Lessons Learned – The reuse of existing FMEAs

With the Alignment of FMEA aimed at by VDA and AIAG, suppliers who deliver their products to German and North American manufacturers (OEM) will in the future be able to use a single FMEA process. In addition to textual improvements, the opportunity was taken to standardize assessment scales, improve the method of risk rating, integrate risk assessments specifically for functional safety and supplement the new method "FMEA Supplement Monitoring and System Reaction (FMEA-MSR)". In addition, the VDA and the AIAG recommend the reuse of existing FMEAs as early as the definition of the scope of analysis (see yellow print: AIAG and VDA Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) Manual, 1st edition 2017, pp. 22-23). The aim is to ensure the use of existing knowledge and the reduction of costs.

PLATO offers the solution

Studies show that a considerable proportion of working time is invested in search processes (see Hauke "Productive handling of knowledge"). Not only small and medium-sized companies, but also many of the large companies often fail in their attempt to pass on knowledge in a structured manner. Only through the consistent use of templates newly acquired knowledge can be quickly incorporated into current and future projects. 

Existing FMEAs for known products and processes, often referred to as generic, baseline or family FMEAs, can be used as a basis for new analyses to ensure that knowledge gathered over the product life cycle and known performance limitations are not re-examined. The analyses and evaluations taken over must be examined in detail with regard to the respective use case and the findings already gained from the known application (Lessons Learned).

With e1ns.templates, PLATO is the only FMEA software manufacturer to offer this Lessons Learned process for reusing knowledge. The time and effort required to create and maintain FMEAs is minimized by using templates adapted to the needs of system analysis and risk management. The existing knowledge is used for new FMEAs, avoiding previously detected errors and costly product recalls. e1ns.templates enables centralized, web-based provisioning for enterprise-wide uniform operation and worldwide availability with low search effort. In a regulated procedure, templates are released and published specifically for the user group. In case of template changes, all users are automatically informed. New findings and experience are thus automatically incorporated into risk management.