Dimas

One of the great news of the newest version of the FMEA is the replacement of the R.P.N. by the PA. The R.P.N. has already been contested by the identification of several limitations in its application. Here are four of these limitations and we would like to know which one would be the most significant, they are: 1. Severity with the same weight: High Severity is already of high risk, regardless of the R.P.N. value, however in the calculation of the R.P.N. Severity has the same representation of Occurrence and Detection. 2. Subjectivity of the R.P.N.: Since the components of the R.P.N. (Severity, Occurrence and Detection) are each formed by subjective classifications, however well elaborated the reference tables are, the value of the R.P.N. will always be subjective in nature. 3. Duplicate R.P.N. numbers: All possible multiplication of FMEA rankings of S, O and D include many duplicate numbers. For example, an S = 1, O = 8 and D = 8 have the same R.P.N. value as an S = 8, O = 4 and D = 2. 4. R.P.N. limits: It is attractive for management to use limits for R.P.N. values and require a defined action if the R.P.N. value exceeds the given limit, which is also known as a cut-off note. Generally, this is not the right approach, as FMEA easily becomes a numbers game.