Fun with the FMEA: How Groupthink Impacts Risk Analysis

Failure Modes and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is a common risk prevention and assessment tool used in various industries. To complete an FMEA, cross-functional teams brainstorm how severe a process failure may be, how likely it is to occur, and the probability that this defect will be detected. Since numbers are assigned to score failure modes (the higher the score the more attention the process needs), FMEAs are considered to objectively assess risk. However, groupthink is a problem that can influence scoring during the FMEA creation process. The purpose of the “Fun with the FMEA” exercise is for a simulated, cross-functional team to working through a real-world business problem while secretively making groupthink related errors. Participants will learn how to construct an FMEA while minimizing groupthink.