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 shall describe what would happen if no specific task is done to anticipate, prevent, or detect the failure.
- Failure Effects shall include all the information needed to support the evaluation of the consequences of the failure, including the following data:
- The evidence (if any) that the failure has occurred (in the case of hidden functions, what would happen if a multiple failure occurred).
- What the failure does (if anything) to kill or injure someone, or to have an adverse effect on the environment.
- What the failure does (if anything) to have an adverse effect on production or operations.
- What physical damage (if any) is caused by the failure.
- What (if anything) must be done to restore the function of the system after the failure.