Failure Mode and Effects

Analysis
 Introduction

TQM strategy for success of organizations is to design

in quality and reliability in the products or services early in the
development cycle. FMEA is a methodology for analyzing
potential reliability problems early in the development cycle
where it is easier to take actions to overcome these issues,
thereby enhancing reliability through design.
Reliability
Reliability is quite an important characteristic of
any product.
Reliability can be defined as:
“Reliability of an entity is defined as the
probability that it will perform its intended
functions for a specified period of time, under
the stated operating conditions”.
Infant Mortality
Wear-out
Failures
Failures

Useful life Period

Failure Rate

Time
Probability Density Function
Reliability is a probability of survival of a
product. The survival or success of a product can
be characterized by a random variable:
• Continuous
• Discrete
A function f(x) is said to be the probability density
function of a continuous random variable x, if x
takes any value from - infinity to + infinity such
that
f(x) >= 0 and integral of f(x) dx =1

-λt
f (t) f(t)=λe
λ =1/ µ

µ t
 Hazard Function
is a measure of tendency of product failure.

λ
Hazard
h(t)

Time t
h(t) = λ and it is a constant in the case of
exponential probability distribution.
Reliability Equation
can be mathematically described as:
R (t) = f(t)/h(t)
where f(t) is the probability density function and h(t)
is the hazard function. All the three of them vary
with time.
We know that in the case of exponential pdf
f(t) = λ e-λt h(t) = λ
Therefore,
R (t) = e-λt λ = failure rate or hazard rate
λ = 1/µ
 1
R(t)

time t
Reliability
Failure Rate
We know that hazard rate is the same as failure
rate. Failure rate indicates the number of failures per
unit time. In the case of exponential distribution, the
failure rate is constant. This is expressed as λ.
Failure during constant failure is due to random
causes or chance causes. Hence, it is also called
chance failure.
FAILURE MODE AND EFFECTS
ANALYSIS(FMEA)

Cause

Failure Mode

Effects
FMEA is defined as a systematic group of activities
intended to: (a) Recognize and evaluate the
potential failure of a product/process and the
effects of that failure, (b) Identify actions that could
eliminate or reduce the chance of the occurrence of
potential failure.
 Purpose of FMEA
• Enable structured analysis of the design for identifying
potential failure modes
• The FMEA examines the potential failure modes, which
have a high likelihood of occurrence
• Each failure mode is analyzed to find out their cause
• Develop product/process requirements that minimize the
likelihood of those failures
• Ensure that any failure that could occur will not injure or
seriously impact to the user.
• Helps in preparing for unavoidable failures and thus
increase the competitiveness for maintenance of the
product.
Benefits of FMEA
• Minimize late changes and associated costs since FMEA
will be earned out right at the design stage
• Identifies failure modes which will have a significant
impact
• Identifies the causes of failures and minimizes them
• Helps in redesigning to reduce the effect of the failures
• Improves product reliability, maintainability and
availability of the system
• Increase costumer satisfaction
• Prioritize product/process deficiencies for improvement
• Emphasizes problem prevention
• Provides information on the ff:
Maintainability analysis
Safety analysis
Survivability
Vulnerability
Logistics support analysis
Maintenance plan analysis
Risk analysis
Failure detection
Failure isolation
Types of FMEA
• Systems – focuses on global system functions
• Design – focuses on components and subsystems
• Process – focuses on manufacturing and assembly
processes
• Service – focuses on service functions
• Software – focuses on software functions
Design FMEA
is an analytical techniques used by FMEA team
to ensure that to the extent possible, potential
failure mode and their causes/mechanism are
considered and addressed before the design is
frozen.
 System

Subsystem 1 Subsystem 2 Subsystem 3 Subsystem 4 Subsystem 5

Subsub- Subsub- Subsub- Subsub- Subsub-

System 1 System 1 System 1 System 1 System 1

Subsub- Subsub- Subsub- Subsub- Subsub-

System 2 System 2 System 2 System 2 System 2

Hierarchy of Systems
FMEA Team
Since FMEA is an advanced technique and also
a complex task, a competent team has to be
constituted to carry out FMEA of each design or
process.
FMEA RISK PRIORITY NUMBER (RPN)
TECHNIQUE
The QS 9000 standards brought out a technique
for FMEA based on RPN number. This is a
quantitative technique. It helps to finding out
the risk and action plan for reducing the risk.
 Risk Priority Number (RPN)
RPN = (S) x (O) x (D)

The FMEA team assigns a number up to 10 for

each of the above for each failure mode.
The essential tasks to be carried out in FMEA
are:
• Determine the functions of design or process , its
features or requirements
Once the above step is completed, the team can
determine the following:
i. What can go wrong is the potential failure mode of the
parts or components
ii. Once the failure modes are identified, the FMEA team
determines the effects of the failures. Depending on
how badly could be the severity of the effect, the team
assigns a severity number
iii. The cause of failure can be arrived at by the team for
each failure mode
iv. Once the causes are identified, the team has to
determine how they prevent the failure causes and how
they can be detected
v. The ease of detection determines the detection number
vi. How often it happens determines the ranking for the
probability of occurrence or occurrence number.
vii. The risk priority number is the product of the numbers
for severity, occurrence and detection
viii. Once the RPN is arrived at and if it is high, the FMEA
team has to suggest an action plan:
Design Changes, Process Changes, Changes to procedures,
etc.
FMEA RPN Procedure
Step 1 Define the product/process and its function
Step 2 Construct the reliability block diagram of the
product/process

Hook Fan Motor Bearing Blades

Starting Capacitor
FMEA RPN Procedure
Step 1 Define the product/process and its function
Step 2 Construct the reliability block diagram of the
product/process
Step 3 Complete the header on the FMEA
worksheet
Step 4 List the part along with its functions
Step 5 Identify potential failure modes
Step 6 Potential Effects of Failure
Step 7 Assign severity number for the effect
Step 8 Classification
Step 9 Potential Cause
Step 10 Probability of occurrence
Step 11 Identify current controls (design/process)
Step 12 Determine the likelihood of detection
Step 13 Assign RPN
Step 14 Determine the recommended actions
Step 15 Estimate the new ranks
Process FMEA
Is applied to improving the process in contrast with
the design in DFMEA. The purpose is to ensure that
the potential failure mode and the associated
causes/mechanisms are considered and addressed
in appropriate form. The process FMEA addresses
production operations. The potential
Process FMEA results in the following:
• Identifies the process functions
• Identifies potential product and process-related on the
costumer
• Assesses the effects of the potential failure on the costumer
• Identifies the potential manufacturing or assembly process
failure causes
• Identifies process variables on which to focus process controls
for occurrence reduction or detection of the failure
conditions
• Develops a ranked list of potential failure modes, thus
establishing a priority system for preventive/corrective action
considerations
• Document the RPM of the manufacturing or assembly
process.
 FAILURE MODE EFFECTS AND
CRITICALITY ANALYSIS(FMECA)
FMEA RPN is more popular in the automobile
industry. However, FMECA is popular in the
electronics and allied industries. FMECA consists of
two parts as given below:
• Failure Mode Effects Analysis
• Criticality Analysis
In the following, the FMECA as per the international
standards on the subject will be discussed.
Criticality Analysis
When the CA is combined with FMEA, the task is
called Failure Mode Effects and Criticality Analysis.
The FMEA worksheet can be transferred to FMECA
worksheet. CA is quantitative analysis. CA leads us
to calculate what is known as failure mode criticality
number (Cm).
 Cm= βα λp t
Where Cm = Failure mode criticality
β = Probability of mission loss or system
not functioning
α = Failure mode ratio
λp = Failure rate of the component or part
in number of failures per hour operation.
t = Duration of applicable mission phase,
i.e. period up to which the system is to operate. It is
expressed in hours or numbers of operating cycles.
Failure mode distribution, namely α may not be available for
specific part number. But the generic failure mode
distribution is available from the following resources:
• Rome Laboratory Study of Part Failure Modes, L.J.
Gubbins
• MIL-HDBK-338. “Electronic Reliability Design Handbook”
• RADC Non-electronic Reliability Notebook
• Naval Avionics Center Standard entitled “FMECA”
• Reliability and Maintainability in Perspective, D.J. Smith
• European Space Agency (ESA) Specification
 Probability of Mission Loss(β)
For each failure mode we have to calculate β. It
is defined as the failure effect probability. The β
values are based on the FMECA team’s assessment as
to the conditional probability that the anticipated
loss of mission or failure of system will occur. It is the
conditional probability since we assess the
probability of the loss on the condition that the
failure mode occurs. This subjective assessment of
the FMECA team has to be converted in to β value.
MIL-STD 1629 gives the guidance for β value as given
below:
 Failure Mode Probability β
Sure Loss 1.00
Probable Loss > 0.10 to < 1.00
Possible Loss > 0 to 0.10
No Effect 0

The Failure effects are brainstormed and a consensus arrived as

to which of the four possibilities exist with reference to a particular
failure mode
Failure Rate (λp) – The failure rate data for each part
has to be calculated based on field failures.
Alternately it can be taken from the handbook MIL-
HDBK-217 “Reliability Prediction of Electronic
Equipment”.

Item Criticality – is used in criticality analysis.