FMEA Analysis Template
Identify risks so you can optimize and stabilize business processes.
About the FMEA Analysis Template
FMEA stands for Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. FMEA is a tool that helps organizations identify problems with a product, service, or process in order to assess their potential impact.
Customers expect the best. They want quality and consistency. But problems still arise — and they can be expensive. Finding a problem or defect late in the production cycle can be expensive and cause costly delays.
This FMEA analysis template enables you to discover potential issues before they impact the customer. Understand your potential failures and their associated risks, put together action plans to fix those problems, and evaluate the results of those action plans.
How to complete an FMEA analysis in 5 steps
The FMEA analysis template guides you through the systemic process of identifying risks in business processes. The template covers the following aspects:
Failure Mode - The way in which a process, product, or system could potentially fail. For example, a failure mode in a manufacturing process could be a machine malfunction, a software bug, or a material defect.
Effects - The consequences or outcomes resulting from the identified failure modes. This step involves assessing the impact of each failure mode on the overall process or system.
Analysis - This step involves a systematic and thorough examination of the identified failure modes and their effects. The goal is to understand the potential causes of failure and the implications for the overall system.
Here's a breakdown of how to use the template effectively:
Step 1: Pick the process
First, you need to identify the process you’d like to examine. This shouldn’t be a simple one or two-step process, but something more intricate with more downstream effects. Use your process map to review the steps in that process.
Step 2: Identify failure modes
Now, you need to brainstorm potential failure modes for each step — that is, any way in which that step might fail to perform its intended function.
Step 3: Estimate the impact
After you’ve identified each potential cause of a failure, you need to brainstorm potential effects associated with each failure mode. If the step fails, how will it impact the process, system, or product? Be as specific as possible.
Step 4: Assign a severity ranking
Now, you have to determine the potential damage of this failure occurring by assigning a Risk Priority Number (RPN). If this failure occurred, how severe would the impact be? Consider the impact on your customers, operations, or your employees. How frequently do you think this failure might occur? Is it likely to occur often? Or is it rare?
Step 5: Develop a plan
Finally, you need to develop a recommended action — or multiple actions — that deal with the problem. How can you go about fixing the problem, or reducing its severity? Who is responsible for fixing it? What does the timeline look like?
What is the general purpose of FMEA?
The general purpose of an FMEA analysis is to identify and prevent potential failures in a product, service, or process before they cause damage.
How do you identify failure modes?
To identify failure modes, first you have to pick a process and walk through the various steps of the process. Once you’ve spelled out each step, think of any action related to completing this step in the overall process. Then, assess each action individually and determine if there are ways that it can go wrong (failure modes). This can be technical failure or human error.
Get started with this template right now.
Lotus Diagram Template
Works best for:
UX Design, Ideation, Diagrams
Even creative thinkers occasionally need help getting their creative juices flowing. That's where a lotus diagram comes in. It'll empower you to run smoother, more effective brainstorming sessions. This creative-thinking technique explores ideas by putting the main idea at the diagram center and ancillary concepts in the surrounding boxes. This template gives you an easy way to create Lotus Diagrams for brainstorms, as well as an infinite canvas for the endless ideas generated.
User Interview Template
Works best for:
Desk Research, Product Management
A user interview is a UX research technique in which researchers ask the user questions about a topic. They allow your team to quickly and easily collect user data and learn more about your users. In general, organizations conduct user interviews to gather background data, to understand how people use technology, to take a snapshot of how users interact with a product, to understand user objectives and motivations, and to find users’ pain points. Use this template to record notes during an interview to ensure you’re gathering the data you need to create personas.
Product Positioning Template
Works best for:
Marketing, Product Management, Desk Research
For better or for worse, your company’s chances for success hinge partially on your market. As such, before you start building products and planning strategies, it’s a good idea to conduct a product positioning exercise. A product positioning exercise is designed to situate your company and your offering within a market. The product positioning template guides you to consider key topics such as defining your product and market category, identifying your target segment and competitors, and understanding your key benefits and differentiation.
Lean Inception Workshop
Works best for:
Agile, Lean Methodology
The Lean Inception Workshop streamlines project kickoff by aligning teams on goals, scope, and priorities. It leverages Lean principles to eliminate waste and maximize value, guiding exercises to define user personas, map user journeys, and prioritize features. By fostering cross-functional collaboration and customer-centric thinking, this template accelerates project initiation and ensures alignment between stakeholders, empowering teams to deliver customer value faster.
Floor Plan Template
Works best for:
Operations, Workshops
Maybe you’re planning a big occasion or event. Or maybe you’re arranging seating structures and traffic flows that are more permanent. Either way, creating a floor plan—an overhead scaled diagram of the space—is equal parts functional and fun. This template will let you visualize how people will move about the space and know quickly if the space will do what you need, before you commit time, money, or resources. And you’ll be able to get as detailed as you want—finding the right measurements and dimensions, and adding or removing appliances and furniture.
Lean Coffee: Meetings without Agendas
Works best for:
Agile
Lean Coffee: Meetings without Agendas is a collaborative meeting format that fosters open dialogue and emergent topics. Participants suggest discussion topics, vote on them, and engage in time-boxed conversations. This template provides a structured framework for facilitating Lean Coffee sessions, enabling teams to prioritize topics, share insights, and make decisions collectively. By promoting inclusivity and adaptability, Lean Coffee empowers teams to address issues efficiently and drive continuous improvement.