Where is the effective use of a PFMEA? Anywhere.

I am getting far enough in my career so that I dread starting work with a new product development team and the inevitable disappointment I will feel when I see how ineffective they are. The team is responsible for launching the new product without any glitches, defects or flaws. This is a tall order, right? Not easy. Yet these teams sleepwalk through advanced quality planning and walk into launch with their pants down.

Let's look at the use of PFMEAs. Can anyone reading this blog tell me of a time they worked in a cross=functional team that actually worked to develop the PFMEA as an honest attempt to list out potential failure modes and causes?

What I find is:
A) The PFMEA is a stale document handed down from project to project. Always, it never was that good in the first place and, even for new aspects of the new product there is no attempt to freshen it up.
B) The PFMEA was written by one person, not a team.
C) The PFMEA was written for the sole reason of checking the box: Is there a PFMEA? Yes or No
D) When confronted with the fact that the PFMEA is a stinker the author, or the project manager 1) denies it, and 2) challenges me to produce good examples (in other words, do it for them)
E) When obvious failure modes are brought to their attention the response is, "oh, that cannot happen because..." Without the PFMEA exercise holes in the prevention and detection process are not effectively reviewed.
F)Several times the new product development team will start to use some kind of PFMEA software to show they are now serious about doing a PFMEA. However, the software is difficult to use and somehow seems to distract from the goal.

Time and time again we see defects arriving at customer plants that are well known failure modes that should be expected if there are inadequate controls. Yet, they happen. Again and again.

The next article will be focused on some of the best practices I have seen.