International Applied Reliability Symposium (ARS): An international reliability and maintainability conference event

Session 1
8:00 to 9:55 a.m. Thursday August 18, 2005

Making FMEA a More Powerful and Effective Reliability Tool

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) has had varying degrees of success, as implemented by companies worldwide. This tool has the potential to be a powerful aid in reducing or eliminating risk from product designs and manufacturing processes to bring about more successful product launches. This presentation examines why FMEA has not been living up to its potential in some companies, and describes how to get more effective results with individual FMEAs and how to implement a more effective overall FMEA process.

 

 
Carl S. Carlson
Senior Reliability Engineer
ReliaSoft Corporation
Tucson, Arizona

ReliaSoft Corporation
Mr. Carlson co-chaired the cross-industry team to develop the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) J1739 for Design/Process/Machinery FMEA and participated in the development of the SAE JA 1000/1 Reliability Program Standard Implementation Guide. He has 20 years experience in reliability engineering and management positions at General Motors, most recently Senior Manager for the Advanced Reliability Group. He has also chaired technical sessions for the Reliability Track of the Annual SAE Reliability, Maintainability, Supportability and Logistics (RMSL) Symposium, was a four-year member of the Reliability and Maintainability Symposium (RAMS) Advisory Board and served for five years as Vice Chair for the SAE's G-11 Reliability Division.