The method
FMEA (FMECA when criticality is included) breaks down a product, equipment or process into items. For each, the team looks for possible failure modes, their causes, and their local and system-level effects.
Each mode is then rated, classically by severity (S), occurrence (O) and detection (D); their product, the risk priority number, ranks the actions. Some recent references, such as the AIAG-VDA handbook, replace it with an action priority.
The method is described in IEC 60812. It exists in design, process and equipment variants.
When to use it
- Product or equipment design, to improve reliability before manufacture.
- Maintenance: choosing preventive actions on critical equipment.
- Industrialising a manufacturing process (process FMEA).
Watch out for
- Choose the right level of breakdown: too fine becomes unmanageable, too coarse misses causes.
- The S×O×D product can hide a very high severity: address severe effects first, whatever the number.
- FMEA handles failures one at a time; combinations belong to fault tree analysis.
Steps
- Define the system, its level of breakdown and its functions.
- For each item or function, list failure modes and their causes.
- Describe local and system effects and existing detection means.
- Rate severity, occurrence and detection with scales defined beforehand.
- Prioritise, define corrective actions, then re-rate after implementation.
FMEA software
List from the Aurorisk catalogue, links checked on 2026-09-26. Confirmed free access is listed first; unknown information is labelled.
| Tool | Source · licence · access | Scope | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polyodos ↗ | Commercial publisherFree for teaching | International | FMEA with reusable libraries. |
| APIS IQ-Software ↗ | Commercial publisher | Europe | Leading tool in the automotive industry; structure, function and failure trees, aligned with the harmonised manuals. |
| DataLyzer FMEA ↗ | Commercial publisher | Europe | Production-oriented; integrates with SPC and shop-floor quality management. |
| Isograph Reliability Workbench (FMECA) ↗ | Commercial publisher | International | FMECA module linked to fault trees and RBDs. |
| ReliaSoft XFMEA ↗ | Commercial publisher | International | Reliability-engineering standard; links design and process FMEA, generates control plans. |
Standards and references
- IEC 60812 — Analyse des modes de défaillance et de leurs effets (AMDE/AMDEC)