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Access the Characteristics PowerSheet

  1. Navigate to Design space from the sidebar or Home dashboard
  2. Locate the characteristics PowerSheet for your component:
    • “Camera Module - Design Characteristics”
    • “System-on-Chip (SoC) - Design Characteristics”
    • “Sensor Housing Assembly - Design Characteristics”
    • Or the generic “Characteristics” sheet in Solution Template space
  3. Click the PowerSheet title to open the interactive grid
You’ll see a two-section layout: green-coded Characteristic columns on the left, red-coded Failure Modes columns on the right. The PowerSheet uses color-coded column groups to separate specification data from risk analysis: diagram
  • Green section: Design parameters and specification constraints
  • Red section: Linked failure modes from FMEA analysis (expandable)
  • Click column group headers to collapse/expand sections

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Edit Characteristic Values

Click directly into editable cells to modify characteristic properties:
FieldPurposeFormat
Target ValueNominal specification (e.g., “3.3V”, “85°C”, “50ms”)Free text
ToleranceAcceptable deviation (e.g., “±5%”, “±10°C”)Free text
SC/CCSafety classificationDropdown: SC (orange) / CC (red)
Changes save automatically when you tab out of the cell or press Enter.
SC (Safety-Critical) characteristics require ASIL decomposition and appear with orange highlighting. CC (Critical Component) characteristics require enhanced verification and appear with red highlighting. Use this visual coding to quickly identify characteristics requiring stricter control.

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Interpret Action Priority Color Coding

The Action Priority (AP) column in the Failure Modes section uses traffic-light formatting:
  • Green (L): Low priority — monitoring required
  • Orange (M): Medium priority — review recommended
  • Red (H): High priority — immediate action required
This reflects post-mitigation risk levels from FMEA analysis. High-priority failures require mitigation work items before release approval.

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Use Predefined Views

Switch views using the View dropdown in the PowerSheet toolbar:

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Without Failure Modes View

Hides all red-section columns, showing only characteristic properties. Use this during:
  • Initial characteristic definition (V-model left side)
  • Target value specification
  • SC/CC classification assignment
  • Bulk characteristic creation sessions

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Summary View

Shows only ID, Title, and SC/CC classification. Use this for:
  • Executive reporting
  • Review meetings
  • Quick triage before drilling into details

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Full View (Default)

Shows both characteristic properties and linked failure modes. Use this for:
  • FMEA execution (V-model right side)
  • Cross-referencing design specs with risk analysis
  • Verifying all SC/CC characteristics have linked failure modes
If an SC or CC characteristic shows no data in the Failure Modes section, it hasn’t been analyzed in FMEA yet. Per ISO 26262 and AIAG-VDA requirements, all safety-critical and critical characteristics must undergo failure mode analysis. Check the FMEA Coverage Report to identify gaps.

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Group by Document

For multi-component analysis, the PowerSheet can group characteristics by their containing document:
  1. Rows automatically group by document when viewing the generic “Characteristics” sheet
  2. Document title appears as a grey group header row
  3. Collapse/expand document groups using the arrow icon
This is useful for cross-component review sessions or when comparing characteristics across multiple design specifications.

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Export to Excel

For offline analysis or PPAP documentation:
  1. Click the ⬇️ Export button in the PowerSheet toolbar
  2. Select Excel format
  3. The export preserves:
    • Column groups and color coding
    • SC/CC badge formatting
    • Action Priority traffic lights
    • Characteristic-to-FailureMode relationships (flattened)

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Verification

You should now see:
  • Two-section layout with green Characteristics and red Failure Modes columns
  • Color-coded SC/CC badges (orange for SC, red for CC)
  • Traffic-light Action Priority values (green/orange/red)
  • Editable target value and tolerance cells
  • Expandable failure mode details for each characteristic
If failure modes don’t appear, verify the characteristics have failureModes link role connections to FailureMode work items. Check the DFMEA Risksheet for the corresponding component.

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See Also