Multiple failure mode and effects analysis - an approach to risk assessment of multiple failures with FMEA
K. Pickard, Péter Müller, Bernd Bertsche · 2005
By integrating the procedures of the FMEA method (failure mode and effects analysis) and the FTA method (fault tree analysis) into a combined procedure, the mFMEA (multiple failure mode and effects analysis), an inclusive reliability analysis of complex, mechatronical systems, is made possible. The advantages of both methods are brought together and integrated into a new procedure. The FMEA along with its risk analysis, risk assessment and measure controlling, paralleling systematically to the product design cycle is only applicable for single failures. The FTA expands the new procedure through a failure analysis with the help of its combination option to network failures according to Boolean logic. The new procedure allows for the consideration of multiple failures while retaining all the characteristics of FMEA. In addition, through the use of failure networks quantitative information can be derived concerning the system's availability, which delivers important information along with the results of the mFMEA.