One of the most useful Six Sigma Training tools that you can find, FMEA can offer the ability to identify and alleviate problems or concerns in early stages of a new service format or the development of new processes.

Rather than guessing or using trial and error, this method allows for a systematic analysis of particular processes and services. It will help determine potential failures, and then allow the process to be redesigned so that the failure risk is eliminated. Having a proactive means of evaluating concerns and issues is much more preferable than responding to the failures once they have occurred. FMEA itself was used by the U.S. Military back in the late 1940s, but didn’t become a part of the Six Sigma Training until the mid-1980s. Then, in the early 1990s, the Six Sigma Process was seen to be a viable tool for healthcare improvements, which is when FMEA began being used in this capacity.

There are many different tools that are acquired in Six Sigma Training, but none that offer the same resources and approach as FMEA. It has a structured approach that allows the team to quantify certain processes to determine how they are potentially harmful and then to deduce an end result that eliminates or reduces that harm significantly. It’s also a great process tool to use for Six Sigma Projects when setting priorities and when figuring out what needs fixed first is necessary.

Periodically, healthcare has been known to do root cause analysis based on errors or mishaps that occur. Most times, this evaluation didn’t take place until the problem had already presented itself. Fixing the situation before it becomes an issue is the ideal way to do things. FMEA offers that exact chance for the healthcare industry to find and redesign certain processes or events that have inherent risks that need to be eliminated. Using Six Sigma Methodology to investigate, analyze, and redesign processes in healthcare can be advantageous to anyone who wants to make things better without waiting for proof that something needs improvement.