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“Innovation has a lot to do with timing.” — Steve Jobs
When FMEAs are done is just as important as how they are done. In this article, I’ll share evaluation criteria for the FMEA Quality Objective regarding timing.
FMEAs need to be completed through Recommended Actions, Actions Taken, and risk reduced to an acceptable level by certain dates. Meeting the timing objectives of FMEAs means they were started and completed by the required dates. [Read more…]
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” Albert Einstein
There is no more important outcome from an FMEA than identifying and addressing high-risk issues. In this article, I will outline how to evaluate an FMEA against the FMEA Quality Objective for addressing high-risk failures.
The level of risk in an FMEA is identified in the Risk Priority column. For each failure mode and corresponding effect and cause, the FMEA team designates the level of risk, such as “high” or “medium” or “low.” High-risk failures are those that the FMEA teams assigns the highest level of risk, based on appropriate FMEA standard or company policy.
“Address” means “to deal with, handle, or give attention to a problem, issue, or topic in a deliberate and effective way.”
In an FMEA, each of the high-risk failure modes must be addressed by effective actions that reduce risk to an acceptable level. [Read more…]
“Evaluate what you want – because what gets measured, gets produced.” James A. Belasco
Years ago, many FMEAs did not recommend actions to improve product designs or testing. They identified risk, which is important; but missed opportunities to actually improve product designs and test plans. In this article, I will outline how to evaluate an individual Design FMEA or Process FMEA against the FMEA Quality Objective for test improvements.
The concept is to take specific action to add new tests and/or revise current tests, in order to address high detection risk. [Read more…]
Progressive improvement beats delayed perfection. Mark Twain
In this article, I will outline how to evaluate an individual Design FMEA or Process FMEA against the FMEA Quality Objective for design improvements.
An essential part of FMEA procedure is for the FMEA team to recommend and implement actions to reduce risk to an acceptable level. For Design FMEAs, this includes actions to improve the product design. For Process FMEA, this includes actions to improve the design of the manufacturing or assembly process. Of course, there are other types of actions that can be recommended, such as test improvements; but this quality objective is focused on design improvements. [Read more…]
“Always remember, your focus determines your reality” – George Lucas
In this article, I will outline how to evaluate an FMEA against the FMEA Quality Objective for identifying special characteristics. Special characteristics are often not well understood by FMEA teams, and yet have potential to be highly useful in FMEA applications.
“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing” – Warren Buffett
In this article, I will outline how to evaluate an FMEA against the FMEA Quality Objective for identifying high-risk failures.
One definition for “risk” is “the possibility of loss or injury;” and “high” means “of a greater degree, amount or cost than expected.” Putting these words together, “high risk” means the anticipated loss or injury is too great. [Read more…]
“Risk analysis is the art of turning uncertainty into actionable insight.” — Anonymous
In this article, I will outline how to evaluate an FMEA against the FMEA Quality Objective for Technical Risk Analysis.
By definition, “risk analysis” is “the systematic process of identifying, evaluating, and estimating the levels of risk involved in a situation, process, or system, in order to inform decision-making. [Read more…]
Many ideas grow better when they are transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up. Oliver Wendell Holmes
In this article, I will outline how to evaluate an FMEA against the FMEA Quality Objective for FMEA Team. I’ll include relevant information from the chapter in the FMEA Preparation series called “Assembling the Correct FMEA Team.”
Every failure is a lesson learned about your strategy. Thomas Edison
In this article, I will discuss how to evaluate an FMEA against the FMEA Quality Objective for Lessons Learned.
By definition, a “lesson” means “something learned by study or experience,” and “learn” means “to gain knowledge or understanding of by study, instruction or experience.”
Lessons Learned are specific data from the field (or from manufacturing plant history in the case of Process FMEAs) that documents relevant information about failures, from which knowledge can be gained and used in support of future product programs. [Read more…]
A picture is worth a thousand words. An interface is worth a thousand pictures. Ben Shneiderman
In this article, I will outline how to evaluate an individual Design FMEA (DFMEA) against the FMEA Quality Objective for Interfaces. [Read more…]
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra
In this article, I will outline how to evaluate an individual FMEA against the FMEA Quality Objective for Scope. [Read more…]
Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning Thomas Edison
In this article, I will outline how to evaluate an FMEA Plan against the FMEA Quality Objective for FMEA Plans.
“Quality is not act. It is a habit.” – Aristotle
This month will begin a new series of articles on the quality of FMEAs, part of the Inside FMEAs series. The series will provide insights and application tips for evaluating how well an FMEA meets quality objectives. The intent is to create FMEAs that add value by accomplishing the objectives for FMEA, not filling out a form.
We’ll begin with definitions from the Oxford English dictionary. “Quality” is defined as “the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something.” “Objective” is “a thing aimed at or sought; a goal.”
Building from the above definitions, FMEA quality objectives are specific goals or aims that measure the degree of excellence of an FMEA. [Read more…]
