FMEA: a team-based decision-making approach to quality management

Abstract

Total Quality Management (TQM) is now widely accepted as a company-wide philosophy of quality control and management to achieve world-class performances (Fogarty, et al% 1989). The philosophy suggests that decision-makers should analyze backwards the desired state of quality and in the process, identify and understand the necessary resources and decisions that would be necessary to arrive at that state within the given time frame. The broader (and rather sweeping) concept of TQM encompasses more s local' philosophies such as Just-in-Time and Statistical Quality Control (SQC) such that wastage in any form (time, space, rework, failure, materials, labour, etc.) are eliminated Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) is a powerful proactive technique developed to prevent product and process failures. It intensively studies the design and production processes and attempts to uncover weak points at the planning stage itself for timely elimination. Conceptually, a decision tree or cause-effect chain could be created by moving backwards and identifying all the possible reasons that could lead to failure. The idea is to ultimately trace the external symptom (event) to the root problemand arrive at a cost-effective controllable process point in the short term. In this paper, I propose to provide an overview of FMEA as a management tool and at the same time suggest improvements for better effectiveness. In a separate paper, I shall use this concept to develop a technique to detect organizational failures and suggest mechanisms for turnaround and rehabilitation of sick corporations.