Benefits of Design FMEA Although it takes considerable time and effort to properly do a Design FMEA, it can effectively identify

serious failures or design flaws. When considering the cost of performing this type of FMEA analysis, please consider what it could be worth to your company. Avoiding a costly and embarrassing product recall could save your company millions of dollars, not to mention years of effort rebuilding your valuable reputation and trust with customers. Although there are other types of FMEA, this article focuses on design FMEA and highlights some of the key benefits associated with this type of analysis. For those who might not be familiar with Design FMEA here is some background. Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is an analysis technique which facilitates the identification of potential problems in a design by examining the effects of lower level failures. Compensating provisions or recommended actions are made to reduce the chance of the problem occurring, and mitigate the risk, if it does occur. There are many reasons why this analysis technique is helpful. Here are some of the most important benefits of performing a detailed Design FMEA: 1) It helps the analyst objectively analyze the design requirements and look at design tradeoffs. 2) It increases the probability that potential failure modes and their effects have been considered in the design/development process. 3) The FMEA analyst develops a list of potential failure modes ranked according to their effect on the customer. This establishes a list of priorities for future design improvements. 4) A Design FMEA provides a basis for identifying root failure causes and developing effective corrective actions. It also provides an open issue format for recommending and tracking risk reducing actions. 5) The analysis provides additional information to help plan thorough and efficient test programs. 6) Design FMEAs are effective in identifying reliability and safety critical components. 7) This type of FMEA analysis provides a foundation for maintainability, safety, testability, and logistics analyses. 8) It acts as a valuable trouble-shooting reference when analyzing future field concerns. This article just touches on some of the benefits associated with this type of analysis. Design FMEA has proven its worth time and time again throughout many industries. It is regularly used in the defense and aerospace industries, automotive, telecommunications, and medical industries along with many others. There are many good resources where you can find out more about Design FMEA. Both large and small companies have benefited from making FMEA an integral part of their quality programs.