Failure Effects
About Failure Effects
After all the Failure Modes have been defined, one or more Failure Effects can be defined for each Failure Mode. A Failure Effect documents the consequence of a failure occurring. Most FMEA methodologies use Failure Effects to capture the safety, environmental, and economic (or production) impacts associated with a failure.
The SAE Standard JA1012, "Evaluation Criteria for Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) Processes," defines the following requirements for Failure Effects:
- Failure Effects describe the cause if no specific task is done to anticipate, prevent, or detect the failure.
- Failure Effects include all the information needed to support the evaluation of the consequences of the failure, including the following data:
- If the loss of function due to this failure mode becomes evident to the operating crew under normal circumstances.
- If the failure (if anything) kills or injures someone.
- If the failure (if anything) has an adverse effect on operational capability.
- If the failure (if anything) breaches a known environmental standard or regulation.
- If a predictive task technically feasible and effective.
The following Decision Logic Algorithm will help in evaluating the consequences of the failure: