Page 361 - The Handbook for Quality Management a Complete Guide to Operational Excellence

348 C o n t i n u o u s I m p r o v e m e n t

• Reducing detectability level increases cost with no improvement to
quality. In order to reduce the detectability level, we must improve the
detection rate. We might add process steps to inspect product, approve
product, or (as in the example), to double­check a previous process
step. None of these activities adds value to the customer, and are
hidden factory sources of waste to the organization.
• Reducing the occurrence level is often the best approach, since
reducing severity can be costly (or impossible) and reducing
detectability is only a costly short­term solution. Reducing the
occurrence level requires a reduction in process defects, which
reduces cost.
The final step in the FMEA is to re­evaluate the RPN after improve­
ments have been implemented.

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