Companies who spend more time planning a design traditionally have much lower development costs than those companies who use the “find-and-fix” method during prototyping. By starting FMEAs as soon as initial design information becomes available and iteratively performing them as designs evolve, potential failures can be detected and prevented early. When FMEAs are begun after designs are well beyond the conceptual stage, correcting potential faults identified by FMEAs often is too costly, resulting in the production of products that are either unreliable or perform poorly. Because product failures can cause extreme customer dissatisfaction, which ultimately diminishes a company’s reputation and its market share, the development of well-defined FMEA plans should take place during the conceptual design phase.