GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE FOR FAILURE MODE AND EFFECT ANALYSIS

• US 20120254044A1
• Filed: 03/30/2012
• Published: 10/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Caterpillar Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Caterpillar Incorporated
• Inventors: Harsh, Jasmeen K., Flanagan, Jason W., Ye, Michael
• Application Number:
  US13/435,576
• Publication Number:
  US 20120254044A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/301
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management

Abstract

A method to facilitate a failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) project associated with one or more components or process during a product development cycle is provided. A real time FMEA status is viewable through a user interface which indicates the progress of the FMEA project. The method includes displaying on the user interface one or more information pages associated with sequential order of elements to be completed by one or more FMEA analysts. The method further involves receiving with an aid of the user interface textual inputs from the one or more FMEA analysts for the one or more information pages associated with the sequential orders of elements. The method further includes representing, to the one or more FMEA analysts, the sequential order of elements in a tree structure format. The information associated with the sequential order of elements is editable and is updated in real time.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to facilitate a failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) project associated with one or more components or process during a product development cycle, wherein a real time FMEA status is viewable through a user interface indicating the progress of the FMEA project, the method comprising:

displaying on the user interface one or more information pages associated with sequential order of elements to be completed by one or more FMEA analysts;

receiving, with an aid of the user interface, textual inputs from the one or more FMEA analysts to be filled in the one or more information pages associated with the sequential orders of elements; and

representing, to the one or more FMEA analysts, the sequential order of elements in a tree structure.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further including providing a path on the user interface to create the FMEA project associated with one or more components or process.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2, wherein the FMEA project includes at least one of a Design FMEA project (DFMEA), a Process FMEA project (PFMEA) and a validation project.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein the validation project includes either two or more DFMEAs, PFMEAs or a combination thereof.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further including providing a path on the user interface to add the one or more FMEA analysts as team members for the FMEA.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the user interface provides functionality to assign role based access control for the FMEA analysts.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user interface provides a path to add a session for recording a date stamp and an attendance of the one or more FMEA analysts.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the sequential order of elements is based on the type of FMEA project.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8, wherein the sequential order of elements for a design FMEA projects includes:

a. at least one item;

b. one or more functional requirements associated with the item;

c. at least one potential failure mode associated with the one or more functional requirements;

d. at least one potential effect of failure associated with the at least one potential failure mode;

e. at least one potential cause of failure associated with the at least one potential mode of failure;

f. an optional detection or prevention control associated with a combination of the at least one potential cause of failure and the at least one potential effect of failure; and

g. an optional recommended action associated with a combination of the at least one potential cause of failure and the at least one potential effect of failure.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 9, wherein the prevention and the detection control has an associated target date of completion, and one or more assigned FEMA analyst for an execution of the prevention and the detection control.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 9, wherein the recommended action has an associated target date of completion, and one or more assigned FEMA analyst for an execution of the recommended action.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 9, wherein each of the at least one potential effect of failure has an associated initial severity value.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 9, wherein each of the at least one potential cause of failure has an associated initial occurrence value.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 9, wherein each combination of the at least one potential cause of failure and the at least one potential effect of failure has at least one of the detection or prevention control if a correlation of an initial severity value and an initial occurrence value for the combination is greater than a predetermined threshold.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 14, wherein the initial occurrence value is revised based on an execution of the prevention control associated with the combination of the at least one potential cause of failure and the at least one potential effect of failure.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 14, wherein the initial severity value, occurrence value is selected from one or more databases.

17. The computer implemented method of claim 14, wherein the prevention and detection control is selected from one or more databases

18. The computer implemented method of claim 9, wherein each combination of the at least one potential cause of failure and the at least one potential effect of failure has an optional initial detection value.

19. The computer implemented method of claim 18, wherein the initial detection value is taken as a predetermined number if no inputs are provided for the optional detection value.

20. The computer implemented method of claim 18, wherein the initial detection value is selected from one or more databases.

21. The computer implemented method of claim 9 further including calculating an initial Risk Priority Number (RPN).

22. The computer implemented method of claim 21, wherein the initial RPN is calculated based on a correlation of an initial severity value, an initial occurrence value and an initial detection value for the combination of the at least one potential cause of failure and the at least one potential effect of failure.

23. The computer implemented method of claim 9, wherein each combination of the at least one potential cause of failure and the at least one potential effect of failure has at least one of the recommended action if a correlation of an initial severity value and an initial occurrence value for the combination is greater than a predetermined threshold.

24. The computer implemented method of claim 23, wherein the recommended action is selected from one or more databases.

25. The computer implemented method of claim 23, wherein the recommended action has an associated forecast severity value, occurrence value and detection value.

26. The computer implemented method of claim 23 further including a current severity value, a current occurrence value and a current detection value based on an execution of the at least recommended action, executed by the one or more FMEA analysts, for the combination of the at least one potential cause of failure and the at least one potential effect of failure.

27. The computer implemented method of claim 26 further including calculating a current RPN value based on a co-relation of the current severity value, current occurrence value and a current detection value for the combination of the at least one potential cause of failure and the at least one potential effect of failure.

28. The computer implemented method of claim 26, wherein the current severity value, occurrence value and detection value is selected from one or more databases.

29. The computer implemented method of claim 8, wherein the sequential order of elements for a process FMEA projects includes:

a. at least process step;

b. one or more steps output associated with the process step;

c. at least one potential failure mode associated with the one or more functional requirements;

d. at least one potential effect of failure associated with the at least one potential failure mode;

e. at least one potential cause of failure associated with the at least one potential mode of failure;

f. an optional detection or prevention control associated with a combination of the at least one potential cause of failure and the at least one potential effect of failure; and

g. an optional recommended action associated with a combination of the at least one potential cause of failure and the at least one potential effect of failure.

30. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user interface provides a path to input information associated with each element of the sequential order of elements for the FMEA project.

31. The computer implemented method of claim 30, wherein the information associated with each element of the sequential order of elements is editable.

32. The computer implemented method of claim 30, wherein the user interface may enable the one or more FMEA analysts to provide additional information associated with each element of the sequential order of elements.

33. The computer implemented method of claim 32, where in the additional information may include one or more attachments, hyperlinks, notes, and characteristics.

34. The computer implemented method of claim 30 further including representing the sequential order of elements as a tree structure on the user interface on selecting the FMEA project, wherein on selecting any element from the sequential order of elements, the user interface is adapted to display the information associated with that element.

35. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the real time FMEA form is viewable through a summary tab from the user interface.

36. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the real time FMEA form includes the sequential order of elements.

37. The computer implemented method of claim 36, wherein the real time FMEA form is being updated in response of receiving the textual inputs from the one or more FMEA analysts.

38. The computer implemented method of claim 36, wherein the real time FMEA form further includes an initial and current severity values, occurrence values and detection values.

39. The computer implemented method of claim 36, wherein the real time FMEA form further includes one or more visual descriptors associated with the elements of the sequential order of elements.

40. The computer implemented method of claim 39, wherein the one or more visual descriptors provides a status or issues associated with the elements.

41. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user interface provides a path through the real time FMEA form to view and edit information associated with the elements of the sequential order of elements.

42. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user interface provides a path on the real time FMEA form to export the FMEA form in MS Excel.

43. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user interface provides a path on the real time FMEA form to view a status report of the FMEA project.

44. The computer implemented method of claim 43, wherein the status report includes:

a. the one or more elements from the sequential order of elements;

b. information associated with the one or more elements;

c. the one or more FMEA analysts assigned to complete a task associated with the one or more elements;

d. a required date for the completion of the task associated with the one or more elements; and

e. a planned start and end date for an execution of the task associated with the one or more elements.

45. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user interface provides a Design Verification Plan and Report (DVP&

R) tab to view a progress on one or more tasks associated with the sequential order of elements.

46. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user interface provides a path to add one or more related FMEA projects with a current FMEA project.

47. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user interface provides a path to import information associated with a FMEA project from a database, an MS Excel file, and a web tool.

48. The computer implemented method of claim 47, wherein the user interface is adapted to show the imported information associated with the FMEA Project on the real time FMEA form.

49. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user interface provides a My Action tab for the one or more FMEA analysts.

50. The computer implemented method of claim 49, wherein the MY Action tab enables the one or more FMEA analysts to view one or more assigned tasks and target completion dates associated with the one or more elements from the sequential order of elements.

51. A system comprising:

a processor for facilitating a failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) project associated with one or more components or process during a product development cycle,

a tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor, the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

displaying on a user interface one or more information pages associated with sequential order of elements to be completed by one or more FMEA analysts;

receiving, with an aid of the user interface, textual inputs from the one or more FMEA analysts to be filled in the one or more information pages associated with the sequential orders of elements; and

representing, to the one or more FMEA analysts, the sequential order of elements in a tree structure, wherein a real time FMEA status is viewable through the user interface indicating the progress of the FMEA project.

52. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory, tangible computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computer-based system for facilitating a failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) project associated with one or more components or process during a product development cycle, cause the computer-based system to perform operations comprising:

displaying on a user interface one or more information pages associated with sequential order of elements to be completed by one or more FMEA analysts;

receiving, with an aid of the user interface, textual inputs from the one or more FMEA analysts to be filled in the one or more information pages associated with the sequential orders of elements; and

representing, to the one or more FMEA analysts, the sequential order of elements in a tree structure, wherein a real time FMEA status is viewable through the user interface indicating the progress of the FMEA project.