Steps in performing an FMEA analysis

An FMEA analysis is usually performed in a team environment with the appropriate stakeholders in the plant or process such as operators, team leaders, engineers and managers or a lean/kaizen team in very large organizations using a structured approach which is guided by an FMEA form or template, this form usually follows the process steps below.

The FMEA process steps:

-List the steps or tasks in the process or list the parts and components of the plant
-List the potential failure modes for each step, task or plant component
-List the effects of each failure on the process, business, and or plant
-Calculate a Risk priority rating for each failure mode this is equal to the product of probability of occurance, severity of consequence and probability of detecting the failure.
-Then each failure mode is discussed and preventive actions are specified including who will put these measures into place
-The preventive actions are then organized by their respective failure mode risk priority rating, and then this will represent the order in which they should be implemented

Once the list of preventive actions has been finalized including the priority with which these items will be completed, the maintenance and operations team need to ensure these items are completed as soon as possible.


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