Failure Mode and Effect

Analysis – A PHA Tool

Risk Based Process Safety

Management

Process Safety Centre S. K. Hazra

Indian Chemical Council 7th january.2010 Chairman – SHE Expert Committee
 Process Safety requirements
Necessitates

RISK ASSESSMENT

And

Risk Assessment is defined as “a measure of

a Hazard Potential involving simultaneous
examination of its consequences and
probability of occurrence for the scenario”.
 RISK ASSESSMENT
Quantitative Risk Assessment

Modify Risk
Mitigation
Measures Unacceptable

OK
Consequence
Analysis

System Risk Operate

Hazard Determination Assess
Description System
Identification Risk
Frequency
Analysis

Hazard identification is the most

important step in risk analysis
 HAZARD IDENTIFICATION
The objective is to determine a list of potential incidents
might be occurred to the accidents.

WHAT CAN GO WRONG?

METHODS:
BEFORE THE PROJECT IS
• FMEA FULLY IMPLEMENTED
• HAZOP OR A REDESIGN OF A PLANT
• What-if analysis
• Check list analysis
• Fault tree analysis
• Event tree analysis
Failure Mode and Effect Analysis
 The failure mode and effects analysis
(FMEA) is the most widely used analysis
procedure in practice at the initial stages
of project/system development.
 The FMEA is usually performed during the
conceptual and initial design phases of
the system in order to assure that all
possible failure modes have been
considered and that proper provisions
have been made to eliminate all the
potential failures.
 Who uses FMEA?
Engineers worldwide in:
Aviation
Nuclear power
Aerospace
Chemical process industries
Automotive industries
Has been around for over 30 years
Goal has been, and remains today, to
prevent accidents from occurring
History of FMEA
 FMEA process was originally developed
by the US military in the late 1940’s to
classify failures "according to their impact
on mission success and personnel
/equipment safety".
 FMEA was used by NASA on the 1960s
Apollo space missions.
 FMEA was further developed by the
aerospace industry.
 FMEA was adopted by the automotive
industry
History of FMEA
 FMEA was used by Ford in the 1980’s to
reduce risks after in several vehicles
causing the fuel tank to rupture the Pinto
burst into flames after crashes
 FMEA use in healthcare began in the early
1990s, around the time Six began to
emerge as a viable process improvement
methodology.
 Several industries maintain formal FMEA
standards
Some FMEA Definitions
Juran: “A preventative technique for the designer to
use to study the causes and effects of failures
before the design is finished”.

Pyzdek: “An attempt to delineate all of the possible

failure modes, their effect on the system, the
likelihood of occurrence, and the probability
that the failure will go undetected”.

 Textbook: “To identify the ways that failure can occur,

to analyse, to take actions to minimize the
chances of failure and the effect of failure”.
FMEA is a step-by-step Approach
The purpose of the FMEA is to take actions to eliminate
or reduce failures
starting with the highest-priority ones.


FMEA documents current knowledge and actions about

the risks of failures
for use in continuous improvement.


FMEA is used during design to prevent failures.

Later it’s used for control, before and during ongoing
operation of the process.
FMEA begins during the earliest conceptual stages of
design
FMEA continues throughout the life of the Process
Product or Service
FEMA benefits
 FMEA provides a basis for identifying root
failure causes and developing effective
corrective actions
 The FMEA identifies reliability/safety critical
components
 It facilitates investigation of design
alternatives at all stages of the
design
 Provides a foundation for other
maintainability, safety, testability, and
logistics analyses
Failure Mode and
Effects Analysis

A technique employed by
engineers to improve system
performance.
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis

 1. Define failure mode.

 2. Identify cause of failure.

 3. Identify effects of failure.

 4. Corrective action.
 An Example
Tank Overflow
Buncefield Incident Animation
Examples
 Relatively easy to prevent:
 Failure mode: Conceptual

 Cause: Level controller malfunction

not recognized
 Sole reliance on automation

 Effect: Injury/Loss of Property,

Reputation loss
 Correction: Refresher Training.
Examples
 Nearly impossible to prevent:
 Failure mode: Technological

 Cause: Float of the positive displacement

stuck at level below overflow level.

 Effect: Error in level indication and non

operation of High level trip

 Correction: Raising SIL level of Level control

System
 Important
Considerations
Some failures are more
preventable than others!
Strategy to Improve
 Try to eliminate the failure mode.

 Minimize the severity of the failure.

 Reduce the occurrence of the

failure mode.

 Improve the detection

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
an analysis technique
 To facilitates the identification of
potential problems (Hazard) in the
design and/or process and/or
operation by examining the effects of
lower level failures
 Recommends actions or
compensating provisions to be made
to reduce the likelihood of the problems
(Hazard) occurring, and mitigate the risk
FMEA - Qualitative method.
 A systematic methodology to identify design.
process and operation Hazards, assessing
their significance, and identifying potential
solutions that reduce their significance effect.

 Determines, by failure mode analysis, the

effect of each failure and identifies single
failure points that are critical

 An ongoing process and must be updated

every time design or process changes are
made
METHODOLOGY

 For a good quality hazard identification,

complete information about the system must
be compiled.
 The data is to be provided to a team with
expertise on various aspects of Project/Plant.

 Each failure mode has a cause and a

potential effect.

 Determine failure modes, causes and effects

METHODOLOGY
 Identify and prioritize high-risk
processes
 Select the high-risk process according
to Risk perceptions
 For the most critical effects, conduct a
root cause analysis
 Can be performed by two different
approaches: bottoms-up / top down.
 FEMA PROCEDURES
INDUCTIVE PROCEDURES DEDUCTIVE PROCEDURES
(Bottom-Up Analysis) (Top-Down Analysis)
Pick Upper Level
Failure in Component

Summarize Flow
upward down
causes

Determine Failure Modes of Lower

Level Components.
Reliability Analysis
 Failure Mode Effect and Criticality
Analysis (FMCEA)

□ Ranks each failure according to

the criticality of a failure effect and its
probability of occurrence
□ Two Steps Procedure
▪ Failure Mode and Effect (FMEA)
▪ Criticality Analysis (CA)
Types of FMEAs
FMECA (Failure Mode, Effects, Criticality Analysis):Considers every possible failure
mode and its effect on the product/service. Goes a step above FMEA and
considers the criticality of the effect and actions, which must be taken to
compensate forthis effect. (critical = loss of life/product).

Design FMEA: Used to analyze component designs. Focuses on potential failure

modes associated with the functionality of a component caused by design.
Failure modes may be derived from causes identified in the System FMEA.

Process FMEA: Used to analyze transactional processes. Focus is on failure to

produce intended requirement, a defect. Failure modes may stem from causes
identified.
System FMEA: A specific category of Design FMEA used to analyze systems and
subsystems in the early concept and design stages. Focuses on potential
failure modes associated with the functionality of a system caused by
design.
Service FMEA- focuses on service functions

Software FMEA- focuses on software functions FMEA is most commonly applied butnot
limited to design (Design FMEA) and manufacturing processes (Process FMEA).
 FMEA / FMECA Types
(Process Industry)

CONCEPT FMEA (CFMEA)

DESIGN FMEA (DFMEA)

PROCESS FMEA (PFMEA)

CONCEPT FMEA (CFMEA)
 Concept FMEA is used to analyze
concepts in the early stages before
hardware is defined (most often at system
and subsystem)
 It focuses on potential failure modes
associated with the proposed functions of
a concept proposal
 This type of FMEA includes the interaction
of multiple systems and interaction
between the elements of a system at the
concept stages.
DESIGN FMEA (DFMEA)
 The Design FMEA is used to analyze the
design before they processes are put into
operation and/or products released to
production.
 It focuses on potential failure modes of
Processes/Products caused by design
deficiencies.
 Design FMEAs are normally done at
various levels – System, subsystem, and
component levels
 This type of FMEA is used to analyze
hardware, functions or a combination
PROCESS FMEA (PFMEA)
 The Process FMEA is normally
used to analyze manufacturing
and/or assembly processes at the
system, subsystem or component
levels.
 This type of FMEA focuses on
potential failure modes of the
process that are caused by
manufacturing and/or assembly
process deficiencies.
AIAG FMEAs
DFMEA = Design Failure Modes Effects Analysis is a
systemized group of activities intended to:
 Identify potential failures of a design before they occur.
• Establish the potential effects of the failures
  Their causes how often they occur when they might occur

 Their potential seriousness.

PFMEA = Process Failure Modes Effects Analysis is a

systemized group of activities intended to:
Recognize the potential failure of a process
Evaluate the potential failure

• Predict its effect

FMEA in DMAIC / DMADV Stages
Design:
determine high risk process activities determine product
features
Measure:

Analyze:
 prioritize process activities prone to failure prioritize product
features prone to failure
Improve (Design):
determine high risk process activities determine high risk
product features
Control (Verify):
Hardware approach:
 DFSS projects on individual hardware items

Functional approach:
Failure Modes & Effects Analysis (FMEA)
ﾏ A complete a Hazard Analysis
for Design Project
ﾏSteps:
1.Describe the system or subsystem
2.Identify the possible failures & basis (i.e.: historical data,
personal experience, what-if?, etc.)
3.Identify failure symptoms
4.Effects of each failure mode
5.Probability of each failure mode
6.Risk of each failure mode
7.Calculate RPN (danger index) for each failure mode
FMEA Calculation
RPN = FS * PO * PD
RPN = Risk Priority Number
FS = Failure severity rating
PO = Probability of occurrence rating
PD = Probability of detection rating
See Tables 1-3 in reading assignment for rating
values
As a Team...
You are riding your bicycle and your pant leg
gets caught in the chain. You lose your
balance and break your arm. What is the
RPN?
FS (failure severity rating) = _____
PO (probability of occurrence rating) = _____
PD (probability of detection rating) = _____
RPN = _____*_____*_____
FS * PO * PD
Is this a high failure mode?
Is this hazardous?
RPN = _____
Number has no meaning without:
Comparing it to other hazards
Knowing what risk you and your company are
willing to take
What do you do if the RPN is too high?
As a team ...
ﾏ Identify six hazards associated with
your design concept
Hazard Analysis Exercise
• Using a spreadsheet calculate the RPN for a
minimum of 6 failure modes
• Describe each hazard
• Assign and justify the ratings you select
• Determine how you could reduce the RPN for
your two highest RPN
• Recalculate on a new spreadsheet your new
RPN's (include the unchanged RPN's)
• In a memo describe your results
FMEA (Failure Mode &
Effects Analysis)
 Component level

sticks
 Possible failures and theirr
effects up s
t ur k
 To eliminate or control e a
le
failures open close
 Include information in
maintenance manuals.

System Component Failure Mode Failure Effect

Increased
Scrubber Water pump Inadequate water flow environmental
pollution
 Failure Mode and Effects Criticality
Analysis (FMECA)

 Similar to FMEA but with two columns

added
 Overall assessment of criticality
 Possible actions to reduce criticality

General goal
• Find failures that have high criticality
and do something to reduce probability
Ten Industrial Disasters
(since 1974 - 2005)
 Number of Companies
0 02 04 06 08 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26

HAZOP

Ordinances
Disposition of RA-Methods

Swiss Germany
Zurich Hazard
Analysis

Brainstorming
Methods

FMEA

Checklists

Company specific

Fault Tree Analysis

Ordinance
"Protection against

HACCP
HAZOP: Hazard and Operability Analysis
FEMA : Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
HACCP: Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point
sra.ppt/R. Mock/07.10.98