FMEA
Grouping of Failure Modes by verbs can provide the basis for consistant FMEA development!
FMEA Class Reflection
This past FMEA class was held at our Troy Technical facility on April 22 and 23, 2010. The topic of matrix approaches drew a lot of interest. Each participant was intrigued with the legacy approach to keeping all FMEA data linking in to 8D and making FMEA’s smaller based on this legacy data. Keeping a legacy of all failure cause mechanisms provide the opportunity to simplify and reduce team time during FMEA development.
We all know how difficult it is to keep a team focused in the FMEA. Therefore, utilizing processes described in our latest FMEA class makes the best use of FMEA Team Time and still provides all the benefits.
New FMEA MINI – Training Video!
Take a look at our new Mini – Training Video: “What is FMEA?”
http://www.quality-one.com/services/fmea.php
RPN and FMEA
What is the RPN of Unintended Acceleration.
The current news reports of unintended acceleration provides the support the the concept that RPN in FMEA for any 9 or 10 should not be a consideration. Too many times RPN thresholds are set which permits teams of engineers the opportunity not to error proof these high danger/risk items. Understanding that it can happen, even at very low probabilities and further rationalizing that if it were to occur (unintended acceleration) the driver would know to put the vehicle in neutral or shut it down. The 9 and 10 in severity should always be addressed in this sequence:
1) Can I eliminate the failure mode (if done, the causes of failure are not valid)?
2) Can we error proof causes (take the occurrences to 1 individually)?
3) Controls or senses causes and therefore alerts of automatically shuts down or degrades function below the level where danger is not exhibited.
Following these steps is a three phase FMEA development model (vertically) can help avoid similar problems in the future.
I am blogging today from a nuclear fuel system manufacturer. The application of FMEA and Fault Tree Analysis has opened up possible failures that must be avoided. Without these valuable tools, we may have to wait for failure to occur before taking appropriate actions. The terminology of Deviant Normalcy, can be used to describe the tendancy to accept things because they have been that way for some time, possibly since it was started. FMEA helps to assure that we find these deviations from specification and keep the focus on the counter measures required to assure prevention or detection of it before an undesirable effect is experienced.
FMEA Workshop
I just wanted to let you know about the upcoming Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) Workshop in April 2010. This is a two day, instructor-led workshop and will cover all the principles of Design FMEA as well as Process FMEA, including Control Plans.
Quality Associates International, Inc. will be hosting this event on April 22nd and 23rd at our technical center in Troy, Michigan. Upon successful completion of this course each attendee will receive FMEA Certification from QAI.
More topics that will be discussed:
-Special Characteristics
-RPN / Criticality Zone
-Boundary and P Diagrams
-Incorporating 8D and 5 Why
And much more!
OR
Contact Marjorie at 248-280-4800 for further information
NEW Mini-Training Videos! Chec…
NEW Mini-Training Videos! Check It OUT! http://www.quality-one.com/video/
Risk Priority Number (RPN)
Risk Priority Number – Watch & Learn!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdEaRUD44OI http://bit.ly/4LDxJr
Design FMEA process using ION
What is ION? ION is an acronym for the sequence of developing causes and preventions in a Design FMEA. I Inside, O Outside, N Noises. Let me explain. If we do prework properly, a Boundary Diagram is highly recommended as well as a P or Parameter Diagram, as well as a FMA Failure Mode Analysis/or Avoidance.
Inside refers to the components or subsystems within the boundary (responsible for design) Ouside refers to the 4 types of interfaces to outside systems. and the N or Noise are the noises from the P Diagram that can either be a factor in cause or a contributor to a cause. Follow these steps in DFMEA development and you can reduce confusion and development time by 50%
Process FMEA and Control Plan links
I have been working on standardizing certain assembly process FMEA functions and failure modes. These Functions are verb-based, like fasten, align, locate, grasp etc…In doing this, there are certain synonyms that also can be grouped.
The new part about this is the standard control method selection based on criticality. The controls are developed around 4 levels of criticality. (criticality is the severity and occurrence combination) The highest criticality is associated with safety and regulatory conformance to the lowest where severity is below 5 and occurrences are also low.
By choosing certain practices as controls and based on criticality, the process controls (both prevention and detection) are already known and therefore just put in place on the FMEA and transferred to the control plan directly. This makes the 3rd path of FMEA development very fast but highly correlated to the FMEA /Control plan activities.
