Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a system and risk analysis method used to identify potential risks in systems, products, and processes. FMEA originated in the 1940s as a U.S. military standard, MIL-P-1626, which described procedures for conducting a Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA).
Safely through your project in seven steps.
1. Planing and Preparation
The planning and preparation of the FMEA is critical to a successful analysis. For an optimal initial overview, you can delimit the system context in the project template. Actors, context elements and rules are visually related in the best possible way.
The detailed project structure provides an optimal basis for organizing the FMEA process and clearly defining all tasks and responsibilities.
2. Structure Analysis
Structural analysis visualizes the design structure to give you a clear picture of the system being analyzed. Perform a system analysis that examines the various subsystems and components and their interactions in detail.
The system boundaries are also defined so that all relevant parts and interfaces are considered. This systematic approach helps to better understand the interaction of the individual elements and to identify potential sources of error early on.
3. Functional Analysis
In the third step of FMEA, the functional analysis, the functions and possible failures of the entire system are analyzed. The goal is to identify disturbance variables that could affect the function of the system.
You can use our template to graphically illustrate the path from input to result. This targeted identification of weak points where failures can occur provides you with a solid basis for the subsequent risk assessment as part of the FMEA.
4. Failure Analysis
Failure analysis focuses on the detailed investigation of possible failure types, failure causes, and failure consequences. This step identifies the specific errors and their underlying causes.
You can also analyze the impact of these errors on the overall system or the end user. Use the template in the tool to increase the security of your system by assessing risks and setting priorities for error prevention and reduction.
5. Risk Analysis
The risk analysis examines the current state of the system in detail and evaluates the identified risks. An assessment is made using three rating numbers: B for the severity of the consequence of the failure, A for the probability of the cause of the failure occurring, and E for the probability of the cause of the failure being detected.
Each of these scores is defined on a scale from 1 to 10. The multiplication of these values results in the task priority, which can have a value between 1 and 1000. This value serves as a basis for determining the urgency of error prevention and minimization measures, thus targeting the highest risks.
6. Optimization
Optimization is used to develop targeted risk reduction measures to achieve the target state of the system. Based on the results of the risk analysis, specific improvement strategies are defined.
Improve the quality of your system and ensure that risks are reduced to an acceptable level. You can plan your detection and prevention activities directly in the tool’s built-in Gantt chart.
7. Results Documentation
In the final step of the FMEA with the tool-integrated template, the results are systematically recorded and comprehensively documented. This documentation is used not only for traceability, but also to communicate the FMEA results to all relevant stakeholders.
Make your future projects more efficient and use your findings as a valuable resource to avoid similar mistakes.
FMEA Tailored to Your Processes
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FMEA in objectiF RPM
The template supports the process flow in the tool. Find out more about the functions of objectiF RPM in the user manual.
