FMEA stands for Failure Modes and Effects Analysis. It is a structured approach to identify and mitigate potential failures and their effects on a system, product or process. The different steps in FMEA are:
- Define the scope and objectives: The first step is to define the scope and objectives of the FMEA. This involves identifying the system, product or process to be analyzed and the purpose of the analysis.
- Assemble the FMEA team: The FMEA team should be composed of subject matter experts from various disciplines, such as design, engineering, manufacturing, quality control, etc.
- Identify the components and functions: Identify the components of the system, product or process, and their respective functions. This helps to understand how the components work together and their interactions.
- Identify the failure modes: Identify all the potential failure modes that could occur for each component. A failure mode is the way in which a component or system can fail.
- Identify the effects of failure: Identify the potential effects of each failure mode on the system, product or process. This includes safety, reliability, quality, cost, and environmental impacts.
- Assign severity ratings: Assign a severity rating to each potential effect, based on the potential impact of the failure on the system, product or process.
- Assign occurrence ratings: Assign an occurrence rating to each potential failure mode, based on the likelihood of the failure mode occurring.
- Assign detection ratings: Assign a detection rating to each potential failure mode, based on the likelihood of detecting the failure before it occurs.
- Calculate the Risk Priority Number (RPN): Calculate the RPN for each potential failure mode, by multiplying the severity, occurrence, and detection ratings.
- Prioritize actions: Prioritize actions to reduce the RPNs for high-risk failure modes. This includes redesigning components, improving manufacturing processes, adding redundancy or improving inspection procedures.
- Implement and monitor: Implement the recommended actions and monitor the results to ensure that they are effective in reducing the risk of failure.
FMEA is an iterative process, and the team may need to repeat some steps.