Brought to you by: Road to Reliability™ Erik Hupjé

©2023 R2 Reliability Pty Ltd www.roadtoreliabity.com

When dealing with preventive
maintenance, there are 2 basic
concepts that you need to
understand and apply to create an
effective and efficient Preventive
Maintenance program.
Functional Failures
To put it simply, a functional failure
is when your equipment is not
doing what you want it to do.

(or it’s doing something that it’s NOT

supposed to be doing)
Why is this
important?
Equipment often have multiple
functions. And it can fail to deliver
those functions in multiple ways.

As a result, each ‘functional failure’

can have different consequences.

Putting your resources into

failures that matter is key to
creating an effective and efficient
PM Program.
Example:

Let’s say our pump has 2 simple functions:

Delivering 1000l/min of water

Pump
Containing the water so there
are no leaks

If our pump was delivering water for

firefighting… the inability to deliver enough
water at sufficient pressure would be a
major safety concern.

However, if the pump failed to contain all

that water, and we had a minor leak of
potable water, we might not be that worried.

See the difference?

An effective PM program accounts for
these different consequences and puts
scarce resources into high-risk failures.

That’s why in Preventive Maintenance,

when talking about “failures”…

What we really need to talk about are

functional requirements that are not
being met.
Failure Modes
A failure mode is simply any event
that causes a functional failure.

Here's a few tips on how to write

failure modes—
Tips:

The best way to phrase a failure mode

is by combining a noun with a verb.

Avoid using generic verbs like "fails'

'malfunctions' 'breaks'

Get specific as much as possible

"Coupling bolts come loose"

“Bearing Seized"
“Impeller Worn"

"Coupling fails"
"Bearing malfunctions"
"Impeller breaks"
Failure Mechanism
If a Failure Mode is the event which
leads to a failure, then a Failure
Mechanism is essentially the cause
behind the event.

Example:
Bearing seized due to a lack
of lubrication.

Bearing seized is the Failure Mode and

lack of lubrication is the Failure
Mechanism.

Now you put the two together

by using the phrase “due to”.
Why is this
important?
A single Failure Mode may have
multiple Failure Mechanisms. And
at different levels.

You want your failure mode and

failure mechanism statement to be
clear and concise as possible.
 Failure modes at
different levels of detail
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7

Pump set fails Pump fails Impeller fails Impeller comes Mounting nut Nut not tightned Assembly error
adrift undone correctly

Mounting nut Nut eroded/

worn away corroded away

Nut made of Wrong material

wrong material specified

Impeller key Wrong key Wrong material

sheared steel specified supplied

Design error

Wrong key Procurement

supplied error

Storekeeping
error

Requisitioning
error

Source: Moubray, J., 1997. Reliability-Centered Maintenance by John Moubray. 1st ed. New York: Industrial Press,

Brought to you by: Road to Reliability™ Erik Hupjé

©2022 R2 Reliability Pty Ltd www.roadtoreliabity.com

How detailed
should it be?
This can be a bit of an art.

What you would consider a Failure

Mechanism at the system level could
be deemed a Failure Mode when you
go down to the subsystem or even
component level.

This is where you need a bit

of experience and iteration in
your work.
The simple rule is...

You only go as far as you need to

go, to be able to develop an
effective failure management
structure.

That’s obviously easier said than

done, and it’s going to take time and
experience and some trial and error
to figure that out.
Are your
Failure
Modes
well
written?
Let us know in the
comments below.

Brought to you by: Road to Reliability™

©2023 R2 Reliability Pty Ltd