Please note that this is only applicable when the supplier has the design responsibility.
Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (DFMEA) is an application of the Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FEMA) principles but is specifically aimed at the design stage of the process. The basic concept of the DFMEA is to understand where the product design could fail. The DFMEA method allows the design team to document what they know and suspect about a product’s failure modes prior to completing the design, and then use this information to design out or mitigate the causes of failure.
Ideally, the DFMEA is begun at the earliest stages of concept development, and can then be used to help winnow down competing designs and generate new, more robust concepts.