Raytheon’s Design for Six Sigma™ employs a disciplined set of specialized analysis and communication tools and processes at prescribed stages of the product development lifecycle.  Early in the design cycle, constructive supplier reviews of Raytheon designs for potential failure modes—through fabrication and/or assembly and test processes—are key enablers to providing best value solutions that meet our shared goal.  The DFSS tool we use to help establish this confidence is Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA).

FMEA is a structured approach that ensures that potential product failure modes and their associated causes have been considered and addressed.  The FMEA process has been very effective in both the commercial and military industries.

An FMEA on a product design is known as a Design FMEA (DFMEA).  DFMEAs anticipate failure modes, the detectability of the modes, and predict severity of the effects.  DFMEAs combine this information to prioritize potential design issues for corrective action.  This technique is aimed at designs ranging from components to systems.

An FMEA on a process is known as a Process FMEA (PFMEA).  Similar to the DFMEA, the PFMEA anticipates failure modes, their detectability and severity.  However, the focus is on the process design itself—what might go wrong in the process, how that could impact the process performance, the operators, the tools, and/or the product in the line.  This technique is manufacturing or operation-focused and can be applied to improve the reliability and performance of any factory or business process.

Take the Next Step!

Learn more about DFMEA here.  Download a DFMEA analysis template here.

Learn more about PFMEA here.  Download a PFMEA analysis template here.

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