Last week we attended the Systems Engineering Day organized by GfSE (‘Gesellschaft für Systems Engineering’ - German Chapter of INCOSE) There, me and @AS @AT and @TK were the proud hosts of our tutorial: ‘Requirements, System Architecture Definition and FMEA Modeling’. Together with our insightful audience, we dived into the world of automotive safety standards and regulations, how FMEA modeling supports them, and how their practical implementation actively ensures the reliability and safety of vehicles.
Here is the tutorial content in summary:
Overview of Safety and Security Standards in the Automotive Industry
Safety is essential in the automotive sector, and various standards govern this crucial aspect. From ISO 26262 for functional safety in road vehicles to R155 for cyber security and so on. Understanding these standards is vital for compliance and ensuring robust safety measures.
Safety Processes and Workflows in Compliance with Standards
Looking into the safety processes, we encounter methodologies like Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment (HARA), and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). These play pivotal roles in assessing risks, identifying hazards, and ensuring the safety and reliability of automotive systems.
FMEA Workflow with the Magic Grid Framework
FMEA is a structured approach used to identify, analyze, and prioritize potential failure modes within systems. Integrating FMEA into the Magic Grid framework offers a comprehensive way to visualize risks, facilitating a systematic analysis of failure modes in different abstraction layers of systems modeling.
Hands-On Exercise with an Automotive Example
Our audience applied the FMEA to either the airbag or the lighting system of a vehicle. Step-by-step, they were guided through the process, identifying failure modes, assessing their effects, think of potential countermeasures, and many more. This also resulted in many interesting discussions and opportunities to learn together.
Discussion Points for FMEA Implementation
1. Boundary Definition: Should the FMEA be applied separately to each subsystems, or together? Understanding lateral and vertical boundaries in the context of abstraction layers is crucial for effective analysis.
2. Layers of FMEA: Navigating from abstract to specific layers in FMEA demands a systematic approach. How do we transition between different levels of abstraction effectively?
3. Detectability and Occurrence: Associating these factors with failure modes or causes of failure?
4. Responsibility for FMEA: Who should take ownership of the FMEA and it’s specific failure mode cases?
5. Timing of FMEA: When is the best time to apply FMEA in the product development lifecycle to maximize its effectiveness?
6. Completing FMEA Table: Can FMEA be implemented without filling out all the cells in the table? Can I add columns/categories? In short: Customizability and flexibility of the FMEA.
7. RPN with Standards or Fuzzy Logic: Exploring whether Risk Priority Number (RPN) is based on standardized metrics or if a fuzzy logic approach is sensible.
