How can you use FMEA to identify and prevent failures in your supply chain?

Supply chain management team shall identify the failure modes for each stage till the unloading of the parts at the customer end. The failure modes should cover the following aspects to make the FMEA more effective: * What output is expected from each stage and what inputs are expected to the next or subsequent customers. * Map the Customer requirements to assess all type of failure modes. * Assess Legal or Regulatory requirements. * Consider the Past experience like PTDB data. * Assess the packaging the transportation guidelines/ requirements. * Assess the benchmark data in terms of best-in-class practices or competitor controls etc.

Primeiro ponto é o objetivo. Qual objetivo de aplicar o FMEA? Qual o foco? Qual a "falha" que lhe incomoda no processo do suprimentos. Ai sim, aplica se a metodologia. "Failure" Mode and Effect Analysis. Qual a falha? Logo estruture o processo para que o modo de falha ou problema não aconteça mais, sugestão: "protocolos", fluxos, normativos etc.

To utilize FMEA for supply chain failure prevention: 1.Identify failure modes🛑:Analyze potential failure points in the supply chain, considering factors like logistics, supplier reliability and demand forecasting. 2.Assess severity, occurrence and detection📊:Evaluate the impact of each failure its likelihood and the effectiveness of current detection methods. 3.Prioritize risks🎯:Focus on high-severity, high-occurrence failure modes with low detection capability for mitigation. 4.Implement preventive measures🛡️:Develop strategies to address identified risks, such as diversifying suppliers, improving communication or implementing backup plans. 5.Monitor and adapt🔄:Continuously monitor the supply chain

FMEA is a tool that can help prevent supply chain failures. Follow these steps: - Identify the process or system you want to assess. - Break it down into individual steps and components. - Assign a severity, probability, and detection rating to each potential failure mode. - Calculate the risk priority number (RPN) for each potential failure mode. - Prioritize potential failure modes based on their RPNs. Using FMEA can help improve your supply chain efficiency, quality, and customer satisfaction.

FMEA is one of the best preventive tool that can be applied in any process and help team to know all the possible ways of failure, its potential cause and action plan in place to mitigate/minimize the occurrence of failure. For the best outcome, one must list down all the process steps (end to end process) on which FMEA has to be conducted. Better identified/listed are the processes, better the chance to walk through each and have a better FMEA. Existing process flow or value stream map is good to refer to list down the processes.

In FMEA, identification of failure mode is critical and demands forward thinking. FMEA provides a structured approach to identifying and prioritizing potential failure modes, taking action to prevent and detect failure modes and making sure mechanisms are in place to ensure ongoing process control. Use a process flowchart to identify each process component, list each process component in the FMEA table. Cross Functional Teams determine potential failures by analyzing each functional requirement for the process and identifying, based on similar processes and experiences from the past, where failure moods are likely to occur. It’s also important to remember that one failure mode can have an effect, leading to failures in other components.

In my view, as a first step clear Supply Chain mapping is needed to understand key process involved in the production and delivery of product or service, the best tool is Value Stream Mapping (VSM) and then develop Process FMEA at each area of Supply Chain, normally this includes producers, suppliers, logistics, warehouses, distribution centers, retailers. It is complex task to develop Process FMEA for whole supply chain, we need to appoint passionate internal team.

I'm not convinced by this second step! Before identifing failure modes , you need to identify all the activities of this choosen process to be sure that any will be forgetten! And then for each one, search for the Failure mode! This is my opinion

This can be a tricky part for some people. As this is the case make sure to do this in a team brainstorm the possible failures of the process. What could go wrong focusing on the impact it has for example what's the resulting "damage" if it happens.

Na etapa de identificação dos modos de falha potenciais, é listar todas as possíveis maneiras pelas quais um processo ou produto pode falhar. Isso envolve pensar de forma crítica e imaginativa sobre as diferentes formas como um componente, processo ou função pode não atender às expectativas de desempenho. Por exemplo, em um componente mecânico, os modos de falha potenciais podem incluir desgaste excessivo, corrosão, quebra por fadiga, entre outros, através de metodologias e ferramentas de qualidade.

A análise das falhas potenciais, é feita através da causa raiz, o que ocasionaria o problema ou falha? Há controles para prevenção ou detecção desse problema no fluxo de suprimentos? Se não houver, a 1° ação é instituir um controle que possa eliminar, mitigar ou detectar ao menos as possíveis falhas. Sendo muito importante, que os colaboradores (as) do processo, participem e sintam-se parte do desenvolvimento do FMEA, para que depois usem e sigam, as propostas corretivas e de melhoria.

FMEA is the tool used to any process , can find the un wanted events / effect before happened and find the counter measure for that.

One thing to consider in this area of FMEA is what is the resulting loss based on the failure modes. This can be the cost of lost sales or missed revenue due to defects. Make sure to look at each step and as a team focus on what these could be avoiding any current mitigations the process may already have

O foco está em compreender as possíveis consequências das falhas identificadas. Isso envolve considerar como cada modo de falha potencial pode impactar o desempenho, a segurança, a confiabilidade ou outros aspectos do processo ou produto em questão. Por exemplo, se um componente falhar, quais seriam os efeitos sobre o funcionamento do sistema como um todo? Qual seria o impacto sobre a segurança dos usuários ou sobre a qualidade do produto final? Identificar e compreender esses efeitos é crucial para priorizar as ações corretivas de forma eficaz.

I'm a consultant for medical products / FDA. When forming a team for Product Risk Management, I strive to include a clinician / doctor / nurse ... familiar with the medical procedure, the products used, and the risks, severity and probability of occurrence in the use of those products, on the team. Larger companies often have a company nurse, PA, or medical technician on staff, as a company medical person, or an employee in an unrelated function, or a member of the board. If not, I try to get the client to hire a consultant with those qualifications. They are a great help to help the team develop realistic values to assign to Severity and Probability, and settle any disagreements related to usage of the product and resultant risks.

It's well-recognised best practice to avoid using a Risk Priority Number in the evaluation of risk as it has been identified that people will artificially attempt to reduce the RPN just below a threshold for more priority, which undermines your FMEA's purpose. It's also best to prioritise severity, then occurrence, then (if you're using it) detection (e.g. a SOD prioritisation method or weighting severity scores).

Once the potential failure mode is identified, the risk shall be evaluated. For the evaluation, below steps shall be followed: 1. Assign severity ranking from 1to10 to potential effect(s) of failure mode. 2. Assign occurrence ranking from 1to10 to potential cause of failure mode. 3. Assign detection ranking from 1to10 to current controls to detect each failure mode. 4. Multiply the three ranking: Severity x Occurrence x Detection and get the Risk Priority Number (RPN). 5. Prioritize the actions based on high to low RPN number. Some modes with low RPN but high severity of safety factor shall also be considered under priority.

Make sure external parties in your supply chain are aware of the importance you place on risk actions and there is an established mechanism to assign and monitor these activities. It's also worthwhile considering if activities outside the supply chain (e.g. re-design of components or packaging requirements) might help mitigate or eliminate these risks.

When evaluating the risk, it's important to consider the current process and what mitigations you may already have in place, don't make them part of your analysis, take the credit for them and use them to reduce your risk. We don't always need to create new processes to mitigate risk sometimes we do a good job and what we have is a good mitigation, we just need to document this and accept the risk on some occasions. We cannot remove risk completely, only reduce it.

Envolve propor e executar medidas para mitigar ou eliminar as falhas identificadas. Essas ações podem incluir a modificação de projetos, revisão de processos, melhoria de controles de qualidade, atualização de procedimentos operacionais, entre outras iniciativas. É fundamental que as ações propostas sejam claras, específicas e mensuráveis, para garantir que realmente abordem as causas raiz dos modos de falha potenciais. Além disso, é importante acompanhar de perto a implementação dessas ações e avaliar sua eficácia ao longo do tempo. A análise de FMEA é um processo contínuo, e as ações corretivas fazem parte desse ciclo de melhoria constante.

Post improvement action in place, effectiveness of the improvement must be checked. Best way to check its effectiveness through FMEA is to re-assign the severity, occurrence and detection ranking and calculate the risk priority number (RPN). If RPN is reducing then action taken is working and its effective.

A utilização do FMEA (Análise de Modo e Efeitos de Falha) na cadeia de suprimentos é uma estratégia eficaz para identificar e prevenir falhas em diversos processos, desde a aquisição de matérias-primas até a entrega final aos clientes. O processo envolve a identificação dos modos de falha potenciais em cada etapa da cadeia, a avaliação dos efeitos dessas falhas e o desenvolvimento de planos de ação para mitigá-las ou eliminá-las. Ao aplicarmos o FMEA de forma sistêmica e proativa, podemos fortalecer a resiliência da cadeia de suprimentos, reduzir o risco de interrupções e garantir uma entrega consistente e de alta qualidade.

A analise inicial e planejamento são fundamentais, a identificação detalhada dos modos de falhas e suas consequências servem de base para a construção de barreiras específicas e direcionadas a mitigar os riscos identificados.

Keep the FMEA within boundaries to avoid over complicating the process. In addition, assure that an flowchart, assembly diagram, etc. are available to support the flow of events. The tool can be used to predict failures but also assist w/ root cause analysis. The biggest challenge with the tool is selecting the values to determine the risk. Teams often get stuck between one or another value passionately. The reality is compromising will most likely be the right place and allow for the team to be effective and complete the FMEA quickly.

Using FMEA in Supply Chain by 1)Identify the critical process of supply chain - Procurement,Mfg,Transporation & distribution 2)Brainstorming - Involve CFT(procurement,logistics,quality)to do brainstorm of potential failure mode 3)Severity - Assess the severity of failuremodes identified during the brainstorming session 4)Occurence - Estimate the likelihood of failure for the identified failuremode(Historical data) 5)Detection - Identify the detection mechanism like monitoring method,inspection with rating 6)Risk Priority Number - Sev x occ x det provides the RPN no for the each failuremode 7)Preventive Action - Identify the preventive action to overcome the failure modes not to occur 8)Implement control as per plan 9)Review & update

In my vantage point, FMEA in your supply chain involves defining scope, identifying failure modes (like delays or quality issues), assessing their effects, assigning severity, occurrence, and detection ratings, calculating Risk Priority Numbers (RPN), and developing action plans to address high-priority failure modes. Implementing these plans and monitoring their effectiveness continuously helps proactively prevent failures, enhancing the reliability and efficiency of your supply chain operations.