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An Alternative FMEA Method for Simple and Accurate Ranking of Failure Modes
Author(s) -
Bradley James R.,
Guerrero Héctor H.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
decision sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.238
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1540-5915
pISSN - 0011-7315
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5915.2011.00329.x
Subject(s) - failure mode and effects analysis , ranking (information retrieval) , computer science , fuzzy logic , rank (graph theory) , reliability engineering , measure (data warehouse) , risk analysis (engineering) , quality (philosophy) , data mining , machine learning , artificial intelligence , engineering , mathematics , business , philosophy , epistemology , combinatorics
Failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) is a methodology for prioritizing actions to mitigate the effects of failures in products and processes. Although originally used by product designers, FMEA is currently more widely used in industry in Six Sigma quality improvement efforts. Two prominent criticisms of the traditional application of FMEA are that the risk priority number (RPN) used to rank failure modes is an invalid measure according to measurement theory, and that the RPN does not weight the three decision criteria used in FMEA. Various methods have been proposed to mitigate these concerns, including many using fuzzy logic. We develop a new ranking method in this article using a data‐elicitation technique. Furthermore, we develop an efficient means of eliciting data to reduce the effort associated with the new method. Subsequently, we conduct an experimental study to evaluate that proposed method against the traditional method using RPN and against an approach using fuzzy logic.