BUS5001: Managing Resources

Rating Scales for FMEA

A. Occurrence of Failure
Possible Failure
Description Rating Occurrence
Remote probability of occurrence
It would be unreasonable to expect failure to occur 1 0
Low probability of occurrence
Generally associated with activities similar to previous ones 2 1:20,000
with a relatively low number of failures 3 1:10,000
Moderate probability of occurrence 4 1:2,000
Generally associated with activities similar to previous ones 5 1:1,000
which have resulted in occasional failures 6 1:200
7 1:100
High probability of occurrence
Generally associated with activities similar to ones which 8 1:20
have traditionally caused problems
Very high probability of occurrence 9 1:10
Near certainty that major failures will occur 10 1:2
B. Severity of failure
Description Rating
Minor severity
A very minor failure which would have no noticeable effect on 1
system performance
Low severity 2
A minor failure causing only slight customer annoyance 3
Moderate severity 4
A failure which would cause some customer dissatisfaction, 5
discomfort or annoyance, or would cause a noticeable 6
deterioration in performance
High severity 7
A failure which would engender a high degree of customer 8
dissatisfaction
Very high severity 9
A failure which would affect safety
Catastrophic
A failure which may cause damage to property, serious injury 10
or death
C. Detection of failure
Probability of
Description Rating detection
Remote probability that defect will reach customer
It is unlikely that such a defect would pass through inspection, 1 0 to 5%
test or assembly
Low probability that defect will reach customer 2 6 to 15%
3 16 to 25%
Moderate probability that defect will reach customer 4 26 to 35%
5 36 to 45%
6 46 to 55%
High probability that defect will reach customer 7 56 to 65%
8 66 to 75%
Very high probability that defect will reach customer 9 76 to 85%
10 86 to 100%