Copyright 2006-2007 by FMEA-FMECA.com. All rights reserved.
What is a FMEA?
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) or FMECA is an analysis technique which facilitates the identification of potential problems in the design or process by examining the effects of lower level failures. Recommended actions or compensating provisions are made to reduce the likelihood of the problem occurring, and mitigate the risk, if in fact, it does occur.
The FMEA team determines, by failure mode analysis, the effect of each failure and identifies single failure points that are critical. It may also rank each failure according to the criticality of a failure effect and its probability of occurring. The FMECA is the result of two steps:
Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA)
Criticality Analysis (CA).
FMECA is just FMEA with Criticality Analysis. There are many different flavors of FMEA. There are Conceptual or Functional FMEAs, Design FMEAs, and Process FMEAs. Sometimes during a design FMEA the analysis will look at a combination of functions and hardware. Sometimes it will include just hardware, and sometimes the analyst will take a detailed look at the system down to a piece-part level, especially when critical functions or hardware are involved.
There are a number of reasons why this analysis technique is so valuable. Here are just a few:
FMEA provides a basis for identifying root failure causes and developing effective corrective actions
The FMEA identifies reliability/safety critical components
It facilitates investigation of design alternatives at all stages of the design
Provides a foundation for other maintainability, safety, testability, and logistics analyses
FMEA / FMECA Background and History
An offshoot of Military Procedure MIL-P-1629, titled Procedures for Performing a Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis, dated November 9, 1949.
Used as a reliability evaluation technique to determine the effect of system and equipment failures. Failures were classified according to their impact on mission success and personnel/equipment safety.
Formally developed and applied by NASA in the 1960’s to improve and verify reliability of space program hardware.
The procedures called out in MIL-STD-1629A are the most widely accepted methods throughout the military and commercial industry.
SAE J1739 is a prevalent FMEA standard in the automotive industry.
