A FMEA (failure mode and effects analysis) provides a method for analyzing a system design or process to evaluate the potential for failures. It consists of defining the parts and assemblies or the process stages that can fail and the ways that they can fail (failure modes) and then determining the end effects of each failure mode on the system or process.

An important part of a FMEA includes analyzing the criticality of the end effects of failure modes to determine how harmful they are on system operation or the process. When criticality is considered in a FMEA, it is sometimes called a FMECA (failure mode, effects, and criticality analysis). In Windchill Risk and Reliability and throughout this documentation, the term FMEA is used generically to refer to any type of FMEA or FMECA.

The topics in this section include: