Failure Modes and Effects Analysis

This course is aimed at engineers, project engineers, design engineers, process engineers, program managers and others responsible for identifying and preventing product or process failure modes. 

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a tool that can identify design and process failures before they occur, identify appropriate risk mitigation measures to prevent or control these failures, and improve product and process design. All design and process failures (and the actions required to control these failures) are predictable and preventable; however, organizations frequently experience predictable and preventable failures with costly consequences. These failures can lead to product recalls, death or injury, poor quality, and unanticipated cost. The aerospace and defense industries have used FMEA for decades. FMEA has made significant inroads into automotive, biomedical device, and many other industries. Your organization can benefit greatly from this analysis tool. This course utilizes real-life case studies to help you apply DFMEA and PFMEA effectively to your job. The Manufacturing Training Failure Modes and Effects Analysis program is an intense 16-hour course that will teach your staff how to prepare Design and Process FMEAs.

This is a practical course taught from the perspective of an experienced engineering and manufacturing manager, with a special emphasis on real-world solutions, the “nuts and bolts” of DFMEA and PFMEA preparation, and the implementation of effective risk mitigation measures. The course develops and presents a results-oriented roadmap for implementing an effective DFMEA and PFMEA approach.

You will learn how to:

• Work together to prepare complex DFMEAs and PFMEAs, and proactively eliminate potential failure modes before they occur.

• Objectively identify severity, occurrence, detectability, and risk priority numbers.

• Develop effective approaches for eliminating or greatly reducing failure mode risks.

• Incorporate lessons learned from prior products and processes.

• Use a corrective action/preventive action order of precedence.

Course Outline

Session 1: Introductory Concepts.  FMEA, DFMEA, PFMEA, and FMECA definitions. FMEA objectives. Design versus process FMEA. Pre-design, design, and post-design effectiveness. Prediction versus detection. The predictive nature of FMEAs. Soliciting and including appropriate expertise. Applicable standards (MIL-STD-1629, SAE J1739). Tabular analysis organization. Case study. Group activity.

Session 2: Formats and Failure Modes.   Mechanical component failure modes. Electronic component failure modes. Electrical equipment failure modes. Hydraulic equipment failure modes. Assessing failure effects at component, subassembly, next assembly, and system levels. Criticality definitions and determinations. MIL-STD-1629 versus J1739 formats. Case study. Group activity.

Session 3: Design FMEA Preparation.  Tabular formats. Using Word and Excel when preparing FMEAs and FMECAs. Group FMEA/FMECA preparation activity. Critical, major, minor, and negligible definitions. Corrective and preventive action. Corrective action order of precedence. Case study. Group activity.

Session 4: Process FMEA Preparation.  Design versus Process FMEAs. Assessing production, operational, quality assessment, and administrative processes. Assessing redundancy defeaters. Tapping outside resources. Developing improvement recommendations. Case study. Group Activity.

Session 5: FMEA Quantification. Failure rates, MTBF, and probability of failure. Occurrence, severity, detectability, and risk priority numbers. Failure rate sources. Human error failure rates. Failure rate versus environment. MIL-HDBK-217F, NPRD-95, and MIL-STD-1629. Dormant versus active failure rates. Assessing storage failure mechanisms. Case study. Group activity.

Session 6: The Failure Mode Effects Summary (FMES).  FMES purposes. Using Excel’s sorting features to streamline FMES preparation. Quantifying failure mode effects. Case study. Group activity.

Session 7: The FMEA Report.  System descriptions. Citing data sources. Using the FMEA to streamline reliability predictions. Embedding Excel and *.pdf files to accelerate preparation. Case study. Group activity.

Session 8: Related Analysis Techniques.  Related reliability and system safety analyses. PHA, SSHA, OHA and fault tree analysis. Other information sources. Case study. Group activity.

Session 9: FMEA Cost Estimation.  Estimating FMEA preparation costs based on part count and system complexity. Tips for streamlining FMEA preparation and reducing FMEA cost. Case studies. Group activity.

Session 10: Course Summary, Review, and Critique.  Recap, remaining questions and answers, and evaluations.

Add a “workshop day” to the course to allow the participants to work together to analyze manufacturing leadership issues specific to your organization. The workshop day can be scheduled a few weeks after the course to allow time for applying the technologies presented in class under an experienced practitioner’s guidance.

Schedule post-class follow-up consultation for ongoing manufacturing leadership and management improvement.

How You Will Learn

• A seasoned manufacturing executive/consultant/instructor will present this course in an interactive lecture and workshop format. 

• Along with the lectures, we use exercises, puzzles, case studies, and interesting group activities to enrich the instruction and emphasize the essential points.

• You will receive a printed Participant Handbook that includes all materials presented in class, which will help you remember and retain what you learned and apply it on your job. 

• You will learn key manufacturing management concepts from theoretical, practical, and organizational perspectives. 

Our Expertise

We are experts in manufacturing leadership. We've walked the walk, having personally managed plants and plant turnarounds. We know from personal experience how to improve quality, lower costs, meet demanding delivery schedules, and manage factories. We've done so in the aerospace, defense, biomedical, water treatment, precision machining, injection molding, electronics, recreational vehicle, motorcycle, and many other industries.

There'sno fluff here.   We know our business, we are widely published in these areas, and we can provide laser-like focus on identifying improvement opportunities and implementing meaningful change. We can help your team attain these same skills!

The above training can be customized to meet your requirements. Please call us at 909 204 9984 or contact us via email.