Product or Product Property

Properties describe the status and behaviour of products for analysis, including FMEA analysis

What are Product Properties

Product properties important for analysis are divided into basic groups of functions, operating modes and other specific properties. Specific properties vary according to the product type. For active units, these are e.g. communication interfaces, internal memory properties, etc.

What the description of the properties is for and what it looks like

It is important to describe the properties both within the product definition as part of the specification and for its safety analysis – FMEA.
A good quality product or part specification should include a description of its functionality, working modes as well as any other attributes that affect its functioning.

FMEA risk assessment

Properties are a key input for FMEA assessment. For risk assessment, the key is to assess how each individual property may contribute to endangering or annoying users by not functioning at all, or incorrectly.

For FMEA evaluations, therefore, for each property

• What can potentially happen to the property
• Consider what changes may cause
• Assess:
  • S: Severities – How will it affect users
  • O: Occurrence – That a problematic situation will occur,
  • D: Detection – How easy it is to detect a problem
• Suggest measures to take to reduce the overall risk of RPN (Risk Priority Number)

NRP = product of risk factors

The NRP value, which is the product of severity, probability of occurrence and detection capability, is used to assess the risk of individual factors. NRP = S × O × D. The system calculates the value automatically (the range is 1 .. 1000) and it cannot be entered.

How to record an evaluation

If a property has multiple possible problems and their impacts, always evaluate the worst option within the evaluation.

When measures are proposed, record them in the same item. When measures are approved and included in the requirements, it is possible to(!) subsequently lower the overall rating. Depending on what the safety measures change, one or more of the values S, O, D may decrease.

Measure = Requirement

The measure taken should be recorded as a requirement for the product or manufacturing process. It is important that these requirements have a link from the analysis – only then can it be verified that the measure is actually getting into implementation.

Use the add requirement function to record the requirement – you can attach an existing requirement, but typically you are more likely to create a new one.

How to properly evaluate S: Severity – O: Occurrence – D: Detection

There are standardised tables for assessing the impact of potential damage, which are available in the links below.

Your project may require a different rating! Always follow what is relevant to your project. The examples given are used in the automotive sector, but even in that sector your customer may request their own methodology.

Useful links to sites

Severity rating by FMEA

Links to useful sites

FMEA Severity Rating
FMEA Detection Rating
FMEA Occurrence Rating