Design Process Error-Proofing: Failure Modes and Effects Analysis of the Design Process

Abstract

This paper presents a new application of Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) on product development processes. Our research develops error-proofing methods for product development processes to prevent serious design errors that compromise project features, time, or cost. Design process FMEA categorizes design errors in six areas: knowledge, analysis, communication, execution, change, and organization errors. The paper explains the method, illustrates it with an example, and discusses its effectiveness. The paper concludes with the proposed work to address the existing lack of a systematic approach to design process error-proofing.