Effective Risk Management and Quality Improvement

by Application of FMEA and Complementary

Techniques
Benjamin A. Berman
November 2003

According to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) International Aerospace

Recommended Practice (ARP) 5580, Recommended Failure Modes and Effects
(FMEA) Practices for Non-Automobile Applications, FMEA is a formal and systematic
approach to identifying potential system failure modes, their causes, and the effects of
the failure mode occurrence on the system operationFMEA provides a basis for
identifying potential system failures and unacceptable failure effects that prevent
achieving design requirements from postulated failure modesFMEA is used in many
system design analyses including assessing system safety, planning system
maintenance activities, defining provisions for fault recovery, fault tolerance, and failure
detection and isolation, and identifying design modifications and corrective actions
needed to mitigate the effects of a failure on the system.

The basic FMEA process involves examining each basic hardware, software, personnel,
or functional element of a system, identifying all the ways in which that element can fail
(failure modes), assessing the effects of each failure mode upon the function of other
elements of the system and the entire system (failure effects), and then assessing the
criticality of the failure effects. Integral to the FMEA process is the specification of
corrective actions that will prevent critical failures or restore critical functions.

First, as FMEA has typically been applied in aerospace engineering, designers are
permitted to rely upon human performance (such as interventions by pilots and
mechanics) to mitigate the adverse effects of hardware and software component or
system failures. However, in doing so, no consideration is given to given to imperfect
human performance.

First, while FMEA is a structured technique that provides a comprehensive analysis, it is

difficult (or impossible) to prospectively identify all possible failure modes/adverse
outcomes from a complex component or functional element of a system. Because even
the best FMEA effort may leave some failure modes and effects undiscovered, after
completing an FMEA it is essential to avoid concluding that all risks have been
compensated for or controlled. This suggests that FMEA analysts need to maintain an
open and creative attitude about identifying failure modes and assessing their effects
and consequences, It also establishes the rationale for obtaining, analyzing, and
reacting to feedback from field use and operations, and for treating the FMEA as a
living document that will be revisited and revised on a continuing basis.

For example, consider an aircraft component that FMEA determines to have an

unacceptable failure rate. To control this risk, designers require the mechanic to check
the component before each flight and also require the pilot to recheck the component
during the taxi-out checklist.

Aviation Safety Action Programs (ASAP) are cooperative reporting systems for persons
active in commercial aviation operations, including pilots, mechanics, and aircraft
dispatchers, to report the events that happen in daily line operations. ASAP reports are
non-jeopardy; in fact, if a person reports an event to ASAP independently of
enforcement action by the regulatory authority (FAA) then the FAA will typically waive
sanctions for any regulatory violation related to the event. This waiver of sanctions
motivates personnel to report the information. ASAP reflects the aviation systems
recognition that for human failings, obtaining the information is often more important
than punishment the transgressions, most of which are inadvertent in any case. A key
feature of the ASAP program is the Event Review Team, comprising representatives
from the airline, the pilots association, and the FAA, which meets periodically to review
all submitted ASAP reports and act on the information in the reports. ASAP is
considered to be successful in revealing, disseminating, and promoting resolution of
adverse events in daily flight operations that would otherwise remain unknown. ASAP
applications are increasingly popular in commercial aviation. These programs are
described in official FAA guidance (Advisory Circular 120-66B, Aviation Safety Action
Program).

Based on the foregoing review, I conclude the following about the Failure Modes and
Effects Analysis methodology:

FMEA is a sound methodology for basic, structured risk management and

quality improvement analysis.

The ideal approach can be to use FMEA as the backbone for analysis that also
includes the integration of complementary methods, as required; for example, it
may be appropriate to apply elements of FTA or PRA to understand and explore
the proper scope of analysis, the significance of failure effects, and the
effectiveness of risk management interventions.

Thoughtful application of FMEA can identify when these extensions are

required and to integrate and document results of an extended analysis.
 The limited reliability of humans in complex systems argues for multiple,
redundant, independent interventions when relying on humans to detect failure
modes or actively intervene to mitigate failure effects.

FMEA, as extended with appropriate top-down, probabilistic, and feedback

methods, is an excellent framework for risk management and quality
improvement in the post-design/post-manufacture (field distribution, application,
or user) environment, including the human performance aspects of this
environment.

A CASE STUDY OF RISKS PRIORITIZATION USING FMEA METHOD

International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 3, Issue 10,

October 2013 1 ISSN 2250-3153

FMEA is the methodology designed to identify potential failure modes for a product or
process before the problems occur, to assess the risk.
Leveraging Quality Function Deployment to enhance the Productivity of an
Aviation Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Organization

This research is focused on QFD based matrix planning to transform customer

needs into desired service quality features.
The present research has been motivated by the challenge of reducing the repair cycle
time for a particular fleet of fighter aircraft at a public sector Aviation MRO. Such a
challenge does not only deal with time but involves a profound organizational
transformation which should cover multiple aspects simultaneously such as
installations, equipment and machines, as well as processes. Quality Function
Deployment (QFD) has been used as the quality planning methodology to reduce the
aircraft servicing time while limiting costs related with installations, equipment and
processes. Aviation MROs against which the benchmarking process was performed
could not be revealed due to confidentiality reasons and are referred to as C1 & C2 in
the HOQ. These recommendations are presented in the results section of this research
and can serve as key enablers for the Aviation MRO to achieve its desired objective of
reducing the aircraft servicing duration from six to four months without compromising
the quality of service.
The primary customer in our case was the military entity or Air Force operating the
fighter aircraft. However, a thorough analysis of the scenario brought forward list of
potential customers, which were then grouped under internal and external customers.
After careful selection, following customers were targeted as true users of the service
(a) External Customers
Pilots / Co-Pilots
Flight Engineers
First Line Maintenance Staff

Internal Customers
Maintenance Engineers of the MRO
Aircraft Technicians of the MRO involved in Overhaul Process
Logistics setup of the MRO

Using FMEA to Improve Software

Reliability

The FMEA worksheet is the final work product in the process and culminates in
a prioritized list of recommended actions.

A typical FMEA is a team activity, accomplished in one or more meetings.

1. Define Failure Modes What can go wrong here?

2. Define Effects What will happen then?
3. Describe Targets Who will suffer from the failure?
4. Find Root Causes Why will that happen?
5. Prioritize the Risks What is the likelihood?
6. Define Solution Actions How can this be prevented?
7. Define Current Prevention and Detection Methods What is currently being done?

FMEA is a widely used and accepted method of reliability engineering. Its purpose is to
identify possible
failures, evaluate their effect on the system, and propose solutions to mitigate these
effects.

Software Failure Analysis at Architecture Level using FMEA

Shawulu Hunira Nggada
 International Journal of Software Engineering and Its Applications Vol. 6, No. 1,
January, 2012

Systems like aircrafts, nuclear power plants, etc that cause hazards for people and the
environment are termed as safety-critical systems [1].

FMEA is a systematic procedure for the analysis of a system to identify the potential
failure modes, their causes and effects on system performance [4].

Anticipating these failure modes which is central to the analysis needs to be carried out
extensively in order to prepare a list of maximum potential failure modes [5]. The causes
of these modes could be seen at component levels which propagate through the system
and eventually leading to system failure.

The demonstration of this is however out of the scope of this paper and is left for further
work.

[1] N. Storey, Safety-Critical Computer Systems, Addison Wesley Longman , London

(1996)

[4] G. Cassanelli, G. Mura, F. Fantini, M. Vanzi, and B. Plano, "Failure Analysis-assisted

FMEA", Microelectronics and Reliability, Vol. 46, Issues 9-11 (2006) pp. 1795-1799
[5] V. Ebrahimipour, K. Rezaie, and S. Shokravi, "An Ontology Approach to Support
FMEA Studies", Expert Systems with Applications, Vol. 37, Issue 1 (2010) pp. 671-677

An Initiative to Practice Total Quality Management in

Aircraft Maintenance
B. Immanuel Lazur, L. Jagadeesh, B. Karthikeyan and M. Shanmugaraja

Advances in Aerospace Science and Applications.

ISSN 2277-3223 Volume 3, Number 2 (2013), pp. 63-68

Time to delivery and higher standards of service have become business

imperatives in aerospace maintenance. Around the world, aviation has succeeded in
offering a quality service that is highly
safe and affordable. However air operators have not been rewarded for the quality of
their services.

To achieve maximum effectiveness, the organisation must follow

recognised international practices and maintain a system for the management of
quality.