Speaking Of Reliability: Friends Discussing Reliability Engineering Topics | Warranty | Plant Maintenance System FMEA
May 12, 2025
Carl and Fred dive deep into the intricacies of System FMEA, highlighting its importance in early design phases, especially for electric vehicles. They discuss the challenges of identifying ‘black boxes’ and the need for focused analysis at a high level. The conversation touches on why fewer, well-executed analyses are preferable to many subpar ones. They emphasize the role of team dynamics in navigating FMEA challenges and the critical nature of system interfaces, where over 50% of issues often arise.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
System FMEA Focus and Timing
- System FMEA is typically performed early in development to focus on high-level system risks and interfaces rather than component details.
- It helps identify which subsystems need deeper design FMEAs and avoids overwhelming detailed analysis too soon.
Overly Thick FMEAs Are Ineffective
- Fred once saw a Navy aircraft FMEA that was over an inch and a half thick with pages.
- It was daunting and ineffective, demonstrating that overly large FMEAs are not practical.
Fewer Quality FMEAs Preferred
- Prefer fewer System FMEAs done well over many done poorly to effectively address highest risks.
- Large, overly detailed FMEAs become unwieldy and rarely read or used effectively.