Prioritizing Risk and Taking Action to Reduce Risk

FMEAs help us focus on and understand the impact of potential process or product risks.

• A systematic methodology is used to rate the risks relative to each other.
• An RPN, or Risk Priority Number, is calculated for each failure mode and its resulting effect(s).

The RPN is a function of three factors:

• The Severity of the effect
• The frequency of Occurrence of the cause of the failure
• The ability to Detect the failure or effect

Calculating the RPN

• The RPN = The Severity ranking X the Occurrence ranking X the Detection ranking.
• The RPN can range from a low of 1 to a high of 1,000.

Taking action

• Develop an Action Plan to reduce risks with unacceptably high RPNs.

Linking FMEAs to Control Plans

• Use FMEAs as the basis for Control Plans.
• Control Plans are a summary of proactive defect prevention and reactive detection techniques.