Failure Modes and Effects Analysis
- Michael Choi, Intel
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a systematic quantifiable risk assessment
technique used eliminate and reduce the effect of potential failures within a given system. It
has been used by several industries in past decades in various phases of their product life
cycles. It is a continuous process that can also serve as a tool for knowledge transfer,
training, and process improvement. Although FMEA has been adopted by many
manufacturing industries for strengths in identifying failure modes, it exhibits some
weaknesses in usage depending on the system under analysis. Thus, informed and well-
directed usage is essential to an effective FMEA process.