Glossary

FMEA (failure modes and effects analysis)

In short

FMEA, failure modes and effects analysis, is a structured method for anticipating the ways an asset or process can fail, working out the effect of each failure, and prioritising which risks to act on first. It is done before failures happen, so a team can target maintenance and design effort where it reduces the most risk. The output usually drives a more focused preventive maintenance plan.

FMEA (failure modes and effects analysis)

FMEA, failure modes and effects analysis, is a structured way to anticipate how an asset or process can fail before it does, work out what each failure would cause, and decide which risks deserve attention first. Instead of reacting to failures as they happen, a team sits down and reasons through them in advance, then puts effort where it reduces the most risk.

How an FMEA works

The method walks through each part of an asset or each step of a process and asks the same questions:

  • What are the ways this could fail, the failure modes?
  • What would each failure do, the effects, and how severe would they be?
  • How likely is each failure to occur?
  • How easily would it be detected before it caused harm?

Those factors, severity, likelihood and detectability, are weighed together to rank the failure modes. The ones that are severe, likely and hard to detect rise to the top, and they are where preventive action pays off most. The result is a prioritised list rather than a vague sense that everything is risky.

Why teams use it

The value of an FMEA is focus. Maintenance time and budget are finite, and treating every asset and every failure mode as equally important wastes both. By ranking the failure modes, an FMEA tells a team where a targeted inspection or a tighter preventive maintenance interval will prevent the most costly or dangerous failures. It also makes the reasoning explicit, so the maintenance plan can be explained and revisited rather than living in one person’s head.

How it relates to Cohiva Control

Cohiva Control does not perform the analysis for you, but it is where the conclusions of an FMEA become action. The high-priority failure modes turn into preventive maintenance schedules on time or meter intervals and into inspection templates, where a failed inspection item can automatically raise a work order. The asset history and work-order records Cohiva Control keeps on an append-only audit trail also feed back into future analysis, since the real failures you have seen inform how you rank the ones you are guarding against.

Part of the Cohiva platform

Cohiva Control is part of the Cohiva platform. Leisure operators often run it with Cohiva Complex, and finance teams connect it to Cohiva Crunch for the general ledger. Explore the platform at www.cohiva.app.

Frequently asked questions

What does an FMEA produce?
A structured list of how an asset or process can fail, the effect and severity of each failure, how likely it is, and how easily it would be detected. Those are weighed together to rank the failure modes so you can act on the most important first.
When is FMEA worth doing?
It is most worthwhile for assets where failure is costly, risky or hard to detect. Spending the analysis effort there focuses maintenance on the failure modes that matter rather than treating every asset the same.
How does FMEA connect to preventive maintenance?
The failure modes that rank highest in an FMEA are natural candidates for targeted preventive maintenance and inspection, so the analysis turns into a concrete schedule rather than staying a document.