What is FMEA? Failure Mode & Effects Analysis | ASQ
Begun in the 1940s by the U.S. military, failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) is a step-by-step approach for identifying all possible failures in a design, a manufacturing or assembly process, or a product or service. It is a common process analysis tool. "Failure modes" means the ways, or modes, in which something might fail.