What is FMEA?

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a structured, team-based method for anticipating what could go wrong in a process, design, or system, and prioritizing which failure modes deserve attention before they cause harm — whether that's a safety incident, a quality defect, or a process breakdown.

How FMEA works

For each step of a process or component of a design, the team identifies:

  1. Failure mode — the specific way something could fail
  2. Effect — what happens if that failure occurs
  3. Severity — how serious the consequences would be
  4. Occurrence — how likely the failure is
  5. Detection — how likely the failure is to be caught before it causes harm

These factors are typically combined into a Risk Priority Number (RPN), which helps teams rank failure modes and focus corrective action on the highest-priority risks first.

Where FMEA is used

FMEA is widely used in manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, and process industries, often alongside other hazard-analysis techniques like HAZOP and PHA as part of a broader process safety management program.

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