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Failure
Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
Also called: potential failure
modes and effects analysis; failure modes, effects
and criticality analysis (FMECA).
Description
Failure modes and effects analysis
(FMEA) is a step-by-step approach for identifying
all possible failures in a design, a manufacturing
or assembly process, or a product or service.
“Failure modes” means the ways, or
modes, in which something might fail. Failures are
any errors or defects, especially ones that affect
the customer, and can be potential or actual.
“Effects analysis” refers to
studying the consequences of those failures.
Failures are prioritized according
to how serious their consequences are, how
frequently they occur and how easily they can be
detected. The purpose of the FMEA is to take actions
to eliminate or reduce failures, starting with the
highest-priority ones.
Failure modes and effects analysis
also documents current knowledge and actions about
the risks of failures, for use in continuous
improvement. FMEA is used during design to prevent
failures. Later it’s used for control, before and
during ongoing operation of the process. Ideally,
FMEA begins during the earliest conceptual stages of
design and continues throughout the life of the
product or service.
Begun in the 1940s by the U.S.
military, FMEA was further developed by the
aerospace and automotive industries. Several
industries maintain formal FMEA standards.
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