JULY - AUGUST 2025AUTOTECHOUTLOOK.COM8PFMEA's Cost a Lot of ResourcesIn today's manufacturing environment, and especially in the automotive world of IATF 16949, there are expectations that risk prediction and mitigation tools will be used. One important method to accomplish this assessment is a process failure mode and effects analysis, or PFMEA, one of the most under-utilized and under-rated sources of information. It's a time-consuming, complex process to understand each step/operation of the HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR PROCESS FAILURE MODE AND EFFECTS ANALYSISBy Monte Heisler, Director, Manufacturing Quality, North American Stamping GroupMonte Heislerprocess and list what things can go wrong or fail. PFMEAs are a required document during the advanced product quality planning stage of any new product that is usually driven by those designing processes and sometimes by a quality engineer to assess the risk of a process. This occurs in coordination with cross-functional teams of individuals, including engineering, quality, production, materials, etc., to understand the quality risk of a new product. The way that it works is each failure mode (the thing that can go wrong) is reviewed for its severity (how bad would it be if it happened?), occurrence (how often do we think it will happen?), and detectability (if it happened would we catch it?). Each category receives a rating from 1-10, from best to worst, based on an industry standard. Then, each is multiplied against the other to determine a risk priority number or RPN designed to compare and prioritize all risks. Customers generally state that higher rated risk must have an action, but they and the IATF auditors are sometimes more interested in correct ratings than risk mitigation. This is especially true if the customer IN MY OPINION
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