Failure-Mode Effect Analysis

In the United States, the OSHA standard 29 CFR 1910.119 Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals requires that a hazard analysis must be carried out for any process involving certain listed chemicals (see Appendix A of the standard) or involving more than 10,0001b (4535.9 kg) of flammable gas or liquid. Employers must involve employees in the hazard analysis, and it must be made available to employees and updated at least every 5 years. Employees and contractors must be trained in safe work practices associated with the identified process hazards. Eull details of these and other legal requirements as well as descriptions of the information that must be included in the analysis can be found in the standard. The most recent version of this standard and all other OSHA regulations are available at www.osha.gov. 

An FMEA should ideally be carried out as a group brainstorming exercise. The group should include a diverse set of experts. When an FMEA is used for process safety analysis, these should include 

The group begins by reviewing the process and defining a set of process steps or key inputs. 

For each step of input, they then brainstorm for failure modes, i.e., ways in which the step or input might not perform its desired function. 

For each failure mode, the group brainstorms for possible consequences. There may be multiple consequences for a given failure mode. 

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Table 15.3.4-1 Failure Modes Effects Analysis for Valve A in Figure 3.4.4-6...

One of the procedures used to determine which sensors are needed to sense process conditions and protect the process is called a Failure Mode Effect Analysis—FMEA. Every device in the process is checked for its various modes of failure. A search is then made to assure that there is a redundancy that keeps an identified source or condition from developing for each potential failure mode. The degree of required redundancy depends on the severity of the source as previously described. Table 14-2 lists failure modes for various devices commonly used in production facilities. 

Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) A technique used to define, identify, and reduce known or potential failures to an acceptable level. [Defined for this book.]... 

Once the RPN values have been calculated, the list should be ranked by RPN number and should be checked for consistency. This is particularly necessary when the FMEA has been completed during several sessions. Failure-mode effect analysis is essentially a qualitative method, and the rankings based on RPN are at best only an indication of the team s assessment of the relative risk of the different failure modes. The team should not be overly concerned with the relative ranking of two issues as long as both are ranked appropriately high or low in the overall list. 

Failure-mode effect analysis is easily carried out using spreadsheets. A Microsoft Excel template is available in the online material at http //books.elsevier.com/companions and is given in Appendix G. Additional information on FMEA is given by Birolini (2004), Dodson and Nolan (1999), and Stamatis (1995). 

Complete a failure-mode effect analysis for the nitric acid plant reactor section described in Example 9.2. (This is best carried out as a group activity with a group size of three to six.)... 

At the scheduled meeting, the complete package of information is reviewed and discussed. This is the time the "What if " questions are asked, or the Checklist used. If a Failure Mode Effect analysis is used, this information also will have been provided and discussed. 

Kieffer R G, Bureau S, Borgmann A (1997). Applications of failure mode effect analysis in the pharmaceutical industry. Pharma. Technol. Europe. 10 36-49. 

Most of the strategies devoted to managing risk in projects at the design stage target variability. One very popular tool is known as six-sigma (Pande and Holpp, 2001). Companies also make use of failure mode effects analysis (Stamatis, 2003), which is a procedure originated at NASA in which potential failures are analyzed and measures to... 

MTBF—mean time between failures MTTR—mean time to repair FMEA—failure mode effect analysis Uptime of equipment or downtime avoided... 

Sverdrup Technology, Inc. Failure Modes Effects Analysis... 

In this chapter we explore the Failure Modes Effects Analysis (FMEA) and the Failure Modes Effects Criticality Analysis (FMECA) which, as the name suggests, simply is an extension of the FMEA.i This chapter will use the acronym EMEA and highlight those instances where is extended to include EMECA. 

Two distinctly different, yet complementary, perspectives of hazards for the HCF and associated radioactive material storage locations are obtained for the overall hazard analysis of Chapter 3 by using both PHA and failure mode effects analysis (FMEA) techniques. FMEA is a complementary type of evaluation that utilizes a system failure-based form of analysis. Unlike PHA, the first objective of FMEA is to subdivide the facility Into several different (and, to the maximum extent possible, independent) system elements. Failure modes of each system element are then postulated and a structured examination of the consequences of each failure mode follows. However, similar to PHA, FMEA documents preventive and mitigative features (failure mechanisms and compensation) and anticipated accident consequences (failure effects). Appendix 3D contains the FMEA for the HCF. 

The basic tools for quality management are discussed in Chapter 5. Some additional tools such as Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) are discussed in this chapter. In addition, quality management systems such as ISO 9000, QS 9000, and systems based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) are explained in the first part of the chapter. In the second part of the chapter, techniques to improve quality throughout the entire supply chain are discussed. 

One important difference between ISO 9000 and QS 9000 is that QS 9000 is not a voluntary standard. The auto companies require that all of their Tier 1 suppliers be certified to QS 9000. QS 9000 is more extensive than ISQ 9000. It requires additional quality system elements and it includes advanced quality planning. In addition, it requires that control and quality plans be developed. For example, QS 9000 requires the development of Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA). The similarities and differences between ISO-9000 and QS 9000 are shown below in Table 13.3. 

Design and process failure mode effects analysis (DFMEA and PFMEA) DFMEA addresses design of the component itself. PFMEA addresses the production process. Both try to anticipate what could go wrong so that the item itself or the process can be changed to prevent the problem. 

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