81 Int. J. Mech. Eng. & Rob. Res. 2012 Piyush Kumar Pareek et al., 2012 FMEA IMPLEMENTATION IN A FOUNDRY IN BANGALORE TO IMPROVE QUALITY AND RELIABILITY Piyush Kumar Pareek 1 *, Trupti V Nandikolmath 1 and Praveen Gowda 1 *Corresponding Author: Piyush Kumar Pareek, piyushpareek88@gmail.com Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is a technique to identify and prioritize potential failures of a process. This paper reports the description of FMEA methodology and its implementation in a foundry in reducing rejections of bushes. It is used as a tool to assure products quality and as a mean to improve operational performance of the process. The work was developed in an Indian foundry, in co-operation with part of the internal staff chosen as FMEA team members and was focused on the study of core making process. The problems identified in the various steps of core making process contributing for high rejection are studied and analyzed in terms of RPN to prioritize the attention for each of the problem. The monetary loss due to core rejection is considered as measure of risk. Keywords: Core, FMEA, Failure mode, Risk priority number INTRODUCTION Process FMEA is used to solve problems due to manufacturing processes. It starts with a process flow chart that shows each of the manufacturing steps of a product. The potential failure modes and potential causes for each of the process steps are identified, followed by the effects of failures on the product and product end users. The risks of these effects are then assessed accordingly as shown in Figure 1 (Xu et al., 2002). ISSN 2278 – 0149 www.ijmerr.com Vol. 1, No. 2, July 2012 © 2012 IJMERR. All Rights Reserved Int. J. Mech. Eng. & Rob. Res. 2012 1 Department of Industrial Engineering & Management, DSCE, Bangalore, Karnataka 560078, India. Basic Terms Used Failure: The loss of an intended function of a device under stated conditions. Failure Mode: The manner by which a failure is observed; it generally describes the way the failure occurs. Failure Effect: Immediate consequences of a failure on operation, function or functionality, or status of some item. Research Paper