FURTHER CRITERIA FOR FMEA PRIORITIZATION
Matthew Barsalou
Abstract: Failure Modes and Effects Analysis is performed to identify and mitigate risks in the production and development of products. A Failure Modes and Effects Analysis created according to the AIAG/VDA FMEA Handbook uses Action Priority to prioritize optimization actions to reduce the occurrence of the failure cause, or to detect the failure cause or failure mode. However, there are only three possible categories of Action Priority, consisting of high, medium, and low, in place of the traditional Risk Priority Number, which could complicate prioritization when there are many items with the same Action Priority. This paper evaluates a method for prioritizing within one Action Priority. Three methods were used to evaluate additional prioritization criteria based on prioritizing first by Action Priority, then criticality, consisting of severity times occurrence, and then by occurrence. The highest possible Risk Priority Numbers were compared to the highest possible criticalities and Action Priority. The results were evaluated using three columns consisting of 1,000 simulated randomized values from which a sample was taken to make comparisons. An evaluation was also performed using a real Failure Modes and Effects Analysis. This study found that prioritization based on Action Priority can be supplemented by prioritization based on criticality within the highest Action Priority. This study provides organization with criteria that can reduce a high number items within one Action Priority to a more manageable number for both prioritizing optimization and reporting.
Keywords: FMEA, Action priority, Risk priority number, Criticality
DOI: 10.24874/PES08.02.017
Recieved: 03.02.2026 Revised: 27.05.2026 Accepted: 08.06.2026
UDC:
Reads: 150 
