actual System or Design FMEAs, which must still be done.
I would characterize the failures in your example list as “failure conditions” or “failure categories.” A “Failure Mode” is the manner in which the item or operation fails to meet or deliver the intended function and its requirements. The FMEA has best results if this definition is exactly applied, and “canned” failure modes are either avoided, or only used very carefully (under the right circumstances) as input to the analysis.
Next Article
Many companies use Parameter Diagram (also called P-Diagram) to provide an additional organizing tool in preparing for System or Design FMEAs. In the next article in the FMEA Preparation Series, P-Diagram is explained, including what it is, why it is done, and how it maps to FMEAs.
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