“…To overcome this critical problem, a methodology based on FL has been frequently proposed as a tool for directly manipulating the linguistic terms used in making the criticality assessment (Abdelaziz, 1999; Bowles and Pelaez, 1995a, b; Cayrac et al , 1996; Kieselbach, 1997; Moss and Woodhouse, 1999; Papic and Aronov, 1996; Pelaez and Bowles, 1994). With this methodology the linguistic terms that maintenance personnel employs in making a criticality assessment for a FMECA can be directly manipulated, with some advantages if compared to strictly numerical methods (Bowles and Pelaez, 1995a):…”