I apologize if what I write next comes across as 'salty'. Why the specific need for the 1949 text? Is this for a history lesson?
Personal background irrelevant to FMEA: I used to work with (titled) Engineers who inherited a rather simple, but not uncomplicated, design of a finished good. They had everything (design drawings, performance requirements, etc.) but it was known that the specific design wasn't (shall I say) fully verified and capable of mass production... think of grandmom's recipe for cookies, but the variability in ingredients and preparation leads to wild variation in the batches.
Anyway... those engineers were constantly observing wild variation in outputs, despite knowing that there had never been any attempts to reduce variation (through design, through production)... but instead of reviewing the designs and addressing the inherent sources of variation there, they spent 95% of their time reviewing old test reports to see if the wizards from the past had documented a solution for whatever problem the modern team was facing. I could never get the engineers to realize that this was a wholly incorrect approach(*1), and that they were damaging external assessment of their own competencies.
TL;DR If there is an actual problem, apply critical thinking and problem solving skills... especially if a 0th order search of existing literature provides no clues.
(*1) The most damning feature of this "search the records of the past" was that it was common they'd seize on some solution from a test report as "Eureka!" but a casual review of later test reports would have conclusions that the solution didn't work. Rather than breaking the Engineers of the reliance on old test reports, the lesson they learned was they needed more time in the library to review old records.
Personal background irrelevant to FMEA: I used to work with (titled) Engineers who inherited a rather simple, but not uncomplicated, design of a finished good. They had everything (design drawings, performance requirements, etc.) but it was known that the specific design wasn't (shall I say) fully verified and capable of mass production... think of grandmom's recipe for cookies, but the variability in ingredients and preparation leads to wild variation in the batches.
Anyway... those engineers were constantly observing wild variation in outputs, despite knowing that there had never been any attempts to reduce variation (through design, through production)... but instead of reviewing the designs and addressing the inherent sources of variation there, they spent 95% of their time reviewing old test reports to see if the wizards from the past had documented a solution for whatever problem the modern team was facing. I could never get the engineers to realize that this was a wholly incorrect approach(*1), and that they were damaging external assessment of their own competencies.
TL;DR If there is an actual problem, apply critical thinking and problem solving skills... especially if a 0th order search of existing literature provides no clues.
(*1) The most damning feature of this "search the records of the past" was that it was common they'd seize on some solution from a test report as "Eureka!" but a casual review of later test reports would have conclusions that the solution didn't work. Rather than breaking the Engineers of the reliance on old test reports, the lesson they learned was they needed more time in the library to review old records.
