Process FMEA

Mitigate risk in AM production with the process FMEA methodology

Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) is a standard tool used in the automotive and aerospace industries as a means to involve experts from every portion of the value chain and prevent quality issues from occurring in a production or development environment. Consequently, it is also a great method for clients to reflect on their AM production and mitigate any quality, cost and qualification challenges before they arise.

Process FMEA Overview

Prevent quality issues from occurring in  production and development environments

Process FMEA is a robust methodology used by companies worldwide in manufacturing to minimize risks that occur during manufacture to improve productivity and get closer to zero defect manufacturing. Unfortunately, all manufacturing processes, especially new technologies like Metal AM, have pitfalls that occur on a regular basis. With new manufacturing processes, risk and failure are nearly identical concepts, so care must be taken to identify potential risks based on process experience and prevent them from ever occurring. After all, the technology faces innumerable challenges to entering serial production so it’s important to control the process as best as possible.

Process FMEA is typically done in three instances: when a new technology is introduced, there are changes to the current manufacturing process, or environmental conditions have been changed. In additive, all three of these regularly occur since it is an ideally lean production environment with a batch size of one. Currently, Magnitude supports clients with LPBF systems from EOS, Renishaw, Concept Laser and SLM for this training.

Designed for: Process, Quality, Production or Application Engineers

Format: 2-3 weeks (depending on system & material), 25% theory, 75% workshops

This offering includes the following:
  • Developing a Cause and Effect (C&E) Matrix
  • 1st FMEA review workshop
  • 2nd FMEA review workshop & offsite support
FMEA Analysis Details

Develop Cause and Effect (C&E) Matrix

The preliminary C&E matrix is created as an overview to determine the process steps taken into consideration by the customer along with input from Magnitude’s knowledge database and experience. This is used to prioritize the steps from the AM process that are most critical for work which the customer is focused on.

1st FMEA Review Workshop

After preliminary preparation and review, customers are taken through a comprehensive workshop where process steps are reviewed, insights given on how to mitigate errors and quality issues and feedback provided on best practices from the process perspective. Specific action items are given to customers to implement, along with support in implementation in the prevention, detection and mitigation format.

2nd FMEA Review Workshop & Offsite Support

Following preliminary FMEA review, customers are given feedback on implementation of changes, support on additional FMEA topics and action items to implement for final process FMEA. Any outstanding topics are addressed and a final C&E and FMEA along with roadmap for implementation is provided to the customer with regards to their AM targets.

Take the first step to mitigating quality, cost and qualification risk by getting in touch about Process FMEA.