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Navistar Case Study

Integration of ReliaSoft XFMEA into Navistar’s Reliability Functional Excellence

 

Navistar has been on the Reliability Functional Excellence (RFE) journey for the past two years. RFE is centered around delivering an integrated end to end to support and enhance product development, launch and life cycle management. The first step in our RFE process was to strengthen our risk evaluation process. At the beginning of every new vehicle development program, a collection of new DFMEAs would be either be developed from scratch or existing DFMEAs would be located as a baseline and then modified for the specific program. Developing new DFMEAs for every program which was challenging with aggressive timelines and was not an effective solution to capturing previous knowledge. Selecting existing DFMEAs was also not optimum as the DFMEA quality was inconsistent as there was no defined approval or configuration control process. Additional time was required to clean up DFMEAs or worse, poor DFMEAs were used.

ReliaSoft Master Suite was chosen as the software package to drive the connectivity between defining design and manufacturing risks, developing test plans and compiling vehicle reliability predictions. In 2018, Navistar developed a library structure to store DFMEAs from 14 different engineering systems and 100 subsystems, a formal approval process for program and master template DFMEAs, piloted with two programs, developing over 100 program DFMEAs and then formalized XFMEA as the DFMEA tool for the organization. These program DFMEAs are now stored as templates and will be the basis for the next generation of programs, improving the design risk identification while reducing the process time.

Challenge

  • Inconsistent and siloed DFMEA process
  • DFMEAs were stored in multiple locations and were typically unverified and unapproved
  • Insufficient reuse of previous DFMEAs
  • Weak connection between DFMEAs and the DVPs and PFMEAs
  • Ineffective tracking of program DFMEAs, resulting in last minute reviews of varying quality

Solution

  • Successfully implemented XFMEA into Navistar’s DFMEA process, completing the first step in integrating ReliaSoft into our Reliability Functional Excellence process
  • Created standard processes and structure that will increase DFMEA speed and improve quality
  • Created a searchable library structure and stored over 100 DFMEAs
  • Completed all cross-functional DFMEA reviews on time and prior to Program Approval phase
  • Initiated electronic approval process

Value

  • Risks identified sooner and managed more efficiently, resulting in more robust product and improved quality