Failure Mode and Effect Analysis: FMEA Procedures

From US Coast Guard, Risk-based Decision-making (RBDM) Guidelines ...

... "The procedure for performing an FMEA consists of the following nine steps. Define the system of interest. Specify and clearly define the boundaries of the system for which risk-related information is needed. Define the accidents of interest for the analysis. Specify the problems of interest that the analysis will address. These may include safety issues, failures in systems such as steering or propulsion, etc. " ...

FMEA is a qualitative reasoning approach best suited for reviews of mechanical and electrical hardware systems. The FMEA technique (1) considers how the failure modes of each system component can result in system performance problems and (2) ensures that appropriate safeguards against such problems are in place. A quantitative version of FMEA is known as failure modes, effects, and criticality analysis (FMECA).