Failure Mode and Effects Analysis:

A Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is a procedure for analysis of potential failure modes within a system for the classification by severity or determination of the failure's effect upon the system. It is widely used in the manufacturing industries in various phases of the product life cycle. Failure causes are any errors or defects in process, design, or item especially ones that affect the customer, and can be potential or actual. Effects analysis refers to studying the consequences of those failures.

Types of FMEA:
• Process: analysis of manufacturing and assembly processes
• Design: analysis of products prior to production
• Concept: analysis of systems or subsystems in the early design concept stages
• Equipment: analysis of machinery and equipment design before purchase
• Service: analysis of service industry processes before they are released to impact the customer
• System: analysis of the global system functions
• Software: analysis of the software functions

Implementation:
In FMEA, Failures are prioritized according to how serious their consequences are, how frequently they occur and how easily they can be detected. A FMEA also documents current knowledge and actions about the risks of failures, for use in continuous improvement. FMEA is used during the design stage with an aim to avoid future failures. Later it is used for process control, before and during ongoing operation of the process. Ideally, FMEA begins during the earliest conceptual stages of design and continues throughout the life of the product or service.
The purpose of the FMEA is to take actions to eliminate or reduce failures, starting with the highest-priority ones. It may be used to evaluate risk management priorities for mitigating known threat-vulnerabilities. FMEA helps select remedial actions that reduce cumulative impacts of life-cycle consequences (risks) from a systems failure (fault).
Advantages:
• Improve the quality, reliability and safety of a product/process
• Improve company image and competitiveness
• Increase user satisfaction
• Reduce system development timing and cost
• Collect information to reduce future failures, capture engineering knowledge
• Reduce the potential for warranty concerns
• Early identification and elimination of potential failure modes
• Emphasis problem prevention
• Minimize late changes and associated cost
• Catalyst for teamwork and idea exchange between functions