The new AIAG & VDA FMEA Handbook places emphasis on specific FMEA Software to attain compliance. If you’re in the automotive industry, it’s essential that you are prepared for this change, as OEMs are beginning to incorporate these changes into their Customer Specific Requirements (CSR). Up until now, there hasn’t been a specific guideline for FMEA software, which has led to inconsistency and confusion among different companies. The new AIAG & VDA FMEA Handbook is set to change all of that.
Let’s take a look at what this means.
FMEA Software is Essential to IATF16949:2016 Compliance
IATF 16949:2016 certification requires that your company has implemented a risk-based approach for the prevention of potential failures. IATF 16949:2016 also requires you to have documented procedures. The seven-step approach described in the handbook guides the development of design, process, and supplemental monitoring and system response of FMEA through the sequencing (and the iteration) of described activities.
Ford announced they will immediately accept FMEA(s) from suppliers using the AIAG & VDA FMEA Handbook approach. Additionally, suppliers will be required to utilize the AIAG & VDA FMEA Handbook on a per program basis with future programs starting with either 2022 model year programs or commodities requiring a Functional Safety focus.
One of the key changes is in reference to software, on page 22 of the latest revision of the Ford Customer Specific Requirements it states:
“FMEA Software Suppliers shall use FMEA software which ensures the alignment of the Foundation FMEA, Part FMEA, control plan and other applicable documents.”
This change is in line with IATF16949:2016 Clause and Requirement R15, which states
“suppliers shall use IATF-compliant software to support the development of FMEAs.”
With other manufacturers ready to follow suit, are you prepared for this change? If not, now is the time to make sure your organization is ready.
IATF 16949 is an international quality standard for the automotive industry that requires companies to have a documented FMEA process that is specific to their organization and products. Many organizations are struggling with how to implement IATF 16949 – specifically, the FMEA requirement – with one of the biggest challenges impeding auto manufacturers’ ability to meet the FMEA requirements being that they are unable to find suitable software.
A primed and ready FMEA software solution
IntellaQuest’s FMEAQuest application is a leading Failure Mode and Effects Analysis software solution that provides consistency with quality risk assessments and assists with compliance with industry and company standards and is compatible with AIAG-VDA FMEA formatting and ready to keep you compliant to new OEM Customer Specific Requirements for software.
Organizations that use first generation software tools for risk analyses get inundated with enormous and cumbersome documentation over time, causing them to react to random variations in the manufacturing process.
FMEAQuest offers a user-friendly, flexible, and knowledge-based solution that has evolved through extensive commercial use over the last decade to meet the requirements at many of the world’s largest companies. It is a proven technology, with preformatted standard FMEA templates and a myriad of features that are user-friendly and intuitive.
FMEAQuest can help companies develop IATF 16949:2016 FMEAs that comply with the IATF’s requirements through use of a knowledge-based system. It is designed to be used by both IATF auditors and organization personnel involved in building quality products for their customers.
Regulatory Compliance
FMEAQuest helps organizations with quality, risk and reliability programs based on company or industry standards and guidelines including:
- SAE J1739, ARP 5580
- IEC 60812
- ISO 9001, IATF 16949
- ISO 26262
- APQP 4th Edition
- Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) II
- MIL STD 1629A, 8820
Knowledge Base
FMEAQuest comes equipped with valuable professional libraries to help you generate new ideas more easily, and enter information quickly and efficiently in your assessments. The software also includes built in and fully configurable risk ranking scales. Past assessments can be reused to retain valuable corporate knowledge and ensure that engineering expertise is retained and accessible, including past failure modes. FMEAQuest supports a large range of risk assessment techniques such as: Failure Mode and Effects Criticality Analysis (FMECA); Control Plans, Design Verification Planning and Reporting (DVP&R), Gage Plans; Process Mapping, Process Flow Charts; FMEA-based Reliability Centered Maintenance.
Data management & Transparency
Data-linking features reduce the amount of time and effort required to finish a project by connecting the process flow chart, the FMEA, and the control plans of your quality plan. FMEAQuest gives you an unrepeated list of your recommendations in a separate, pre-formatted table with references hyperlinked back to the worksheets. This tracking and management of recommendations allows you to record and track progress, while the advanced professional reporting features preformatted print reports and auditing tools give you improved visibility into process operations. These capabilities allow you to share your information in a variety of formats for easy and controlled access by both internal and external customers.
FMEAQuest
Industry Leading Features
- Dependency Matrix
- Conditional Data Mirroring
- Preformatted Templates
- Comprehensive Libraries
- Enhanced Change Tracking
- Structured Lists
- Security
- Multi language support
