Reverse FMEA

Does the "theoretical" FMEA match the real production conditions at all? Reverse FMEA (RFMEA) is used to validate the FMEA. For a high quality FMEA and better and more robust production processes.

E1NS RFMEA

Improve the quality of your FMEA

In order to confront FMEA results with real situations, the Reverse FMEA method was introduced. It no longer deals only with imagined causes of defects, but is carried out directly on site at the respective process or activity step.

Definition Reverse (P)FMEA

Reverse (P)FMEA is a documented continuous improvement tool designed to find gaps or weaknesses in the prevention and detection controls of a process.

Reverse (P)FMEAs can be applied reactively as well as proactively.
Why is this important? Reverse (P)FMEA's are an important tool that can:
- Help identify previously overlooked processes.
- Find additional failure modes in identified processes.
- Develop more realistic Risk Priority Numbers (RPNs) or Action Prorities (APs)
- Improve robustness of corrective actions.

What is the goal of Reverse FMEA?

The purpose of Reverse FMEA is to validate the assumptions made when the FMEA was created and see if they still hold true. In this process, the observations from the Reverse FMEA are incorporated into the existing Process FMEA and further processed there.

What needs to be done and how to do it:

Teams conducting a reverse PFMEA test the process by attempting to make bad parts, defeat error-proofing, and finding new failure modes in the process.
Reverse (P)FMEAs may be conducted during equipment buy-off/tool tryouts, during launch, and during production.
Any improvements must be input to PFMEA and cascaded through all related documents (control plan, work instruction, etc.).

Example or illustration of good practice:

Reverse (P)FMEAs will be process-specific, and therefore unique questionnaires or check sheets should be developed for each process.

Proactive questionnaires or check sheets should ask questions such as:
(assembly process example)

Can this component be installed incorrectly?
Is there a detection method for incorrectly installed components?
Can a similar but different component be used i.e., different size screw?
Is there potential for unintended parts/components to be included in a part shipment?
Can error-proofing be circumvented?

Reactive questionnaires or check sheets may start with a production quality defect and look for ways to duplicate the defect or test the system for similar defects throughout the process.

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Meet reverse FMEA requirements with e1ns

In this video, you will learn how to easily create and document a reverse FMEA (RFMEA) without the need for additional modules or costs.

Discover how you can easily implement the requirements for an RFMEA with the existing on-board tools of PeakAvenue e1ns.

How Reverse-FMEA validates the performance of your manufacturing processes

To date, there is no mandatory normative requirement or binding rules from any industry association for the implementation of a Reverse FMEA. However, many OEMs (BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company, Geely Group, General Motors, VW Group, etc.) now require their suppliers to perform R-FMEA. As a result, and due to the proven effectiveness of this method, companies have started to adopt R-FMEA into their existing processes and are developing their own approaches and rules.

There is no specific approach for implementation, but in general most companies define their own methodology in their FMEA standards. Following an R-FMEA checklist is recommended.

However, some approaches are also listed in customer-specific requirements, for example in Ford's CSR agreements.

E1NS R-FMEA

Successfully implementing the Reverse-FMEA

Milestones and tasks are planned for the R-FMEA process and responsible persons are appointed.
PFMEA and visual process flow chart are checked by the team, e.g. in a review.
Process steps that are to be examined in production are prioritized/marked.
Findings from practical application in production are logged and the log refers directly to FMEA content.
The PFMEA is updated and versioned. The audit trail documents the changes.
All comments and documents of the R-FMEA process refer directly to the PFMEA and the process flow chart.
The identification and decision on special features in the R-FMEA process are directly linked to the feature observation process integrated in e1ns.
The e1ns Lessons Learned process updates the family/baseline FMEA data from the R-FMEA (e.g. revised controls, OD numbers, new recommended actions).
R-FMEA activity reports can be created using the evaluation tool integrated in e1ns.

Watch video

Meeting FORD's CSR. Prepare for the Future.

This video is ideal for Ford suppliers seeking clarity on the new standard or those looking for strategies to improve their quality risk management processes.

Please note: In the future, all videos will be under the PeakAvenue banner and will be continuously expanded. During the transition period, both PLATO and iqs videos may be available.

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