Can FMEA (Failure mode effect analysis) be found useful in HR department activities?

Hello everyone, I'm working in the Human Resources department at a manufacturing industry and want to fully utilize Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA). Can you please help me to start with some example points of failure modes in the HR department process, including Human Resource Management (HRM), Industrial Relations (IR), welfare, security, and Occupational Health sections? Please reply with some failure modes in this department, especially in the IR area.

Dear Jitendra,

Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA)

Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) is a powerful tool used in production. An FMEA is often the first step of a system reliability study. It involves reviewing as many components, assemblies, and subsystems as possible to identify failure modes, their causes, and effects. For each component, the failure modes and their resulting effects on the rest of the system are recorded in a specific FMEA worksheet. There are numerous variations of such worksheets. An FMEA can be a qualitative analysis but may be put on a quantitative basis when mathematical failure rate models are combined with a statistical failure mode ratio database.

For further information, click the following link to refer to the article on FMEA on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failur...fects_analysis

Application of FMEA in HR

The HR department does not produce any product as such. Most of the HR processes are repetitive. Therefore, what you need to check is whether the HR processes like recruitment, training, and payroll processing are standardized. Secondly, you may develop a checklist for each process or sub-process.

Probably by introducing FMEA, you would like to make HR work as error-proof as possible. Yes, your intention is laudable, but then FMEA is a bit misplaced in the HR department. Your focus will remain on keeping the HR department efficient. But then what about the effectiveness of the HR department?

Improving HR Effectiveness

As an HR professional, you may focus on improving effectiveness. To do this, you may start measuring the ROI of various HR processes like recruitment, training, etc. If you do that, it will help you strengthen your image.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Using FMEA in HR Processes

Yes, of course, you can use FMEA for all HR processes such as training and compliance. You can utilize the FMEA tool for process risk assessment and to improve the processes accordingly. It is not mandatory to use this tool only in production. Through FMEA, you can make your HR system error-proof. Subsequently, you can also assess the effectiveness.

Consider a scenario where you assess the effectiveness of training and discover that it is ineffective due to a poor training system. By implementing FMEA, your processes will become more robust, and a reduction in errors will be evident.