PMcrunch

FMEA is an important lean Six Sigma technique that has potential to be used in project management. While in Six Sigma it needs to be used at a very rigorous way, there certainly is some room for flexibility when used in project management. In either case, it is a good structured technique for analyzing problems and identifying solutions.

The FMEA technique involves building a worksheet with 8 columns, as follows:

1. Feature or step - This lists the product or service feature that you are analyzing. It could actually be the name of the problem.
2. Failure mode - This is somewhat akin to risk analysis, where some things that can go wrong related to the problem can be identified. This is somewhat of a problem statement.
3. Effect - This describes the effect of this problem from the customer’s point of view
4. Cause - This identifies for the particular problem what the potential cause or causes might be.
5. Controls - This lists some ways of controlling the problem, such as closely monitoring, error proofing, or redesigning.
6. Ratings - This column actually has three parts, and is, again, similar to risk analysis in project management. The three subcolumns include severity, likelihood, and degree of difficulty in detecting or measuring.
7. RPN - This is a combined risk priority number computed by multiplying the three ratings in column 6, the ratings column. These ratings should definitely be numeric for this purpose and an ideal way of doing it is to rate from 1 to 10, where 10 is the highest severity, highest likelihood, and highest degree of difficulty in detecting the issue.
8. Responses - This column is almost like a comments column, for adding information such as potential solutions, further action, responsibilities, and the deadlines.

The FMEA worksheet is a very useful tool for proactively working on problems. It may be useful for many project and program managers in executing their responsibilities.

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John Reiling, PMP
Project Management Training Online
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