Design or Process FMEA?
Similar principles and steps are followed for both design and process FMEAs.
Design-FMEAs
The primary objective of a Design-FMEA is to uncover potential failures associated with the product that could cause:
- Product malfunctions.
- Shortened product life.
- Safety hazards while using the product.
Design-FMEAs should be used throughout the design process—from preliminary design until the product goes into production.
Process-FMEAs
Process-FMEAs uncover potential failures that can:
- Impact product quality.
- Reduce process reliability.
- Cause customer dissatisfaction.
- Create safety or environmental hazards.
Ideally, Process-FMEAs should be conducted prior to start-up of a new process, but they can be conducted on existing processes as well.