Design Failure Modes and Effects Analysis

Learning from each failure after it occurs in the lab or out in the field is both costly and time consuming. If the failure is reported by a customer, customer dissatisfaction leading to loss of current customers and future business is a very plausible scenario. The root cause of the problem must be identified before any fix can be attempted. Some problems, as engineers will attest, can be notoriously hard to debug. Once the problem has been identified, the first solution may be too risky, and a less optimal fix proposed initially, with a more complete solution provided in a later software release.

Failures need to be prioritized according to how serious their consequences are, how frequently they occur and how easily they can be detected. A Design Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (DFMEA) does this and also documents current knowledge and actions about the risks of failures for use in continuous improvement.

DFMEA provides a systematic method of identifying a large number of potential failures using thought experiments. DFMEAs provide risk mitigation, in both product and process development phases. Each potential failure is considered for its effect on the product or process or customer and, based on the risk level, actions are determined to reduce, mitigate, or eliminate the risk prior to software implementation and deployment. The DFMEA drives a set of actions to prevent or reduce the severity or likelihood of failures, starting with the highest priority ones. Each failure scenario removed during the product design phase provides large dividends and cost-benefits for the company when a more robust and reliable product is deployed.