Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 16
SOFTWARE FAILURE MODE AND
EFFECT ANALYSIS (SFMEA)
16.1
INTRODUCTION
Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is a disciplined procedure that recognizes
and evaluates the potential failure of a product, including software, or a process and
the effects of a failure and identifies actions that reduce the chance of a potential
failure from occurring. The FMEA helps the Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) team
members improve their design and its delivery processes by asking “what can go
wrong?” and “where can variation come from?” Software design and production,
delivery, and other processes then are revised to prevent the occurrence of failure
modes and to reduce variation. Input to an FMEA application includes past warranty
or process experience, if any; customer wants, needs, and delights; performance
requirements; specifications; and functional mappings.
In the hardware-(product) oriented DFSS applications (Yang & El-Haik, 2008),
various FMEA types will be experienced by the DFSS team. They are depicted in
Figure 16.1. The FMEA concept is used to analyze systems and subsystems in the
early concept and design stages. It focuses on potential failure modes associated
with the functions of a system caused by the design. The concept FMEA helps the
DFSS team to review targets for the functional requirements (FRs), to select optimum
physical architecture with minimum vulnerabilities, to identify preliminary testing
requirements, and to determine whether hardware system redundancy is required for
reliability target settings. Design FMEA (DFMEA) is used to analyze designs before
they are released to production. In the DFSS algorithm, a DFMEA always should
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