Methodology to improve the reliability and reduce the risk of negative economic impacts associated with the failures of industrial products

Currently, the largest portion of the budget for new releases is intended for incremental product improvements and project reviews [1]. In such reviews, it is necessary to mitigate the risk of serious failure occurrences that nullify the gains expected from the product launch. The FMEA method (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) is the most used method to increase the reliability of the product. However, the FMEA is known as having certain weaknesses. Among them, are the non-prioritization of all potential failures with a high degree of severity and those with a potential to generate significant economic impacts. This article presents a review of all the main proposals to solve the FMEA prioritization problem, published from 1980 to 2018, selects the ideas with the potential to base a simple solution and proposes a differential contribution based on the modification of the method proposed by Kara-Zaitri et al. [2] and Guinot at al. [3]. As a result, it proposes a more robust FMEA model, which guarantees more reliability to the analyzed product, as well as mitigates the risks of the occurrence of failure modes with a high degree of severity. It also presents a comparative analysis, demonstrating the differences between the improved FMEA (MFMEA) and the traditional one, also addressing its implications.