It is important that the risks involved in designing and manufacturing your product are identified as early as possible in the product and process development cycle. The Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) widely used in the automotive industry is a very effective risk analysis tool which can be adapted to most other manufacturing industries. If properly used, it will foster better teamwork between design and manufacturing and help minimise or eliminate problems at product launch. It can also be used to promote communication and teamwork with the company's customers and suppliers.
There are two common types of FMEAs:
Design FMEA: The new or modified product design is analysed with the assumption that it can be manufactured within industry accepted tolerances
Process FMEA: The new or modified manufacturing process is analysed with the assumption that the product design specifications are acceptable
There is a separate parallel activity that should be performed i.e. Design for Manufacturability which compares the product design specifications to the existing manufacturing tolerances. The risks are then assessed and prioritised via the RPN methodology and a corrective action plan is developed. This point cannot be overemphasised in its importance. There is no point in establishing all the risks to then not have them effectively mitigated via a comprehensive corrective action plan.
The FMEAs must be treated as "living documents" and should be under constant review throughout the product and process development and post launch stages. Some of the specific services we offer in this area:
a. We provide in-house training preferably using the company's own examples and follow up support to ensure that the process and tools are properly applied in the organisation.
b. We have also access through our partners to excellent software tools to aid the team.
We can facilitate the FMEA meetings to ensure that the process is efficient and effective.
