Failure Mode And Effects Analysis

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, or FMEA, is a systematic way for identifying the effects of a potential product or process failure and includes methodology for eliminating or reducing the chance of a failure occurring. It is used 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. A crucial step in the FMEA analysis is anticipating what might go wrong with a product, and while anticipating every failure mode is not possible, a development team should formulate an extensive list of potential failure modes when implementing a FMEA analysis.