Answer to Mr. Shailesh Patel 7 Jully 1998

Borgaretto 08.07.98

A new message, "FMEA," was posted on the Cayman Systems ISO / QS 9000 Forum
<http://www.qs9000.com/cgi-bin/board.cgi> by Shailesh Patel on Tuesday,
7 July 1998, at 9:57 a.m.

The message reads as follows:

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Is it mandatory to use and comply to AIAG's FMEA manual? Can I use other
FMEA manual like Ford's FMEA handbook for PFMEA and DFMEA and comply to
it? I am looking for other's experience in this regard since during our
QS9K audit one of the auditor insisted on refering to AIAG's manual only.


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Hi,
I think that you can find the answer to your question by looking up the following Handbooks :

1) "Quality System Requirements" QS-9000
On page 1 : Introduction/Approch, the sentence :
"...The word, 'shall' indicates mandatory requirements.
The word, 'should' indicates a preferred approch ..."

2) "Potential Failure Mode and Effects Analysis FMEA" (Reference
Manual).
On the FOREWORD chapter you can read :
"...Accordingly, this manual and format, which is approved and endorset
by
Chrysler, Ford and General Motors, SHOULD be used by suppliers
implementing
FMEA techniques into their design/manufacturing processes..."

3) "Advanced Product Quality Planning and Control Plan APQP"
About both design FMEA Checklist on page 64 and for process FMEA on
page 78
the question 1 asks if you have had performed the analysis according to
QS-9000's
requirements or not.
So I think it is possible to follow the second chance ... do you agree?

By the way. When I wrote the procedures for performing the FMEA in my
factory, I suggested
to use QS-9000 requirements. But according to the wishes of the Customer
we can follow
other forms too. In any case it is mandatory to agree with FMEA's
checklists.

Best regards :

[Marc]

There is no requirement to use the AIAG 'manual. It is a Refence manual. It is supposedly not auditable.

I know many companies that use forms other than those in the AIAG manual. The requirement is a content requirement.

Hi,

It is not mandatory to use the AIAG FMEA manual for the implementation of FMEA. In fact, the Ford FMEA Handbook gives better guidelines and helps in better understanding of the FMEA's.