International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management

A FMEA-based approach to prioritize waste reduction in lean implementation

Ruy Victor B. de Souza Luiz Cesar R. Carpinetti
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Ruy Victor B. de Souza Luiz Cesar R. Carpinetti , (2014),"A FMEA-based approach to prioritize waste
reduction in lean implementation", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 31 Iss 4
pp. 346 - 366
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IJQRM
31,4
346
Received 4 May 2012
Revised 6 June 2013
Accepted 12 June 2013
Downloaded by University of Sri Jayewardenepura At 22:06 03 September 2016 (PT)
International Journal of Quality &
Reliability Management
Vol. 31 No. 4, 2014
pp. 346-366
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0265-671X
DOI 10.1108/IJQRM-05-2012-0058
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0265-671X.htm
QUALITY PAPER
A FMEA-based approach
to prioritize waste reduction
in lean implementation
Ruy Victor B. de Souza and Luiz Cesar R. Carpinetti
Production Engineering Department, University of São Paulo,
São Carlos, Brazil
Abstract
Purpose – This paper presents a proposal of adaptation of the failure mode and effect analysis
method to analyze wastes and define priorities for actions aimed at minimizing or eliminating these
wastes based on the criteria of severity, occurrence and detection.
Design/methodology/approach – The proposition was developed in parallel to the
implementation of a lean production system of a manufacturing company. A pilot application of
the proposal was based on the analysis of a flow of information for order processing.
Findings – Application of the proposed procedure results in a classification of levels of priority for waste
reduction of the analyzed waste modes. Following this procedure, high priority will be given to actions
focused on the elimination or minimization of the most common causes of the most severe waste modes.
Originality/value – Prioritization of actions to minimize waste is essential to sustain lean
production systems. However, identifying the wastes most in need of attention is not always
straightforward and methods presented in the literature to evaluate leanness do not focus on waste
reduction prioritization. Adoption of the proposed technique can certainly aid planning
implementation and improvement of lean production programs, and in the end, it can contribute to
the effectiveness and sustainability of lean production systems.
Keywords Lean manufacturing, Waste reduction, FMEA, Leanness
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In the last decades, competitive pressures have been pushing companies towards cost
reduction and performance improvement of operations to provide high quality
products to very demanding markets. The approach of lean production for waste
reduction and performance improvement has been gaining importance (Gurumurthy
and Kodali, 2011; Taj and Morosan, 2011). However, as most of the improvement
initiatives, there are several problems that can hinder improvement expected after lean
production implementation. A survey conducted by Lean Enterprise Institute (2008)
points out a number of obstacles. The three most cited ones are: backsliding; middle
management resistance and lack of implementation know-how. Gurumurthy and
Kodali (2011) also points lack of understanding regarding how to implement lean
production as one of the main reasons for failures. Following the same line of
argument, Sawhney et al. (2010) also point lack of planning as one of the causes of
unsuccessful lean system implementation.
Implementing lean production systems is a process that includes assessing current
situation and designing a production system based on lean system concepts and
 techniques for waste reduction. The seven classical types of waste are: transport; FMEA-based
inventory; motion; waiting; overproduction; over processing and defects. Womack and approach
Jones (2003) propose the five principles for guiding lean production implementation.
Rother and Shook (2003) propose a sequence of eight steps to plan the design of a
future state lean production system. The evolution from current to future state is a
continuous process that may require many Kaizen projects to eliminate or reduce all
sort of waste that may prevent leanness. Therefore, a fundamental aspect in planning 347
lean production implementation and improvement is deciding what types of waste
should be reduced first.
There are some studies presented in the literature intended to assess leanness and
performance improvement opportunities of lean production systems. Vinodh and
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Balaji (2011) propose a fuzzy logic based decision support system to help managers to
identify main impediments to leanness and provide opportunities for improvement.
Similarly, Vinodh and Chintha (2011) propose a fuzzy QFD technique to identify lean
attributes and enablers so as an organization can gain lean competences. Ramesh and
Kodali (2012) propose the adoption of analytical hierarchy process in combination with
goal programming to help decision on the selection of the best values stream mapping
tool based on organization’s priorities. Other approaches are proposed by Saurin et al.
(2011), Hu et al. (2008), Gurumurthy and Kodali (2011) and Sharma et al. (2005).
A different contribution to the problem of defining priorities for reduction of
different types of waste can be made by adapting the failure mode and effect analysis
(FMEA) technique to analyze waste modes. FMEA is a well-known technique for
quality improvement of products and processes. It is basically a systematic approach
for prioritization of improvement actions based on the analysis of severity, occurrence
and detectability of failure modes (Sankar and Prabhu, 2001). FMEA has also been
used in different contexts of application (Ookalkar et al., 2009; Inoue and Yamada,
2010; Sawhney et al., 2010). Sawhney et al. (2010) propose the use of FMEA to analyze
failures in lean production implementation related to four critical resources: people,
materials, equipment and schedules.
Adding to the work proposed by Sawhney et al. (2010) but in different way, this
paper presents an approach of application of a modified FMEA in the context of lean
production implementation. It is based on waste modes identification, as opposed to
failure modes, and scoring according to the FMEA criteria of severity, occurrence and
detection of waste modes. Development and pilot application of the proposal happened
in parallel to the implementation planning and execution of a lean production system in
a manufacturing company.
This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents the waste modes according to
the concepts of lean production, in manufacturing as well as in office environments.
Section 3 briefly presents the FMEA technique and some of its unusual applications.
Section 4 describes the development process including adaptations of the technique
(called Waste FMEA (W-FMEA)) to analyze waste modes. Section 5 presents and
discusses the results of development an application of the proposal. Final
considerations about this research work are made in Section 6.

2. Lean production and types of waste

According to Womack and Jones (2003) and others (Piercy and Rich, 2009; Shetty et al.,
2010; Shah and Ward, 2003), the five lean principles are: define value from the
 IJQRM standpoint of the end customer; identify the value stream for each product family;
31,4 create flow through the value creating steps; pull value from next upstream activities;
seek perfection and eliminate wastes.
Seeking perfection through waste elimination or reduction is therefore core to lean
system since implementation of the other principles and the lean techniques aims
fundamentally at elimination of non-value-adding work and other forms of waste
348 (Liker, 2004; Singh et al., 2010; Sawhney et al., 2010). Table I presents several modes of
waste in each category, as reported in the literature.
The lean concepts and techniques originally developed to apply in manufacturing
are increasingly being applied in administrative flows, called lean office or lean service
(Piercy and Rich, 2009). The types of waste in manufacturing are easily translated to
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office environment. Table II presents the types of waste in administrative flows, as

proposed by several authors.
Implementations of lean systems usually focus on creating a value stream map
(VSM) of the current situation so as to evolve to the future situation. In order to identify
and eliminate wastes, implementation of several concepts and techniques are proposed
in the literature, such as (Shingo, 1989): continuous flow; visual control systems;
standardization; small lot sizes; reduction of setup times; inspection; total productive

Waste mode Waste mode causes References

1. Overproduction 1.1.Production in excess of demand Shingo (1989), Womack

1.2.Be unsure about non-conformance and Jones (2003), Ohno
1.3.Large warehouses of finished goods (1988), Sánchez and
1.4.High transportation costs Perez (2001), Liker (2004)
1.5.Inaccurate PCP
1.6.Anticipation of production
2. Inventory excess 2.1.Excess of in-process inventory
2.2.Difficulty and inefficiency in dealing with
demand fluctuation
3. Unnecessary 3.1. Producing large quantity of parts
transport 3.2. Inadequate layouts
4. Defects 4.1. Lack of training
4.2. Defective raw material
4.3. Inadequate production processes
5. Waiting 5.1. Up-stream process interruption
5.2. Lack of material, tools or information
5.3 Unpredicted events at production processes
5.4. Bad management of bottlenecks
6. Over processing or 6.1. Use of more resources than the necessary
incorrect 6.2. Production of parts with quality level above
processing specification
6.3. Use of inadequate tools
7. Unnecessary 7.1. Lack of standard procedures
motion 7.2. Excess of movements to reach objects, supplies
and tools
7.3. Bad workstation organization
Table I. 7.4. Search for lost objects, supplies and tools
Waste modes in 8. Talent and 8.1. Lack of time for improvement actions Liker (2004)
manufacturing creativity waste
 Waste mode Waste mode causes References
FMEA-based
approach
Categories 1-5
1. Overproduction or 1.1. Designing or process information which will not Lareau (2002),
excess of be used soon Cuatrecasas (2004),
production 1.2. Including services and features which are not Locher (2008)
considered value by the client
2. Waiting, 2.1. Waiting for supervisor’s approval Lareau (2002),
349
interruptions or 2.2. Waiting for client’s approval Cuatrecasas (2004),
delays 2.3. Waiting for information from the previous Locher (2008), Piercy
processes and Rich (2009)
2.4. Waiting for equipment maintenance
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2.5. Waiting for report preparation

2.6. People being interrupted while doing value adding
activities
3. Work in process, 3.1. Boxes full of documents and paper Lareau (2002),
inventory and 3.2. Email inboxes full of unread emails Cuatrecasas (2004),
storage 3.3. Transportation only when large lot sizes are Locher (2008)
complete
3.4. Retention of documents longer than necessary
3.5. Resources wasted to control information stuck
between processes
4. Motion or 4.1. Motion between offices Lareau (2002),
displacement 4.2. Motion inside offices Cuatrecasas (2004),
4.3. Motion between two subsequent activities Locher (2008), Piercy
4.4. Excessive motion of people and Rich (2009)
4.5. Motion in order to print documents
4.6. Motion in order to use fax machine
4.7. Displacement to unnecessary meetings in other
places
5. Transportation 5.1. Transportation of documents
5.2. Transportation of information via email
5.3. Report distribution
5.4. Paper transportation to get people signature
5.5 Any kind of information transport which is not
available in an unique and accessible system
Categories 6-10
6. Inadequate and 6.1. Bad use of resources while conducting routine Lareau (2002),
inefficient activities Cuatrecasas (2004),
processes and lack 6.2. Lack of standardization of routine activities Locher (2008)
of communication 6.3. Generating extra copies of documents
6.4. Lack or difficulty of communication among people
involved in process flow
6.5. Generalization of flows. Treating all kinds of Hammer and Champy
information in the same way (2001)
6.6. Excess of departmentalization. Lack of
organizational structure oriented by processes flows
7. Defects, mistakes 7.1. Processing information with defects Lareau (2002),
and imperfections 7.2. Information missing Cuatrecasas (2004),
7.3. Mistakes in designs, products or services Locher (2008)
7.4. Generating mistaken information at first
7.5. Misunderstanding of client’s needs Table II.
(continued) Waste modes in service
 IJQRM Waste mode Waste mode causes References
31,4
8. Revision, 8.1. Low level of accurate and complete information Lareau (2002)
translations and 8.2. Bad fulfilment of client’s needs
rework 8.3. Reprogramming and special requests
8.4. Inspection in search of mistakes and omissions
350 8.5. Conversion of files to use in different kinds of
media or software
8.6. Activities done to correct mistakes or inefficiency
of processes
9. Underuse of 9.1. Limited autonomy for people when dealing with Lareau (2002), Piercy
people, talent and basic issues and Rich (2009)
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resources 9.2. Underestimated potential of people

9.3. Ineffective knowledge sharing
9.4. Bad resource and people management
9.5. Bad material management
9.6. Bad equipment management
9.7. Lack of supplier involvement or client
involvement when necessary
10. Excess of installed 10.1. Installed capacity to absorb peak demand, which Lareau (2002)
Table II. capacity become unused in normal demand periods

maintenance, among others. Rother and Shook (2003) propose eight steps to design the
future state VSM, as follows: determine takt time; decide whether finished goods
should go to a supermarket or shipped directly to customers; define where to use
continuous flow; decide where to use supermarket pull mechanisms; determine the
location of pacemaker; determine how to level the production mix at the pacemaker;
determine the increment of movement at the pacemaker; identify the improvements
need to achieve the future state. The road map for implementing the future state is
however dependent on particular needs related to modes of waste most in need of
reduction. Planning what actions to implement first, and what waste modes to reduce
first, is a decision the impacts the success of lean implementations and, in the
long-term, its sustainability and obstacles.

3. FMEA
The FMEA basic procedure for defining priorities of improvement is based on the risk
priority number (RPN) which in turn is based on the product of three indices resulting
from evaluation of (Inoue and Yamada, 2010; Chuang, 2010):
(1) severity on clients of identified potential or existing effects of failure modes,
ranging from 1 to 10;
(2) likeliness of occurrence of the causes of possible causes of failure modes,
ranging from 1 to 10; and
(3) effectiveness of the detection procedures to prevent failure modes, ranging from
10 to 1 (higher the effectiveness, lower the index).

The literature presents some variations of the conventional FMEA technique. For
instance Rhee and Ishii (2003) and Von Ashen (2008) propose a cost orientation
approach to prioritization of failure modes. Franceschini and Galetto (2001) propose the
 use of linguistic variables and fuzzy set theory to define the risk priority level. Sankar FMEA-based
and Prabhu (2001) also propose an expert system approach to define the risk priority approach
level. Other studies proposed alternative techniques to determine the priority risk level
(Ben-daya and Raouf, 1996; Ookalkar et al., 2009; Inoue and Yamada, 2010; Kumar and
Chaturvedi, 2011).
Non-conventional FMEA applications are reported in several papers (Ookalkar et al.,
2009; Chuang, 2010; Inoue and Yamada, 2010). Sawhney et al. (2010) propose the 351
application of FMEA to improve reliability of lean system based on a different
procedure for calculation of the RPN, as the product of severity and occurrence indices
divided by the detection index. However, a limitation of their proposal is linking and
restricting the analysis of failures to resources such as people, materials, equipment
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and schedules instead of focusing on waste modes of lean production systems, as

proposed next.

4. Waste FMEA
The method presented here, called W-FMEA, focus on the identification of waste
modes in lean production system and definition of priorities of actions for waste mode
elimination. Therefore, it helps planning improvement actions in the process of
implementation or improvement of lean production systems as illustrated in Figure 1.
Development of the proposal consisted of defining a check list of waste modes,
adapting the scales for severity, occurrence and detectability as well as the procedure
for defining priority levels. It has taken place in parallel to the implementation of a lean
production system of a manufacturing company in the building industry whose main
products are wood doors and windows made to order. In agreement with the company
manager, the flow of information for order processing of a product family, which
involves commercial, financing, production planning and manufacturing functions,
was taken as a case to develop the proposal. In particular, it was considered the order

Current State

Future State Figure 1.

Improvement Schematic view of use of
implementation FMEA (W-FMEA) in the
lean production system
implementation process
 IJQRM processing flow of a group of products which accounts for a substantial portion of the
31,4 company income and, at the same time, has high incidence of problems.
A check list of waste modes for manufacturing and administrative environment has
been defined based on literature review, as presented in Tables I and II. The criterion of
severity has been adapted to consider not only the severity to the client but also to the
company as well. Table III presents a qualitative description of severity of impact of
352 waste modes in flows of information for different scores of severity on a scale from
1 to 10. Definition of scores was based on severity scores found in the literature on
FMEA (Stamatis, 2003; Ookalkar et al., 2009; Inoue and Yamada, 2010; Kumar and
Chaturvedi, 2011).
Table IV presents a qualitative and quantitative description of occurrence of waste
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modes in flow of information for different scores of occurrence on a scale from 1 to 10.
It was also based on occurrence scores found in the literature on FMEA (Stamatis,
2003; Ookalkar et al., 2009; Inoue and Yamada, 2010; Kumar and Chaturvedi, 2011).
Table V presents a qualitative and quantitative description of detection procedures of
waste modes, also based on detection scores found in the literature.
Application of the W-FMEA has happened in parallel to the mapping of the value
stream for the chosen product family. Apart from priority definition, adaptation of

Severity Qualitative description

score Qualitative description (company’s perception) (client’s perception)

1 Bad use or underuse of a resource which is not
restrictive. Very small increase on cost in the
short-term
2 Delays in non-critic flows which do not impact
the service deadline. Small increase of cost in
the short-term
3 Duplicated information causing
misunderstanding and waste of time to
determine the correct one
4 Delays in non-critical flows which do not impact
the service deadline. Increase on cost in the
medium-term
5 Duplicated information causing
misunderstanding, waste of time and extra cost
to solve the problem
6 Delays in critical flows which do impact the
deadline of the service. Increase of the cost in
the short-term
7 Bad use or underuse of a restrictive resource.
Increase of cost in the medium-term
8 Delays in critical flows which do impact
deadline of service. Increase of costs in the
medium-term
9 Bad use or underuse of a restrictive resource.
Table III. Increase of cost in the long-term
Scale of severity
of waste mode in flow 10 Delays in critical flows which do impact service Definitive loss of client. Effective loss
of information deadline. Increase of cost in the long-term
Service does not impose any
difficulty or restriction to the client
Service imposes small problems to
the client
Difficulty in using the service,
however the client can handle the
problem
Difficulty in using the service; the
client needs support from company
Impossibility of using the service at
first but it is possible to solve the
problem without cost to the client
Impossibility of using the service at
first but it is possible to solve the
problem with a small cost to the client
Temporary loss of the client but there
is no immediate loss in market share
Useless service. Definitive loss of
client but not of market share
Temporary loss of client with
temporary negative impact on
market share
in the market share
 FMEA-based
Occurrence
score Qualitative description Quantitative description approach
1 Very remote – even experienced people cannot remember Almost no chance of
the last time it happened occurrence (0.1 percent)
2 Unlikely – experienced people remember one occurrence Chance below 1 percent
with difficulty 353
3 Small chance of occurrence – experienced people Chance of occurrence
remember only very few occurrences with difficulty between 1 and 3 percent
4 Slight chance of occurrence – experienced people Chance of occurrence
remember very few cases between 3 and 5 percent
5 Few occurrences – people involved with the processes Chance of occurrence
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remember very few cases between 5 and 8 percent

6 Considerable number of occurrences – experienced Chance of occurrence
people remember few cases between 8 and 15 percent
7 Happens frequently – all involved remember few cases Chance of occurrence
between 15 and 25 percent
8 Happens very frequently – experienced people remember Chance of occurrence
a lot of cases between 25 and 35 percent
9 Happens very likely – all involved remember a lot of Chance of occurrence Table IV.
cases between 35 and 50 percent Scale of occurrence
10 Happens almost certainly – everybody in the company Chance of occurrence bigger of waste mode in flow
remember a lot of cases than 50 percent of information

W-FMEA was based on standard procedure for FMEA application, as follows

(Columns of W-FMEA table):
.
Flow. Identification of flow.
.
Flow function. Description of main purpose of flow.
.
Waste mode. Identification of waste modes guided by check lists presented in
Tables I and II.
.
Cause of waste mode. Description of possible causes of waste modes.
.
Occurrence. Scoring of occurrence of cause or causes of waste mode based on
Table IV.
.
Detection. Scoring of detectability of waste mode based on Table V.
.
Effect of waste mode. Description of effects of waste mode to the client as well as
to the company itself.
.
Severity of waste mode. Scoring of severity of waste mode based on Table III.
.
Waste priority number (WPN). Calculation of the WPN based on the criteria of
severity, occurrence and detection, as discussed next (equation (1)).
.
Cause priority number (CPN). Calculation of a number indicating the priority of
causes related to different WPNs, discussed next (equation (2)).
.
Priority analysis. Based on the calculated indices, define the level of priority of
improvement or change actions.

In meetings with the participation of the production and commercial managers (as well
as the first author of this paper), the waste modes acknowledged to occur in the flow
 IJQRM
Detection
31,4 score Qualitative description Quantitative description

1 It will certainly be detected before waste
happens – there are failsafe mechanisms which
avoid waste
354 2 Very high probability of detection before waste
happens – there are failsafe mechanisms which
almost avoid waste
3 It will likely be detected before waste happens
– there are failsafe mechanisms which almost
avoid waste
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Detects and avoid occurrence 100 percent
of the times
Detects and avoid occurrence 85 percent
of the times and just detects the rest
Detects and avoid occurrence 70 percent
of the times and just detects the rest

4 It has a good chance of being detected before Detects and avoid occurrence 50 percent
waste happens – there are failsafe mechanisms of the time and just detects the rest
which avoid waste half of the time
5 It has a small chance of being detected before Detects and avoid occurrence 30 percent
waste happens – there are failsafe mechanisms of the times and just detects the rest
which avoid few times
6 It has a very small chance of being detected Detects and avoid occurrence 10 percent
before the fail happens – there are failsafe of the times and just detects the rest
mechanisms which avoid very few times
7 There is no failsafe mechanism, however there It does not avoid the occurrence, however
is full inspection after processing it detects 90 percent after the occurrence,
before affecting the client
8 There is no failsafe mechanism, however there It does not avoid the occurrence, however
is inspection around half of the time it detects 50 percent after the occurrence,
before affecting the client
9 There is no failsafe mechanism, however there It does not avoid the occurrence, however
is inspection a few times it detects 10 percent after the occurrence,
Table V. before affecting the client
Scale of detection 10 There is no failsafe mechanism neither It detects less than 1 percent of the times
of waste mode in flow inspection and the wastes generally affect the
of information clients

under analysis were registered. After this phase of application and based on the
experience provided by the case, the check list initially used by the team (Table II) was
enlarged with another ten waste modes, as presented in Table VI.
Identification of causes of waste mode was aided by the 5W technique so as to try to
reach the root causes of identified waste modes. Scoring of severity, occurrence and
detection were done based on the qualitative and quantitative descriptions on
Tables III-V, respectively. Descriptions of effect of waste modes were aligned and
complementary to the description presented in Table III.
Having all the information required for calculation of the priority number, the team
calculated the WPN, based on equation for calculation of the RPN, as in equation (1):

WPN ¼ D £ O £ S ð1Þ

In addition to calculating the WPN, it was reasoned by the team that since some causes
are responsible for many different waste modes, it would be wise to define a rank of
causes most responsible for the most severe waste modes, according to WPN. In order
to do that, a second index, CPN, associated to each cause, was defined as the
 FMEA-based
Waste category Waste mode
approach
1. Overproduction or excess of production Buying office stationery before need them
Printing reports before need them
2. Waiting, interruptions or delays Excess of meetings to make everybody knows what is
happening. Meetings rework
3. Work in process, inventory and storage Processing information (reports, transactions, 355
documents) in batches
6. Inadequate and inefficient processes Accepting of products or services which are not
and lack of communication workable
Existence of parallel and incorrect paths of information
flow causing information loss
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Lack of goal alignment as well as time and money spent

7. Defects, mistakes and imperfections
9. Underuse of people, talent and
resources
10. Excess of installed capacity
with activities not related to the goals
Computer system unreliable and prone to breakdown
Incorrect determination of price/cost of the services/
processes
Lack of urgency sense for priority issues
Table VI.
Flows processes which are unleveled Additional waste modes

summation of the WPN index of all the wastes caused at least in part by a particular
cause. This calculation is expressed in equation (2):

X
n
CPN ¼ WPN WM ð2Þ
WM ¼1

5. Results
Application of this procedure to the value stream under consideration led to the
identification of the waste modes, evaluation of severity, occurrence and detection
according to, respectively, Tables III-V, and calculation of the WPN and CPN figures,
as presented in Table VII. Table VIII presents the most relevant causes of waste mode
according to the CPN index, indicating in its last column the waste modes related to those
causes. The three main causes of waste accounted for 71.3 percent of the accumulated
WPN. Tables VII and VIII show that the first and third most frequent causes of waste
mode ask for improvement actions in the information system, either to add functionalities
to make the flow more automated/integrated or to make the system more robust against
unauthorized edition and incorrect/incomplete inputs. The second most frequent cause of
waste mode is basically related to various forms of exaggerated bureaucracy.
Table VII presents in its last column the level of priority of actions for reduction for
each waste mode. Prioritization of improvement actions was suggested based on the
simultaneous analysis of WPN and CPN indices as follows:
.
High priority. Waste modes with moderate to high value of WPN and high value
of CPN: in this category are waste modes 4.2, 4.5b, 6.1 and 10.1. For all of them,
waste reduction actions relate to adequate the information system, adding
functionalities so as to increase automation and integration of order processing
flow of information (top cause of waste). In this high priority category also are
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31,4

356
IJQRM

Table VII.

production order
customer order and
W-FMEA for the value
stream of sales proposal,
Reference
to
Flow Flow function Table II Waste mode Cause of waste mode Occurrence Detection Effect of waste mode Severity WPN CPN Priority

Sales Sell products at the Processing 1.1 Too much process Client takes too long 2 10 Increase of cost in the 7 140 268 Medium
proposal – correct price as information at the done before to send product medium-term
customer well as quantity, right moment with receiving the specification sheet
order – quality and term. the correct information from
production Sell them to quantity and construction site
order reliable clients. correct quality
Generate Without wait, 2.1a A lot of steps to Excess of bureaucracy 7 10 Delay that impacts the 6 420 2052 High
production orders delay or be send drawings for but lack of standard in deadline and increases
efficiently and interrupted client’s approval the procedures cost in the short-term
effectively 2.1b Information that 8 9 Temporary loss of 9 648 2052 High
waits for clients
management’s
approval in São
Paulo
2.2 Delay in the Client takes too long 2 8 Increase of cost in the 8 128 268 Medium
production process to send product medium-term and delays
because of parts specification sheet
which are not
delivered
2.3 A process just to Excess of 10 10 Bad use or underuse of a 1 100 2052 Low
separate orders bureaucracy/ resource which is not
which contain less procedure restrictive
than 20 parts from
the orders which
contain more than
that
(continued)
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Reference
to
Flow Flow function Table II Waste mode Cause of waste mode Occurrence Detection Effect of waste mode Severity WPN CPN Priority

Sales Sell products at the Without wait, 2.5a Changes in the Lack of knowledge or 3 8 Rework and extra 3 72 72 Low
proposal – correct price as delay or be product training by selling activities to codification
customer well as quantity, interrupted specification sheet representatives on
order – quality and term. as well as in the how to fill the product
production Sell them to addendum specification sheet
order reliable clients. (interface among
Generate selling
production orders representatives,
efficiently and commercial
effectively department and
production
planning
department)
2.5b People being Work sheets (product 10 7 Rework and extra 3 210 1454 Medium
interrupted while specification sheet, activities to codification
doing value adding customer order, etc.)
activities are not protected
against edition,
incomplete and
incorrect inputs
2.6 Lack of sense of 8 5 Bad use of the resources 7 280 280 Low
urgency and bad and increase of cost in
definition of the the medium-term
responsibilities of
those involved in the
flow
Without 3.1a Orders waiting to Information system 10 8 Bad use or underuse of a 1 80 3976 Medium
maintaining be input in the does not have resource which is not
inventory between computer system functionalities to restrictive
processes by Anderson make the flow more
automated/integrated
(continued)
approach
FMEA-based

Table VII.
357
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31,4

358
IJQRM

Table VII.
Reference
to
Flow Flow function Table II Waste mode Cause of waste mode Occurrence Detection Effect of waste mode Severity WPN CPN Priority

Sales Sell products at the Without 3.1b Requests of Need of doing other 3 8 Delays in critic flows 8 192 192 Low
proposal – correct price as maintaining drawings waiting activities and need of which do impact the
customer well as quantity, inventory between to be done drawing all special deadline of the service
order – quality and term. processes items
production Sell them to 3.1c Assembling kit In order to generate 10 9 Delays in critic flows 6 540 540 Medium
order reliable clients. process waits the the production order which do impact the
Generate production of the of parts, the deadline of the service.
production orders parts documentation has to Increase of the cost in
efficiently and be finished first the short-term
effectively 3.1d Orders waiting to Production schedule is 10 10 Bad use or underuse of a 1 100 100 Low
be programmed done on a weekly resource which is not
basis restrictive
With no need of 4.1 Documents of new Information system 2 6 Bad use or underuse of a 1 12 3976 Low
excess of clients are does not have resource which is not
movement from transported to the functionalities to restrictive
people among financial make the flow more
departments as department automated/integrated
well as movement 4.2 Excess of Information system 10 9 Delays in non-critic 4 360 3976 High
to reach equipment movement to does not have flows which do not
transfer functionalities to impact the deadline of
documents inside make the flow more the service
office automated/integrated
(continued)
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Reference
to
Flow Flow function Table II Waste mode Cause of waste mode Occurrence Detection Effect of waste mode Severity WPN CPN Priority

Sales Sell products at the With no need of 4.5a Need of printing Excess of bureaucracy 10 10 Bad use or underuse of a 1 100 2052 Medium
proposal – correct price as excess of the addendum as resource which is not
customer well as quantity, movement from well as the restrictive
order – quality and term. people among customer order to
production Sell them to departments as compare them
order reliable clients. well as movement 4.5b Need of printing Information system 10 10 Generation of duplicated 5 500 3976 High
Generate to reach equipment several copies of does not have information that cause
production orders the production functionalities to the spent of time
efficiently and schedule for all make the flow more
effectively sectors of the shop automated/integrated
floor
With no need of 5.1 Commercial Excess of bureaucracy 6 10 Bad use or underuse of a 1 60 2052 Medium
transporting department resource which is not
information from transfer a printout restrictive
one place to the of customer order
other to the production
planning
department
5.2 Several Information system 8 8 Bad use or underuse of a 1 64 3976 Medium
information does not have resource which is not
transported via functionalities to restrictive
email inside the make the flow more
company automated/integrated
5.3 Printing and Lack of shipping 10 9 Bad use or underuse of a 1 90 90 Low
transportation of a control procedure resource which is not
delivery checklist restrictive
5.4 Need of the Excess of bureaucracy 5 9 Delays in critic flows 6 270 2052 High
director’s as well which do impact the
coordinator’s deadline of the service
signature for
drawing request
and drawing
approval
(continued)
approach
FMEA-based

Table VII.
359
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31,4

360
IJQRM

Table VII.
Reference
to
Flow Flow function Table II Waste mode Cause of waste mode Occurrence Detection Effect of waste mode Severity WPN CPN Priority

Sales Sell products at the Through adequate 6.1a There is no page Information system 8 10 Bad use or underuse of a 9 720 3976 High
proposal – correct price as and standardized break functionality does not have restrictive resource.
customer well as quantity, processes for items that will functionalities to Increase of the cost in
order – quality and term. go to one sector or make the flow more the long-term
production Sell them to another automated/integrated
order reliable clients. 6.1b The computer 8 10 Bad use or underuse of a 9 720 3976 High
Generate system does not restrictive resource.
production orders process Increase of the cost in
efficiently and automatically the the long-term
effectively information of two
kinds of products
6.1c Accepting the sales 8 10 Bad use or underuse of a 9 720 3976 High
proposal is not restrictive resource.
done via computer Increase of the cost in
system (it is via the long-term
email or phone)
6.3 Extra copy of the Unneeded request of 10 9 Duplicating information 5 450 450 Low
order extra copies from the causing waste of time
documentation for production sector
the plant
coordinator
6.5 Acceptance of Product specification 3 6 Temporary loss of the 7 126 1454 High
product sheet and customer client, however there is
specifications that order are not protected no immediate loss in the
cannot be against edition, market share
produced incomplete and
incorrect inputs
(continued)
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Reference
to
Flow Flow function Table II Waste mode Cause of waste mode Occurrence Detection Effect of waste mode Severity WPN CPN Priority

Sales Sell products at the Without producing 7.1 Mistake in Work sheets (product 2 8 Generation of duplicated 5 80 1454 Medium
proposal – correct price as mistakes and inserting size of specification sheet, information causing
customer well as quantity, defects parts in the customer order, etc.) waste of time
order – quality and term. product are not protected
production Sell them to specification sheet against edition,
order reliable clients. incomplete and
Generate incorrect inputs
production orders 7.2a Lack of Work sheets (product 3 8 Difficulty in using the 4 96 1454 Medium
efficiently and information of specification sheet, service
effectively direction of customer order, etc.)
openness as well as are not protected
height of drilling against edition,
incomplete and
incorrect inputs
7.2b Lack of 6 7 Delays in critic flows 8 336 1454 High
information of which do impact the
parts which have deadline of the service.
to be bought Increase of the cost in
the medium-term
7.3 Missing Work sheets (product 1 8 Delays in critic flows 8 64 1454 Medium
information in the specification sheet, which do impact the
production order customer order, etc.) deadline of the service.
documentation are not protected Increase of the cost in
against edition, the medium-term
incomplete and
incorrect inputs
7.6 Incorrect Lack of a standardized 5 7 Increase of the cost in 9 315 315 Medium
determination of system for cost the long-term
prices for special calculation
products
Without the need 8.1 Lack of Work sheets are not 2 7 Generation of duplicated 3 42 1454 Medium
of reviews, information both in protected against information that cause
conversions and the customer order edition, incomplete the spent of little time
rework as in the and incorrect inputs
addendum
(continued)
approach
FMEA-based

Table VII.
361
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31,4

362
IJQRM

Table VII.
Reference
to
Flow Flow function Table II Waste mode Cause of waste mode Occurrence Detection Effect of waste mode Severity WPN CPN Priority

Sales Sell products at the Without the need 8.3 Selling No defined procedure 7 10 Delays in critic flows 8 560 560 Medium
proposal – correct price as of reviews, representatives, for changes in process which do impact the
customer well as quantity, conversions and client asks for (due client’s request) deadline of the service
order – quality and term. rework changes in the
production Sell them to product
order reliable clients. specification sheet
Generate 8.4 Excessive Work sheets (product 10 10 Impossibility of use of 5 500 1454 High
production orders checking in the specification sheet, the service at first,
efficiently and product customer order, etc.) however it is possible to
effectively specification sheet are not protected fix the problem without
against edition, cost to the client
incomplete and
incorrect inputs
8.5 Sending Information system 10 8 Bad use or underuse of a 1 80 3976 Medium
information of the does not have resource which is not
measurement sheet functionalities to restrictive
via email make the flow more
automated/integrated
Using workforce 9.1a Too much steps for Excess of bureaucracy 7 7 Delays in critic flows 6 294 2052 High
talent as well as sending drawings which do impact the
human resources for customer deadline of the service
efficiently approval
9.1b Commercial 10 8 Delays in non-critic 2 160 2052 Medium
director has to sign flows which do not
all kinds of impact the deadline of
customer orders the service
9.7a Lack of Lack of follow up 3 6 Delays in critic flows 8 144 144 Low
involvement by the routine which impact the
client in the deadline of the service.
process of drawing Increase of cost in the
approval medium-term
9.7b Lack of Lack of knowledge 4 9 Delays in critic flows 8 288 288 Medium
commitment with about the processes which do impact the
priority issues and flow deadline of the service.
information Increase of the cost in
supplying the medium-term
In a harmonious 10.1 Actual information Information system 8 10 Bad use or underuse of a 9 720 3976 High
process flow system requires does not have restrictive resource.
huge computing functionalities to Increase of the cost in
capacity make the flow more the long-term
automated
 FMEA-based
Accumulated Related waste
Cause of waste mode CPN percent of CPN modes approach
Information system does not have functionalities to make 3976 37.9 3.1a, 4.1, 4.2, 4.5b,
the flow more automated/integrated 5.2, 6.1, 8.5, 10.1
Excess of bureaucracy but lack of standard in the 2052 57.4 2.1, 2.3, 4.5a, 5.1,
procedures 5.4, 9.1 363
Work sheets (product specification sheet, customer order, 1454 71.3 2.5b, 6.5, 7.1, 7.2,
etc.) are not protected against edition, incomplete and 7.3, 8.1, 8.4
incorrect inputs
No defined procedure for changes in process (due client’s 560 76.6 8.3
request)
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In order to generate the production order of parts, the 540 81.7 3.1c
documentation has to be finished first
Unneeded request of extra copies from the production 450 86.0 6.3
sector
Lack of a standardized system for cost calculation 315 89.0 7.6
Lack of knowledge about the processes flow 288 91.8 9.7b
Client takes too long to send product specification sheet 268 94.3 1.1, 2.2
Need of doing other activities and need of drawing all 192 96.1 3.1b
special items
Lack of follow up routine 144 97.5 9.7
Production schedule done on a weekly basis 100 98.5 3.1d
Lack of shipping control procedure 90 99.3 5.3 Table VIII.
Lack of training of sales representatives on how to fill in 72 100.0 2.5a Causes of waste mode
the product specification sheet ranked by CPN

waste modes 2.1, 5.4 and 9.1a, for which recommended actions aims to reduce
bureaucracy in the flow of information (second top cause of waste) and waste
modes 6.5, 7.2b and 8.4, with actions related to third top cause of waste. Note that
high priority will be given even for waste modes with moderate WPN, as long as
it has high CPN, indicating that the effort should be concentrated on actions
aimed at eliminating or minimizing the causes not only most frequent but also
most common.
.
Medium priority. In this category are either waste modes with moderate to high
WPN and low CPN or low WPN and moderate to high CPN. This is the case of
waste modes with high severity but with a very particular cause that does not
provoke other waste modes as for instance waste mode 3.1c. It is also the case of
waste modes 2.5b and 5.1, with low severity but with a very common cause of
occurrence, with high CPN. Defining the same level of priority indicates that in
this case it may be appropriate to pursue an action to reduce a waste mode which
is not as severe as others but has a common cause of occurrence.
.
Low priority. Finally, lowest priority will be given to waste modes with moderate
to low value of both WPN and CPN.

6. Conclusion
The proposal of application of FMEA to reduce waste in lean production
implementation has some particularities:
 IJQRM .
adaptation of scales of severity, occurrence and detection so as to capture the
31,4 meaning of the scores when considering waste modes; and
. proposition of the CPN indicator to further aiding in the prioritization process.
The main point is that action should be focused on elimination or reduction of the
few causes mainly responsible for the most severe wastes.
364 The severity scores of the waste modes can be used as key indicators of needs of waste
reductions and improvement of the lean production system. Another important aspect of
the proposal is the option for indicating groups of waste modes with the same level of
priority rather than a precise sequence of waste modes with decreasing priorities. Given
the subjectivity implicit in the evaluations and the diversity of waste modes and causes of
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wastes, a precise list of priorities would most likely be questioned and not followed.
Instead, the output of the procedure provides a road map, indicating broadly groups of
waste to be tackled first. Further refinement of waste reduction plan is part of subsequent
analysis that should take into considerations other constraints and advantages.
Development of the proposal during the implementation of a lean production system
in collaboration with the lean implementation team helped to evaluate and make some
adjustments to the initial proposal. Most importantly, the management team involved
with implementation of lean production realized the benefits of the proposal in building
consensus and focus on waste and causes of waste elimination.
Development of the proposal was based on a case of administrative value stream
and therefore the waste modes considered were typical of this environment. It is
believed that this proposal can bring a more substantial contribution in administrative
than manufacturing applications, due the high diversity and unpredictability of waste
modes in office environment. However, another possibility would be to adapt the check
list to analyze wastes in manufacturing value streams.
Certainly the proposal can be improved. For instance, the severity scale can be
based on the impact of waste on lead time or non-adding value time. The detection
scale can also be improved by specifying the types of failsafe mechanisms by different
groups of waste types. For instance, the use of on-line alerts to signal when a digital
document is retained to long in process can explicitly indicate a scale grade in the
detection scale used in connection with work in process type of waste. Likewise, the
descriptions related to different grades of occurrence can be specified for different
groups of waste types. For instance, a metric of time delay can be used to characterize
occurrence levels of a scale used in connection with wastes related to waiting,
interruptions or delays. Also, fuzzy set theory can be used to deal with the subjectivity
of scales. Despite improvements that can be made, having a systematic approach such
as this to decide what wastes to eliminate or reduce first can aid planning lean
implementations and in the end contribute to the sustainability of lean production
systems.

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About the authors

Ruy Victor B. de Souza is a graduate student at the School of Engineering of São Carlos,
University of São Paulo, Brazil. He holds a Bachelor degree in production engineer from the same
university. He has professional experience as Consultant in lean system implementation.
Luiz Cesar R. Carpinetti is an Associate Professor at the School of Engineering of São Carlos,
University of São Paulo, Brazil. He holds a PhD in engineering by the University of Warwick
(UK) and an MSc in metrology and quality assurance by the Cranfield Institute of Technology
(UK). His present teaching and research interests are on the subjects of quality and change
management. Luiz Cesar R. Carpinetti is the corresponding author and can be contacted at:
carpinet@sc.usp.br

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