Generalized multi-attribute failure mode analysis

Modern technology products are becoming more advanced, complex, and expensive, necessitating the use of failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) to stabilize production and enhance market competitiveness. Traditional FMEA adopts the risk priority number (RPN) to stabilize production and monitor risks of failure. The RPN has 3 parameters—severity (S), occurrence (O), and detection (D)—which are used to assess and prioritize potential risks in production. Although the traditional RPN is efficient, it has several shortcomings. For example, it assumes that weighting factors have equal weight, it fails to examine the nature of problems stepwise and structurally, available information can be lost easily, and priority orders are assessed identically with high frequency. Thus, to improve the RPN, we propose an integrated method, combining multiattribute failure mode analysis (MAFMA) and 2-tuple representation, called generalized multiattribute failure mode analysis (GMAFMA). This study uses a TFT-LCD product of a technology company in Taiwan as an actual case study and compares the RPN, MAFMA, and GMAFMA by numerical verification, demonstrating that the disadvantages above are improved and obtaining a more reasonable assessment of risk priority. This method provides references that enhance process stability and reduce the risk of failure for managers.