Toolbox - Transforming the Failure Mode and Effects Analysis for community-based product development

Open source product development is an arising alternative to standard industrial development practices. Communities of voluntary members engage in decentralized development practices that are open to anyone interested to collaboratively foster innovation. However, the lack of tools and missing knowledge of methods that are standard practice in industrial product development issue challenges for community-based product development. One major concern that takes on greater significance with an increasing practice of open source product development (OSPD) relates to product quality. The Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is one of the major safety analyses tools and widely used in manufacturing industries. The advantages of using FMEA in OSPD are manifold. The risk analysis is an important feature to build trust and confidence in open source hardware (OSH) across the community and with other stakeholders. Failure prevention decreases effort, saves time and after all costs. By pointing out risks and weak spots of the product, the FMEA identifies important areas of improvement and guides development activities. This toolbox offers open source communities that want to foster quality improvements customized tools and templates to learn about FMEA and apply it in the inherent environment of OSPD. Additionally, a FMEA on COSI Measure, a multipurpose three-axis open source robot, is presented. In a seven month lasting ethnographic study the FMEA had been practically applied by an OSPD community.