FMEA and FMECA Overview
There are two major approaches to FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect analysis) with the same name, and ALD has separate software tool for each one of these types: Potential FMEA and hardware/functional FMECA
1. Potential Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is widely used by manufacturing industries in various phases of the product life cycle and is now increasingly finding use in the service industry. It is described by AIAG, QS-9000, SAE J 1739, IEC 60812, JEP131 and other standards, sometimes called “automotive” or “AIAG” (Automotive Industry Action Group) FMEA. It is required by many other standards like ISO 14971 (Medical devices risk management) and more.
Potential FMEA is analytical technique utilized as a mean to assure that, to the extent possible, potential failure modes and their associated causes/mechanisms have been considered and adressed. Corrective actions are suggested and selected for implementation and control plan is formed as part of the procedure.Potential FMEA deals with Severity, Occurrence and Detection rankings, multiplication of these 3 ranks gives us RPN – Risk Priority Number, which is a measure of risk.Any entity like product, process, software, system etc. may be a subject of this analysis.The screenshot below illustrates FMEA example done using RAM Commander software:
See RAM Commander Potential FMEA Software Module for more information about this FMEA type.2. Hardware FMEA and FMECA (Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis) is a continuation of system reliability analysis. It is required and compatible with MIL-STD-1629A and other standards (like GJB 1391, GJB 1392, AIR FORCE SMC REGULATION 800-31 and more). Many standards and regulations for aerospace, defence, telecommunications, electronic and other industries require that FMECA analysis must be performed for all designed/manufactured/acquisition systems, especially if they are mission or safety critical.
FMECA includes failure analysis, criticality analysis and testability analysis. It analyzes different failure modes and their effects on the system, classifies and prioritizes end effects level of importance based on failure rate and severity of the effect of failure.
Testability analysis is a part of FMECA module and is used to analyze methods of failure mode detection/isolation, perform fault diagnostics, validate test efficiency and find undetectable failures.
FMECA module uses a product tree previously created by the user for the reliability analysis purposes. It uses reliability and maintainability information received as a result of reliability and maintainability analysis.The screenshot below illustrates FMECA example done using RAM Commander software:
FMECA module uses a product tree previously created by the user for the reliability analysis purposes. It uses reliability and maintainability information received as a result of reliability and maintainability analysis.The screenshot below illustrates FMECA example done using RAM Commander software:
