Field service industries are customer-driven and fast-paced, hence the need for equipment reliability. From working under tight schedules to meeting high client expectations, field service management companies must deliver fast and efficient services. The failure of critical equipment can be disruptive and costly, and will also throw your team into reactive mode, handling urgent damages instead of attending to clients.
However, you can flip this script by implementing Failure Modes and Analysis (FMEA) to enhance predictive maintenance. While FMEA was widely used in the automotive and aerospace industries, it is now widely used to mitigate risks in different fields, including field service management. In this article, we will explore the primary principles of FMEA, why equipment fails, and recommend how to use FMEA to deliver efficient and reliable services.
What is Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)?
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a progressive and structured method used to identify, assess, and prioritize potential system or equipment failures. Implementing FMEA will keep you on top since you anticipate equipment breakdown and its consequences.
Each potential breakdown is evaluated using the seriousness of the damage, how it is likely to occur, and how to detect it before it causes harm and inconvenience. After this evaluation, scores are multiplied to get a Risk Priority Number. Equipment with a higher RPN is marked as urgent and prioritized for maintenance or fixing.
FMEA is an effective tool for field service companies since it will help you with the following:
- Identify weak points in the equipment team’s service
- Prioritize maintenance for different equipment
- Reduce downtime
- Enhance safety and compliance
- Enhance customer satisfaction
The Science Behind Equipment Failure
Equipment does not just break down overnight; a chain of events usually leads to malfunction. Therefore, understanding what goes wrong will make identifying failure patterns easier, creating efficient maintenance schedules, recommending better upgrades, and developing risk awareness.
Combining this knowledge with FMEA will not only help fix damaged equipment, but also engineering equipment reliability into your operations. Studies indicate that companies implementing FMEA have experienced a 30% reduction in defects and a 20% increase in efficiency.
A key reason behind equipment failure is usually mechanical degradation, from seal cracks to lost belt tensions, is usually inevitable. Your equipment will fail over time due to friction, vibration, and stress. Therefore, you need to conduct regular inspections to spot any issues. Environmental exposure is also another common problem. Your equipment’s metallic parts can be damaged after long-term exposure to moisture, chemicals, and temperature changes, especially if it is frequently used in outdoor or harsh environments.
Additionally it is also common for companies to experience electrical failure whereby power surges, faulty connections, and short circuits usually result in unexpected system shutdowns. To prevent such issues, you can conduct regular thermal imaging and voltage monitoring to avoid such a situation. If you are dealing with several digital systems you are more likely to experience software bugs affecting machines that highly depend on digital controls.
Furthermore, from misaligned parts to skipped inspections and wrong installations, simple human errors and maintenance mistakes can result in equipment failure. To avoid such errors, all procedures must be documented to enhance consistency and accuracy. Some malfunctions are usually a result of manufacturing defects, thus, the need to note any recurring failures that may signal a manufacturing defect that might escalate.
How Does Equipment Failure Modes and Analysis Work: A Step-by-Step Guide
FMEA focuses on being preventive instead of reactive since it helps you identify your equipment’s weak points before they affect your operations. The first step to determining failure modes is by first Identifying the equipment with a problem by picking a system or service that experiences recurring issues.
After identifying the equipment with an issue you can proceed to break down the primary equipment functions by listing the faulty system’s main tasks or the process of its operation then you can look at the possible failure modes. For every piece of equipment or system, find out how it could fail and include it among the failure modes. For example, a thermostat that gives inaccurate readings or a compressor that fails to start.
Once you identify the failure modes of an equipment you can easily determine the consequences of each malfunction. Think about the effect of every failure, from safety to downtime, repair costs, and client experience. After which you can assign severity, occurrence, and detection rankings based on technician reports or service history, rate these elements on a scale of 1-10. Calculate the risk priority number after rating your failure elements on a scale of 1-10. To get the risk number, you can multiply the three ratings, severity, occurrence, and detection, to get a risk priority number. The higher the risk score, the greater the risk of failure.
After getting the risk priority number, prioritize and act by solving issues with the highest risk priority number. Some of the actions you can take include adding backups and alarms to mitigate the severity of the failure or performing preventive maintenance to reduce the occurrence. Most importantly, documenting every stage of your maintenance and FMEA findings will give you a clear history or information about your equipment. You can also store all the findings and decisions in a centralized software for easy monitoring.
Best Tools and Software for FMEA
FMEA plays a decisive role in every company’s maintenance playbook by turning insight into action. Understanding how FMEA works will help you turn insight into action and avoid costly downtimes. Integrating FMEA into your operations gives you a clear structure to spot issues before they compromise your service delivery.
Implementing FMEA effectively does not mean drowning in paperwork; you can easily roll out FMEA and conduct a comprehensive failure analysis with the right software. Some of the best tools and software options include:
Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets
While you will work manually with this software, it is a flexible option. Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets are suitable for small businesses since you do not need a costly software suite to get started. These two remain the most used software in implementing FMEA because they are easy to use. Most teams find Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel easy to use because they do not require a learning curve, onboarding, or extensive training.
Additionally, they are usually free, making them suitable for companies with a limited budget. Excel integrates several Microsoft 365 packages, while Google Sheets is free if you have a Google account. Further, the spreadsheets can be easily customized, allowing you to create dropdown menus for scoring and different equipment, client, or system tabs.
Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets also enable real-time collaboration, seeing as Google Sheets offers a cloud-based partnership through which you can easily share FMEA files and collaborate on various reports from any device, whether in the office or the field. The easy reporting and integration feature in these tools will help you generate charts, graphs, and report summaries to help make decisions.
Mobile Apps for On-Site FMEA
Time and accuracy are essential when your technicians are conducting maintenance, inspecting, or repairing equipment in the field. Therefore, you will need efficient software that allows them to easily capture, inspect, and respond to equipment failure in real-time.
Mobile apps are primarily a game changer when implementing FMEA because of the real-time data capturing. Your technicians will instantly feed in data such as failure modes and equipment condition, and assign severity rankings on-site. Capturing data in real time means more accuracy since a few steps and details will be skipped.
The photo and voice note integration is also an outstanding feature. Most FMEA apps allow users to take photos and record voice notes, which improves communication. The Offline mode means that your technicians can continue operations and record data even without the internet. With these apps, your team will receive instant notifications when high-risk failures are recorded. You can also access and respond to technicians’ notes in real time.
Most importantly, some FMEA apps can be integrated with other tools to assign tasks when equipment failure is logged, and follow-ups can be done effectively.
Specialized FMEA Software
Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets are good when your company implements new equipment failure modes and analysis. However, as you scale your operations, you will need more advanced software to deal with more complex equipment, systems, and a larger team. Specialized FMEA software will help with reliability engineering faster and consistently.
Some of the reasons why you need to invest in an advanced FMEA software include:
- Automated risk assessment and scoring
- Advanced design, process, and maintenance templates
- Easy to integrate with field service digital tools such as CMM, ERP software, and Asset Tracking and IoT platforms.
- Real-time collaboration
- Centralized information base with data on failure modes, causes, and solutions.
- Advanced reporting and customizable dashboards.
Wrapping Up
Understanding why and how equipment malfunctions will help you identify failure patterns across various service departments and better prioritize preventive maintenance and upgrades. For field service companies, this information, paired with the FMEA tool, will be instrumental in reducing downtime and keeping operations running seamlessly. Implementing FMEA in your operations is a key step towards mitigating failures, but you must use the right software for better results.
Are you ready to take the guesswork off equipment failure? Swivl Tech offers an intelligent platform to help your team identify risk faster and keep your equipment and system running seamlessly. Get a free demo today and achieve real-world reliability.
