Creating a Control Plan


Method

To be able to generate a control plan, the document type of the structure has to be PROCESS.

 

To change the document type, right-click somewhere inside the FMEA editor.

Then select Document Properties (or on the menu bar: File > Document properties).

Outcome: the Properties dialog will appear.

Choose the document type:

  • AP_PROCESS for P-FMEA following VDA/AIAG guideline 2019.

  • PROCESS for P-FMEA following VDA guideline.

You can also change the document type by right-clicking on the FMEA project name (under the FMEA file of the project while in the SOX Workbench/PSS view) and then selecting Document properties.




To create a control plan at least one process element must be defined in the FMEA editor. To create
a control plan, go to the FMEA editor and right-click on the desired process element. Then choose
Open Control Plan.

You can also select multiple process elements by keeping the Ctrl key pressed down
while clicking on the process elements.


A dialog will appear, in which you can choose between already existing control plans (if any) or create a new
one:


Select an existing control plan or create a new control plan by entering a name (this defaults to the name of the current process element). Then click on Finish. - Outcome: the control plan will open.


Filtering and adjusting the Display of the Control Plan Editor

You can change the appearance of the control plan. From the right upper corner, you have to following
options:

  • Show/Hide comments

  • Elements on/off

  • Functions on/off

  • Background for tasks on/off - Turns the background color for the tasks´ statuses on or off.

  • Show/Hide responsibilities - Shows or hides the responsible persons regarding control method and reaction plan.

Note that there are options in the preferences menu regarding the Control Plan editor: showing and
hiding responsibilities and comments and adjusting the layout to fit the window width.


SOX P-FMEA - Deriving a Control Plan From a P-FMEA

Introduction

To create a P-FMEA, follow the new FMEA Step-by-Step GuideUNDEFINED.

To derive a control plan from P-FMEA, prepare the P-FMEA as follows:

  • Use elements of type Process element to set up your P-FMEA structure.

  • Use function of type Product characteristic at focus and level fo failure levels.

  • Define tasks in containers Control method and Reaction plan located under product and process characteristics.

Product and process characteristics as well as tasks assigned to control method and reaction plan will appear in corresponding columns of the control plan.

Example P-FMEA Structure

 

 


To create tasks on containers Control method and Reaction plan, right click on either and select New > New Task (same as for prevention and detection actions on action groups).

You may wish to re-use detection actions created in action groups on your failure causes as control methods on product characteristics.

Select one or more process elements at focus level, and choose Open Control Plan from the context menu.

Choose Select existing or “New” to create a new control plan. - Outcome: product and Process characteristics as well as tasks assigned to control method and reaction plan appear in the corresponding columns.


Adding Content to a Control Plan

To specify the Tolerance of a characteristic, a requirement of suitable type needs to be assigned to it providing the attributes needed for specification. How to customize requirement types is described in section SOX RM.

  1. Right-click on a characteristic and choose New > Requirement and Trace by type and select your type. In this example, it is “Variable Characteristic”.

  2. In the Add requirement dialog click on to select a parent (module or requirement).

  3. Assign values to the attributes as needed : select an Operator from the drop-down list and specify Value, Unit and Tolerance.

  4. You may also specify a name for the characteristic (ReqIF.Name).

Outcome: the specified variable characteristic appears in column Tolerance of the control plan and can also be found under the specified parent in the RM module.

To specify the inspection equipment double-click in the corresponding column and select an entry from the drop-down list.

  • Click on Select choice lists… to open the “Choice list selection” dialog. Select the choice lists to use or create a new list by choosing Add new catalog.

  • You may add an entry to a choice list by using Add list entry.

To specify sample size and frequency, double-click in the relevant column and edit the values.


SOX RM - Creating a Requirement Type for a Control Plan

To specify the tolerance of a characteristic in a control plan a new requirement type needs to be defined to customize the attributes of the characteristic as needed. In this example, the requirement type “Variable Characteristic” is defined.

  1. Switch to requirements perspective: Click on

    in the tool bar to open the Select Perspective dialog. Select

  2. In the “Type Definition” view click on

    or right-click inside the view and select New > Requirement Type to open the “ New requirement type”
    dialog.

To control the appearance of the tolerance specification in the control plan a requirement format can be defined.

  1. In the catalogs view, go to System > RM > Requirements Formats and open the relevant catalog by double-clicking.

  2. Select a language (English) to show the choice list entries on the right (empty by default).

  3. Click on

    to add an entry.

  4. In the column “Requirement type name”, put the exact name of the defined requirement
    type → “Variable Characteristic” in this example.

To control the appearance of the tolerance specification in the control plan a requirement format can be defined.

  • In the column “Format” a format string controls the appearance of the attributes of the requirement type. Attributes are addressed by %Name%, where Name is the name of the attribute.

  • Example: %ReqIF.Name% %Operator% %Value% %Unit% +/- %Tolerance% %Unit% yields “Pressout strength = 40.0 N +/- 10 N”.