Integration of Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) in the Engineering Design Process

ABSTRACT Integration of Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) in the Engineering Design Process Hua-wei Wen Failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) is one of the most practical design tools implemented in the product design to analyze the potential failures and to improve the design. The practice of FMEA is diversified and different approaches are proposed by different organizations and researchers from one application to another. Yet, the question is how to systematically utilize the features of FMEA along with the design process. This thesis aims to integrate different types of FMEA in the design process, which is considered as the mapping between customer requirements, product functions, and design components. These three design elements are the foundation of the integration model proposed in this thesis. The objective of this thesis is to develop an integration approach of FMEA in the design process. Particularly, an integration framework is developed to integrate FMEA and design process. Then, a step-by-step FMEA-facilitated design process is proposed to apply FMEA along with the design process. In the end, a detailed case study of a smartphone model is conducted to demonstrate and verify the proposed methodology. The expectedly benefits of the proposed methodology are the consistency of failure analysis information, and the utilization of the failure analysis information from one stage to the later stages of the design process