Take any process in your organisation. On any given day, what can possibly go wrong? As the saying goes, whatever can go wrong will go wrong. So what can be done to anticipate and mitigate the risk of failure? Well there is a tool to help you do just that. It’s called FMEA or Failure Modes and Effects Analysis. It is a tool for mitigating the risk of failure.
First used in the 1960s for the Apollo Space Program, FMEA is widely used in many industries and required in some, such as aerospace and automotive. There are two types of FMEA.:
- The Design FMEA and the Process FMEA. The Design FMEA is for reducing the failure risks associated with a product or service design such as when you are designing a new hospital or the next smart device.
- The Process FMEA is for reducing the risk of potential failures in a process, any process, whether it is the procurement process or on-boarding a new hire.
FMEA works the same way for both Design and Process FMEAs. Design FMEAs evaluate the risk of failure for each function, system, or component, while the Process FMEA evaluates the risks for each process step. These questions are evaluated. What can possibly go wrong? In what ways can it fail? These are called potential failure modes.
For each potential failure mode, what is its effect?
- How severe is the potential effect using a one to 10 scale where 10 is the worst. That is called the Severity Score. And what could have possibly caused each potential failure mode in the first place?
- How likely is the occurrence of these causes on a one to 10 scale, where 10 is the most likely? That is called the Occurrence Score. What controls are currently in place to detect the cause or the failure mode?
- What is the likelihood of detection on a one to 10 scale where 10 is least likely to detect? That is called the Detection Score.
The FMEA then multiplies the severity score with occurrence score and the detection score to come up with a composite score called the Risk priority number or RPN. The RPNs can then be used to prioritize the failure modes.
The highest scoring failure modes can be targeted for improvement first to reduce or eliminate the risk of potential failures. Here’s an example of a partial FMEA. With the FMEA, whatever can go wrong will not go wrong but instead can be anticipated and the risk of failures mitigated.