FMEA Case Study

A project was done in a transaction processing department to reduce process cycle time and reduce defects. In the Analyze phase of DMAIC, the team identified several root causes, including duplication of efforts, excessive hand-offs and significant non-value-added work activities (such as filling out forms for other departments).

In the Improve phase the team identified changes it could make that would remove non-value-added work to reduce hand-offs, and it developed ideas for several job aides to reduce defects. Before the team launched the pilot of these solutions, the Black Belt decided it would be worthwhile to have the team complete a FMEA on the redesigned procedures.

During the FMEA analysis, the team realized that one of the steps it wanted to remove from the process – which it had defined as non-value-added – was actually an important input to the finance department downstream in the process. (The finance department played a support role in making sure certain controls were in place to limit the risk the company faced from processing the transactions.)

Implementing the new process as designed by the team would have seriously disrupted the finance group and the company could have been exposed to significant risk. By exposing this potential problem before launch, the team was able to adjust its solution so that the information was still provided to the finance department, though in a more streamlined manner, and still meet the original project goals.

Practical Uses for FMEA

The case study shows that FMEA is a good idea whenever changes to the workplace are planned. More generally, it can be used at either end of a DMAIC or Design for Six Sigma project:

• At the beginning of a project, FMEA can help a team better scope the opportunity by defining the types of failures and narrowing the focus to a specific type of problem.
• In the Improve phase, FMEA can help uncover potential problems (especially unintended consequences) with suggested solutions, thereby allowing timely adjustments.
• In the Control phase, FMEA helps identify what measures need to be in place to make sure that failures will not happen in the future.