A fault tree is a graphical analysis that assumes a system failure and then traces down through the hierarchy to find what event could have caused that failure. Very often, a top-down
FTA and a bottom-up
FMEA, which is described in
FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis), are both performed on a system to ensure that every possible failure is analyzed and either corrected or minimized. Using
Windchill Risk and Reliability, you can perform an
FTA along with a
FMEA and reliability prediction on the same system in one integrated software package. You can even include failure modes from a
FMEA and items from a prediction in your fault tree. For more information, see
Windchill FTA.