Hands-on tools for
Implementing Failure Mode Avoidance
A 3-Day Workshop at the University of Bradford
For all technical and professional staff with responsibilities in specification, design, planning, product development,
and new product launch activities as they relate to complex consumer goods developed in volume.
22-24 November 2010
Failure Mode Avoidance (FMA) is an emerging strategy aiming to deliver a step change in the effectiveness of
business and engineering processes associated with product creation, from product definition to launch. Early discovery
of failure modes is key to enhancing the efficiency and cost effectiveness of any new product development and launch
by avoiding late engineering changes which are costly and lead to quality and reliability problems in the field. This,
however, requires rigorous engineering thinking and coherent information flow throughout the design and development
process.
FMA provides a disciplined holistic approach to design engineering which employs tools and practices to ensure that all
failure modes are discovered, and countermeasures developed and implemented in a timely and efficient manner.
Course Aim
To develop practical skills in the implementation of failure mode avoidance (FMA) tools, focussing on the efficient
management of the information flow between the various tools supporting the engineering design tasks and product
creation process.
Workshop Content
The structured FMA approach presented in this workshop includes the following process steps:
Understand how the system functions
Objective: Identify the primary and supporting functions of a given system and the factors which influence
the functional performance
Tools: Function Tree, Boundary Diagram, System State Flow Diagram, Interface Matrix/Table
Identify how the system can fail to function and the effect of failure
Objective: Identify the system function failure modes and establish the severity of the effects of function
failure
Tools : FMEA
Determine the cause of failure
Objective: Identify events and combination of events which are root causes of function failure including the
factors which cause variation in functional performance leading to robustness failures.
Tools: Fault Tree Analysis, P-Diagram, FMEA.
Develop and verify countermeasures to failure
Objective: Establish reliability improvement and noise factor management strategies. Develop efficient and
cost effective design verification tests which demonstrate that a design is mistake free and
robust and are both representative of customer usage conditions and conducted early in the
product creation process.
Tools: Robustness Worksheet, Design Verification Worksheet, FMEA.
Workshop style delivery
The focus is to ensure that all delegates leave with sufficient skills to implement the tools and techniques immediately in
their workplace. The number of places available on a workshop is limited to enable about 50% of the workshop time to
be devoted to delegates practicing the use of the tools.
Experienced and effective tutors
BEQIC tutors have an industry background and extensive experience of both industry and adult learning. This
combination of skills and experience means the tutors are able to present what sometimes may be seen as difficult
concepts in a straight forward and easily understandable manner.
Coaching and post-training support
Comprehensive post training support including consultancy, facilitation and mentoring is provided to individuals and
companies to bridge the gap between classroom and workplace practice / reality.
Academic accreditation and Postgraduate progression
Delegates wishing to gain academic credits have to register for the associated post-training coursework based
assessment which is based on assessing the achievement of the learning outcomes. Typically this would involve a mini-
dissertation or report developed around the application of relevant engineering tools to a test problem. Successful pass
of the assessment leads to the award of credits which can be cumulated towards a postgraduate degree with any UK
institution participating in the Credit Accumulation and Transfer scheme. There is also an option to undertake a larger
workplace based project leading to a PostGraduate Certificate.
Successful completion of this course accumulates 10 points. A typical Postgraduate Certificate requiring 60 points and a
postgraduate degree 180 points.
Training Materials
The course materials are developed around realistic engineering scenarios. The workshop style delivery ensures that
delegates have sufficient time to practice the tools on an engineering problem. The course materials include useful
spreadsheets which the delegates can take away for further reference and use within the workplace. Post training
coaching and guidance is provided for completion of the academic assessment.
Venue
The workshops are run in dedicated facilities at the University of Bradford.
The workshops can also be run on Company premises where requested, with learning material customised to the
Company context.
Fee and Booking
This 3-day Failure Mode Avoidance workshop fee is £585 per Delegate including refreshments.
To book your place please fill in and return the booking form attached or contact Mr Fjodors Kosmacevs
F.Kosmacevs@bradford.ac.uk or by telephone +44-1274-23-6184.
For further information or booking enquiries please contact either Mr Fjodors Kosmacevs (email
F.Kosmacevs@Bradford.ac.uk, telephone +44-1274-23-6184) or Dr Felician Campean (email F.Campean@Bradford.ac.uk,
direct line 01274-23-4569), or visit our BEQIC website www.eqi.org.uk.