FMEA Help - Conduct an FMEA of a Pencil

[carvind]

I need help in completing the following exercise.

Conduct an FMEA of a pencil. Consider that the function is to make a black mark. Requirements could include that it is to make a mark, it marks a black color, and it does not mark intermittantly. Failure mode would then be that it makes no mark at all, mark is not black in color and it marks intermittantly.

[florin pirvulescu]

As a beginnerr in everything incuding english could someone tell me what means FMEA?

Florin

[Geoff Cotton]

Carvind,
Is this a Design or Process FMEA?

Florin,
Failure Modes Effects Analysis. Its a simple technique for analising the effect of failures and risk, from which improvement plans can be made.

Geoff

[Claes Gefvenberg]

To start things off:

Right away, I can see four problem areas making it impossible to make that mark: There could be something wrong with:

The pencil itself,
The writing surface,
The user,
The environment it is being used in...

More?

Then: What could go wrong in a given area? For instance:

The tip of the penci may be broken,
The paper may be too glossy,
The user may be drunk,
The environment... well it may be too cold or something?

There could be lots of reasons.

/Claes