Mazes, Methodology and FMEAs


What’s your strategy for getting through a maze? What if, when you chose a path, you could know ahead of time that it wasn’t a dead end and that you’d get your cheese? What if you could know, at every decision point, that each move was the right move? Is that cheating? Well, maybe, if […]

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Properties dialog

Highlights of Service Pack V6.5 – 0130


Highlights of Service Pack V6.5 – 0130 Alternative way to double-click on Hot-click icons (RP-4734) By clicking on a hot-click icon with the “Alt” key held, the new editor will open in an “ALTernative” workspace. The “normal” workspace can be defined in “Tools | Workstation settings | Settings | Personal Desktop | Open editor via hot-click […]

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Using FMEA to Its Full Potential


About 12 years ago, while earning my 6Sigma Master Black Belt certification, I was in the midst of training hundreds of Green & Black Belt students how to apply the continuous improvement methodology at their place of work.  Their belt certification required that they engage in training marathons and persevere through the completion of approved […]

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5 Steps to Creating a Strong FMEA


The IQ-Software instantiates the foundation for building our FMEAs, according to five basic steps as defined in the instructions of the VDA 96, Volume 4.2.  Following these steps gives your FMEA the structure required to ensure a thorough analysis with no opportunity for confusing failure modes for causes or effects.  Furthermore, the 5-Step process gives […]

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Value-Added FMEA


In one of my previous entries, “Strength of FMEA Process in the Analysis,” I emphasized the significance and benefits of both perceiving and creating the FMEA as an analysis worthy of our time and energy. This only happens when the analysis delivers value. Where’s the Value? “Value may also be expressed as a straightforward relationship between perceived benefits […]

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Shanghai

Open group trainings in Asia (Shanghai) 2017


We are pleased to announce that open group “Two-in-One” FMEA training will be available in Shanghai as of March 2017. With great transport connections and central location in the industrially strong East China, the metropolis of Shanghai is the ideal location for participants to travel to. Open group trainings allow customers to avoid paying the […]

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FMEA Function

Writing “Good” Functions in DFMEAs


In my recent blog,”Model-Based FMEA”, I wrote about the functional model serving as the basis of the Design FMEA in the IQ-Software.  The basic premise is that we will fully know the failures when we understand the function; only when we deviate from the function (in a significant way), do we achieve “failure.”  Through this […]

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Welcome Chad Johnson, Vice President of APiS North America, LLC


We are proud to welcome Mr. Chad Johnson as Vice President of APiS North America, LLC.  Mr. Johnson is an expert in both the APIS IQ-Software and FMEA methodology.  Mr. Johnson will  be responsible for all FMEA software moderating, consulting and training at APiS North America, LLC. Mr. Johnson joined APiS North America after nearly […]

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Model-Based FMEA


We make models of everything; cars, houses, airplanes, car parts.  For decades, engineers and designers relied on physical models to visualize how their design would appear in finished form.  “Bringing it to life,” as it were.  You may have seen old photographs of car models sculpted out of clay.  You could see how all the […]

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Three Areas of Failure in the FMEA Process


The thing about failures is they are chameleons that can exist by other aliases – Effect, Mode, or Cause.  Every last one of them are failures; functional performance that has drifted far enough from the ideal function to reach the zone of failure.  They achieve their aliases as they fall into different places in what I […]

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