Does the uniform FMEA manual (AIAG & VDA) method description make everything better?

In a guest article for the newsletter of our long-time FMEA software partner Böhme & Weihs, Winfried Dietz addresses the following questions: Will the uniform method description according to FMEA manual (AIAG & VDA) make everything better now? How do the changes affect the FMEA moderators’ everyday work? And what sort of challenges remain?

How I see it! – A field test as a guest article by Winfried Dietz for Böhme & Weihs

Without giving away all the details of this field test for the FMEA manual (AIAG & VDA), we can already say that the uniform method description brings together the best of both FMEA worlds in Europe and the America.

by Winfried Dietz

The publication of the first edition of the FMEA manual (AIAG & VDA) at the beginning of June 2019 marks the end of a long coordination process that included many discussions.The same FMEA specifications now apply to system developers and original equipment manufacturers for the automotive industry and their suppliers in both Germany and North America. Although calls for harmonization date back a long way, it has finally arrived, along with the challenge of putting this uniform method description into practice.

Getting there has been a long and arduous process: the many postponements to publication and the thousands of comments and “objections” to the draft for example. This is a great way of showing the significance and ultimately the energies involved in FMEA. FMEA nevertheless also makes a great claim: identifying, assessing and minimizing risks during development. Predicting the future has always been a hazardous enterprise.

In June 2019 the time had finally come. For the first time, the AIAG and VDA committees released a joint FMEA method description for publication. It is surely no exaggeration to refer to this manual as the global standard for FMEA in the automotive environment.

The seven steps of the uniform method description according to the FMEA manual (AIAG & VDA) are a well-rounded affair: the 7-step approach in three categories covers the entire risk analysis cycle, including logical and coherent scope and sequence:

System analysis with the 3 steps consisting ofplanning and preparation, structural analysis, functional analysis

Error analysis and risk reduction with the 3 steps consisting oferror analysis, risk analysis, optimization

Risk communication with the final step:documentation of results

You can read the complete guest article including a more detailed look at the 7 steps of the uniform method description according to the FMEA manual (AIAG & VDA) at https://www.boehme-weihs.de/aktuelles/fachpresse/gastbeitrag-fmea-handbuch.There you can also order our FMEA notebooks for design and process FMEA as English PDF files clearly and compactly summarizing the 7 steps of FMEA according to VDA and AIAG with their associated tasks. Or simply send an e-mail with all your contact details to backoffice@dietz-consultants.com and we will be happy to send you a copy. The notebooks in printed form are available in English, German or Mandarin.