Failure Mode, Effects, and Criticality Analysis (FMECA)
Failure mode, effects, and criticality analysis (FMECA) is a methodology designed to identify potential failure modes for a product or process, to assess the risk associated with those failure modes, to rank the issues in terms of importance and to identify and carry out corrective actions to address the most serious concerns.
In general, Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) requires the identification of the following basic information:
- Items
- Functions
- Failures
- Effects of Failure
- Causes of Failure
- Current Controls
- Recommended Actions
FMECA is methodology designed to:
- Identify potential failure modes for a product or process
- Assess the risk associated with those failure modes
- Rank the issues in terms of importance
- Identify and carry out corrective actions to address the most serious concerns
Steps
The basic steps for performing a Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) include:
- Assemble the team
- Establish the ground rules
- Gather and review relevant information
- Identify the items or processes to be analysed
- Identify the functions, failures, effects, causes and controls
- Evaluate the risk
- Prioritize and assign corrective actions
- Perform corrective actions and re-evaluate risk
- Distribute, review, and update the analysis as appropriate
Benefits
- It can contribute to improved designs for products and processes, resulting in higher reliability, better quality, increased safety, enhanced customer satisfaction and reduced costs.
- It can also be used to establish and optimize maintenance plans for repairable systems and/or contribute to control plans and other quality assurance procedures.
- It provides a knowledge base of failure mode and corrective action information that can be used as a resource in future troubleshooting efforts and as a training tool for new engineers.
