An Extended FMECA Method and Its Fuzzy Assessment Model for Equipment Maintenance Management Optimization

The failure mode, effect and criticality analysis (FMECA) is a famous bottom-up analytical method for quantifying and ranking critical failures of a product normally at its design stage. At present, as the importance of equipment maintenance increases in industry, FMECA is often applied in maintenance management. In practical cases, equipment is composed of different components, and its maintenance optimization should consider requirements of reliability, availability and costs together. This paper proposes the method called the extended failure mode, effect and criticality analysis (e-FMECA) for equipment maintenance management optimization on the basis of the FMECA theory. This method gives the procedure of analyzing the risks of different failure modes associated with reliability, availability and maintenance costs of equipment. In order to measure these risks of reliability, availability and maintenance costs quantitatively, a fuzzy risk priority method for e-FMECA is developed. Finally, the case study of the e-FMECA method in terms of metro rolling stocks is given. The proposed e-FMECA might be beneficial for selecting the maintenance strategies, maintenance polices and maintenance optimizing objects for maintenance management optimization.