Getting back on track with FMEA

Error-free production - getting back on track with FMEA - That is the title of Dieter Hellwig's lecture at the 14th Osnabrück FMEA Forum on March 27 and 28, 2019. FMEA coordinator Mobility Solutions Purchasing Quality of Robert Bosch GmbH shall explain principles and examples of successful implementation in practice, develop future perspectives based on VDA / AIAG harmonisation and present the Robert Bosch Supplier FMEA Excellence Program. You can read his overview on our FMEA blog under the guest article.

"Make your FMEA work for you"
by Dieter Hellwig

Can you imagine a 3-star chef with a knife so blunt?Just as sharpening knives makes a significant contribution to cooking, sharpening the method in the figurative sense contributes substantially to the benefits of FMEA.

The description in English from the AIAG manual claims, that the P-FMEA is a "Before the event" activity and not an "After the fact" exercise. Those FMEA's, which are mainly used afterwards in series production, do not use the full potential of the FMEA methodology. That is what proves it ineffective and expensive.

Whether or not one benefits from P-FMEA is primarily determined by the attitude and way of thinking in the company and in particular by the skills of the moderator and is only influenced by academic or methodological approaches in the second instance.

The use of a "structure based P-FMEA" versus a "defect / feature based" P-FMEA places the malfunctions in the process in the limelight rather than the error pattern or feature. An overview matrix (analogous VDA risk matrix, but without colours) increases the transparency of an FMEA. Of course, the FMEA is meant to prevent SOP and not revise the FMEA afterwards with the help of the 8D-report. And finally, the use of the new VDA / AIAG manual prevails upon new standards and increases the benefits.

In my presentation, I will also introduce our FMEA Excellence Program for suppliers in the Mobility Solutions Purchasing Direct Materials division.

New projects are the reason why 50% to 70% of quality problems have occurred in manufacturing. There, the problems very often result from violations of FMEA principles (FMEA: Failure Mode and Effect Analysis).
Dieter Hellwig, FMEA coordinator M/PQT10.1, Robert Bosch GmbH.