Risk management in rapid prototyping of electronic components for automotive applications

The automotive industry has been significantly impacted by the volatility in supply chains in recent years, posing challenges in predicting their development. As a result, the application of the RP process (RP, Rapid Prototyping) has become increasingly relevant. RP's ability to shorten the time to bring a product to market, from product design to completion of its market testing, is crucial in today's fast-paced environment. RP offers the opportunity to quickly verify designs, create functional prototypes and produce small test series. For the successful implementation of these capabilities, the process should closely adhere to the set target values of the prototype parameters. In case allowances for deviations are granted, they must not jeopardize the achievement of the main objectives set for the RP process. Any deviations from the value targets pose a risk to the success of the process and have to be carefully assessed and managed. Accordingly, proposed in the present paper is a risk management model for the RP process based on the application of the FMEA method. The model, hereto advanced, ensures the creation of a functional prototype to mitigate the potential levels of risk in RP – lowering the value of RPN (RPN, Risk Priority Number).