FMECA - introduction

The FMECA method is a commonly used practice in the process and defense industries to perform risk analysis. How Asset Strategy Optimization supports the FMECA method will be explained in the following topics. A brief introduction to FMECA is described here.

FMECA is an abbreviation which means Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis (quantitative analysis of the risk). This method was derived from the 'MIL-STD 1629A' norm from the American Ministry of Defense.

It is defined as: “a reliability evaluation/design technique which examines the potential failure modes within a system and its equipment, in order to determine the effects on equipment and system performance" (source: "FMECA, 1993, by Reliability Analysis Center, Rome").

FMECA aims at signaling risks that come forward during production processes. Risks can be reduced by implementing technical improvements and by adapting the maintenance concepts. This mainly involves mitigating risks by applying maintenance.

Performing FMECA in an effective way requires a great deal of experience, insights in the method and a good understanding of the process or system under study. At the core FMECA is a technique which follows a bottom-up approach to discover and describe how components in a system fail and what the effect of their failure will have on the business objectives.

To fully understand and appreciate how the FMECA module in Asset Strategy Optimization supports performing a proper FMECA, deep understanding of what FMECA is required. The courses Asset Strategy Optimization and Maintenance Management offered by Asset+ Solutions are both strongly recommended.

Before getting started with FMECA, the user should realize that FMECA functionality is distributed over three modules in Asset Strategy Optimization:

• FMECA systems: This is where the user constructs the FMECA tree, consisting of systems, components and parts and the criticality data for these objects.

• FM Library: To help to quickly build up the FMECA tree, the FM Library can be used to define and reuse tree structures of (parts of) systems.

• Simulation models: Here, scenarios can be defined that simulate behavior of the system under certain conditions. The results can be displayed through a variety of reports.

Other functions related to FMECA are:

• Business objectives: To perform a FMECA a risk matrix must be defined, that will be based on business objectives and factor classifications.

• Maintenance concept: An FMECA is often performed to develop an optimized maintenance concept.

• Dashboard: The Dashboard indicates the FMECA progress to the user for an indicated scope.