Using Agile Principles to Efficiently Execute FMEAs with a Distributed Workforce

• Published in: Proceedings. Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium pp. 1 - 6
• Main Author: Todd, Andrew W.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 24.01.2022
• Subjects: Agile; Collaboration; FMEA; Industries; Project management; Random access memory; Reliability; Software
• ISSN: 2577-0993
• DOI: 10.1109/RAMS51457.2022.9893941

The Failure Modes Effects Analysis (FMEA) holds incredible potential for improving products and processes prior to their ultimate manifestation. The FMEA team typically participates in group working meetings in the same meeting room. These meetings can be expensive depending on the size of the FMEA team and how large or detailed the analysis is. With the ever present desire to reduce product budget and the emergence of distributed teams (i.e. a remote workforce), a fresh approach to FMEA facilitation and execution is desired.The Agile project management approach pioneered in the software industry has a promising track record and suite of well-developed concepts and tools. This paper highlights how the values and principles of the Agile manifesto can be interpreted in the FMEA context. Additionally, Agile methods and tools (i.e. Agile practices) which have shown to be useful in FMEA facilitation are examined.The benefits observed from adopting an Agile mindset and implementing Agile methodologies include increased frequency of customer feedback, reduced labor hours for FMEA completion in comparison to historical results, better subject matter expert (SME) engagement, and improved recognition of FMEA progress. The shortcomings observed thus far stem from the Agile core values not being fully embraced and a lack of familiarity with the Agile tools