Failure Mode and Effects Analysis in Various Project Stages

Defects, downtime, injuries and delays can be extremely costly and often directly interfere with a company’s objective of delivering quality and reliability. So how are these events prevented from occurring?

Extensive testing in the later project phases could for instance be a preventive measure. However discovering the faults at this stage can be very costly and mean even further delays. Instead, it is ideal to take preventive measures, which can be achieved through Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA). FMEA is a systematic step-by-step tool for identifying, analyzing and preventing product and process problems. The tool is often applied in the early stages of a project, but can be used throughout in different variations.

This article aims to inform the reader on how to implement FMEA and how it can be used in different project phases.