After having delivered close to 20 years of FMEA workshops, one question we have always asked the workshop participants is ” Who is the rightful process owner of FMEA?”. Most of the time the answer we hear from the participants is either Cross functional team or multidisciplinary team.
However, when probed for the actual practice, more than half will says it’s kind of just a few persons from quality or process engineering who cut and paste from the earlier FMEA. It’s sad to hear that the FMEA is now mostly a clerical process of cut and paste job, instead of having experienced team members from different background to harness their collective brain power to identify what could go wrong. That kind of explain why we hear so many product failures and recalls.
In June 2008, when AIAG publishes the 4th edition of FMEA, most users were focused on the technical changes which was the recommendation to stop using the RPN as the single determinant for actions. One of the key changes highlighted was this statement: “Management owns the FMEA process. Management has the ultimate responsibility of selecting and applying resources and ensuring an effective risk management process including timing”. In July 2019, The AIAG VDA version of FMEA handbook was jointly published by AIAG and VDA. Similar emphasis was made on the process owners for FMEA being management. Question is, Why?
In year 2010, when sales of Toyota cars was on the rise due to popular demand for fuel-efficient cars in the US, the Japanese companies was hit by a series of recalls for accelerator and braking failures in their cars sold in the US. Toyota President Akio Toyoda went to Washington to face the US Congress on NHSTA safety findings and eventually made a public apology for safety lapses that led to widespread recalls for accelerator and braking failures. That was demonstration of leadership and ownership. The reality is when your company products fails, the ones who need to come forward for accountability has to be the top management. That’s demonstration of leadership.
FMEA will always involve cross-functional team for in-depth technical discussion; but the ultimate process owners are the top management. Let’s keep that in mind!