Risk analysis using FMEA: Fuzzy similarity value and possibility theory based approach

Fuzzy numerical technique for FMEA has been proposed to deal with the drawbacks of crisp FMEA and fuzzy rule based FMEA approaches. Fuzzy numerical approaches based on de-fuzzification also suffer from the drawback of providing arbitrary priority ranks of failure modes even when their membership functions overlap. To overcome this drawback we developed a new methodology integrating the concepts of similarity value measure of fuzzy numbers and possibility theory. Similarity value measure has been applied to group together failure modes having similar amount of risk value. The possibility theory has been used for checking for conformance guidelines. Two case studies have been shown to demonstrate the methodology thus developed. The proposed methodology is more robust in nature as it does not require arbitrary precise operations like de-fuzzification to prioritise the failure modes. Application of possibility theory is new to the domain of risk analysing using FMEA. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.