Multi-view FMEA Re-validation: Efficient Risk and Engineering Knowledge Integration in Agile Production Systems Engineering

In agile Production Systems Engineering (PSE), multi-disciplinary teams work concurrently on various PSE artifacts in an iterative process that can be supported by common concept and Product-Process-Resource (PPR) modeling. However, keeping track of the interactions and effects of changes across engineering disciplines and their implications for risk assessment is exceedingly difficult in such settings. To tackle this challenge and systematically co-evolve Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and PPR models during PSE, it is necessary to propagate and validate changes across engineering artifacts. To this end, we design and evaluate a FMEA-linked-to-PPR assets (FMEA+PPR) meta model to represent relationships between FMEA elements and PSE assets and trace their change states and dependencies in the design and validation lifecycle. Furthermore, we design and evaluate the FMEA+PPR method to efficiently re-validate FMEA models upon changes in multi-view PSE models. We evaluate the model and method in a feasibility study on the quality of a joining process automated by a robot cell in automotive PSE. The study results indicate that the FMEA+PPR method is feasible and addresses requirements for FMEA re-validation better than alternative traditional approaches. Thereby, the FMEA+PPR approach facilitates a paradigm shift from traditional, isolated PSE and FMEA activities towards an integrated agile PSE method.