The prioritization of failures within the automotive industry: The two-step failure mode and effect analysis integrated approach

Abstract

Traditionally, in the automotive industry, the risk posed by failures in manufacturing is based on the conventional process failure mode and effect analysis. The market changes, as well as limited financial resources dedicated to business improvement, induce the need for employment of advanced management tools. The rating of failures is derived from the research using the suggested fuzzy classification method based on the Pareto analysis. It is assumed that the classification criterion should be determined as the product of the overall product choice and the risk priority numbers given by applying the traditional process failure mode and effect analysis. All the uncertainties that exist in the problem under consideration are represented by linguistic expressions that are modeled on the interval type-2 triangular fuzzy numbers. The overall product choice is based on a fuzzy analytical hierarchy process with interval type-2 triangular fuzzy numbers. The execution of management initiatives based on the priority of failures can result in the improvement of the manufacturing process and overall business efficiency. The proposed model is tested using real-life data from a single vehicle manufacturer operating in the Western Balkans and representing a part of a global automotive supply chain.

The integrated PFMEA approach with interval type-2 fuzzy sets and FBWM: A case study in the automotive industry

“…K – the total number of aspects of severity; according to suggestions from the relevant literature, 13,14,16 severity should be assessed from several aspects; most authors suggest the introduction of the cost aspect, as done in this paper. The results of best practice and literature 31 show that when assessing the severity of PFMEA, the team takes into account the importance of the product. In this research, in addition to quality, the cost and product importance aspect in the assessment of severity was introduced.…”

“…30 In the automotive industry, it was first applied in 1977 at Ford Motor Company, and today it represents a method that is inevitably used in this area of industry. 31 As already stated in this paper, the use of FMEA in the automotive industry is prescribed by the international standard IATF16949:2016, 7 and its application is mandatory for every company within the automotive supply chain.…”

“…Therefore, the severity of the consequence resulting from the realization of a failure in a semi-finished product depends on the importance of the final product where the semi-finished product is incorporated. The product importance as an important factor in application of PFMEA analysis was used in paper Banduka et al, 31 but not as part of the severity risk factor, but as a special factor considered when conducting the PFMEA analysis. In contrast to the mentioned paper, in this research product importance was considered as an aspect of severity.…”

“…Therefore, in many papers, RFs values are described by linguistic expressions, which are modeled by IT2FNs. 22,31 By respecting the results of papers that can be found in the literature, in this research it is assumed that uncertain RFs values can be adequately described by using nine pre-defined linguistic expressions that are modeled by the interval type-2 trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (IT2TrFNs).…”

“…Therefore, in many papers, RFs values are described by linguistic expressions, which are modeled by IT2FNs. 22,31…”