Process
stage
Ingredient
receiving
“Dry”
ingredient
storage
Egg and milk
storage
Potential
failure mode
Poor quality
ingredient
received
Storage with
noxious item
Hot storage
temperatures
Storage too
warm
Storage too
cold
(freezing)
Potential
effects of failure
Poor performance
of cookies (rise)
Poor flavor
Poor flavor
Poor performance
of cookies (rise)
Bacterial
contamination
Poor performance
of cookies (rise)
Severity
of failure
effects (S)
5
4
5
4
10
4
Potential
causes of
failure
Poor supplier
program
Poor
warehouse
program
Poor
warehouse
program
Frequency
of occurrence
(O)
2
2
1
1
1*
1*
Detectability
of failure (D)
3
3
2
3
1*
1*
RPN=S×O×D
30
24
10
12
10
4
Wrong
ingredients
added
Wrong
percentages
added
Mixed too
long
Mixed too
short
Extruding cookies Incorrect
machine
settings
Ingredient
scaling
Poor flavor
Poor performance
of cookies (rise)
4
5
1*
4
1*
3
4
60
Poor flavor
4
Poor
training
4
3
48
Mixing cookies
Poor performance
of cookies (rise)
Misshapen cookies
5
Poor
training
Poor
training
3
3
45
4
3
2
24
Erratic sizes
4
Poor
maintenance
program
3
2
24
Worn or
damaged
machine
Freezer too
warm
Metal contamination
9
2
1*
18
Freezing cookies
Cookies too soft to
pack (mashed)
5
3
3
45
Packaging frozen
cookies
Counting**
Too many/few
cookies/box
Mashed cookies
6
Poor
maintenance
program
Poor
training
3
4
72
Sloppy
packing**
Metal
detector
malfunction
Freezer too
warm
5
3
4
60
Metal detecting
9
2
1*
18
Frozen cookie
storage
Metal remains in
cookies and reaches
consumer
Cookies thaw and
get mashed
5
Poor
maintenance
program
Poor
maintenance
program
1*
1*
5
Bacterial
contamination
Cookies thaw and
get mashed
program
Bacterial
contamination
Boxes smashed
9
1*
1*
9
Frozen cookie
shipping
Frozen
transport
too warm
5
Poor
transportation
2
4
40
9
1
4
36
Poor loading
techniques
Poor driving
techniques
Table 2: FMEA Table
4
Poor
training
2
2
16
Boxes smashed
4
2
2
16
* maintained by HACCP; human error
