VIKOR power law-based customer-oriented FMEA with complete unique risk priority numbers

Abstract

Purpose

An inherent problem on risk priority number (RPN) value duplication of traditional failure modes and effect analysis (FMEA) also exists in two customer-oriented FMEAs. One has no unique value, and another has 1% unique values out of 4,000 possible values. The RPN value duplication has motivated the development of a new customer-oriented FMEA presented in this paper to achieve practically all 4,000 unique values and delivering reliable prioritization.

Design/methodology/approach

The drastic improvement is the result of power-law and VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR). By having all three risk factors in a power-law form, all unique values can be obtained, and by applying VIKOR to these power-law terms, the prioritization is more practical and reliable.

Findings

The proposed VIKOR power law-based customer-oriented FMEA can achieve practically all 4,000 unique values and is tested with two case studies. The results are more logical than the results from the other two customer-oriented FMEAs.

Research limitations/implications

The evaluation has been done on two case studies for the service sector. Therefore, additional case studies in other industrial sectors will be required to confirm the effectiveness of this new customer-oriented RPN calculation.

Originality/value

Achieving all 1,000 unique values could only be done by having experts tabulate all possible combinations for the traditional FMEA. Therefore, achieving all 4,000 unique values will be much more challenging. A customer-oriented FMEA has been developed to achieve practically all 4,000 unique risk priority numbers, and that the prioritization is more practical and reliable. Furthermore, it has a connection to the traditional FMEA, which helps explain the traditional one from a broader perspective.

Citation

Hettiarachchi, R.L., Koomsap, P. and Ardneam, P. (2022), "VIKOR power law-based customer-oriented FMEA with complete unique risk priority numbers", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 39 No. 8, pp. 2020-2040. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM-06-2020-0197