Hi folks! This article will help you to understand about the FMEA. It is a tool which is used in manufacturing industry specially in Automobile sector. If your organization is supplier partner/Vendor of Automobile company, then FMEA document need to be followed. If your organization is certified with IATF 16949 then in that case it is a mandatory document to follow and implement the FMEA in your organization. Sometimes your customer can ask in their Customer Specific Requirement (CSR) document to implement FMEA document.
History – The history of FMEA goes back to the early 1950s and 1960s. Ford Motor Company published instruction manuals in the 1980s and the automotive industry collectively developed standards in the 1990s. Engineers in a variety of industries have adopted and adapted the tool over the years.
Types of FMEA
a) DFMEA (Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis)
b) PFMEA (Process Failure Mode and Effects Analysis)
Why FMEA is used?
FMEA is a tool that allows you to:
- Identifies and eliminates concerns early in the development of a process or design
- Prevent System, Product and Process problems before they occur
- Estimates the risk associated with specific causes
- Prioritizes the actions that should be taken to reduce risk
- Methodology that facilitates process improvement
- Improve internal and external customer satisfaction
- FMEA may be a customer requirement
FMEA may be required by an applicable Quality System Standard
How to do FMEA (Procedure)
Cross Functional Team(CFT) identifies potential failure modes for design functions or process requirements.
- They assign severity to the effect of this failure mode
- They assign frequency of occurrence to the potential cause of failure and likelihood of detection
- Teams calculates a Risk Priority Number by multiplying severity times frequency of occurrence times likelihood of detection
- Team uses ranking to focus process improvement efforts
– Develop recommended actions, assign responsible persons, and take actions
– Assign the predicted severity, occurrence, and detection levels and compare RPNs
FMFA sample with an example.
When to conduct FMEA
- Early in the process improvement investigation
- When new systems, products, and processes are being designed
- When existing designs or processes are being changed
- When carry-over designs are used in new applications
- After system, product, or process functions are defined, but before specific hardware is selected or released to manufacturing
Benefits of FMEA
- Contributes to improved designs for products and processes.
- Higher reliability
- Better quality
- Increased safety
- Enhanced customer satisfaction
- Contributes to cost savings.
- Decreases development time and re-design costs
- Decreases warranty costs
- Decreases waste, non-value added operations
- Contributes to continuous improvement
Cost benefits are expected to come from the ability to identify failure modes earlier in the process, when they are less expensive to address.
FMEA document should be live document on the shop floor. If any customer complaint/ field failure comes then FMEA documents need to be reviewed by Cross functional team and updated according