FMEA > Criticality

The FMEA > Criticality page of the interface style displays a list of all properties that are applicable for quantitative and/or qualitative criticality analysis. This works like the other properties pages except:

An additional column, Short Display Name, specifies the abbreviation that will be used in some locations within the interface and/or report output where the full display name will not fit.

At least one of these properties must be enabled if you want to perform Criticality Analysis.

In the Criticality Matrix Priority area, you can specify the thresholds that will be used to add priority colors to the matrix reports generated from the Criticality Analysis window. In both fields, you can enter a numerical value that is greater than zero and less than or equal to 1. In addition, the High Priority Threshold must be larger than the Medium Priority Threshold.

Tip: If you do not know what to enter for the threshold values, you can leave the defaults in place and use the Preview functionality (described below) to see how the colors will be applied in a sample matrix. If you want a certain cell in the matrix to reflect a different priority color, note the value displayed in the cell and then return to the FMEA > Criticality page and adjust the threshold values accordingly.

In the Select Highlight Colors area, you can choose the colors that will be displayed in the matrix for high, medium and low priority.

Click the Preview button to open a window like the one shown next, which provides a sample matrix to demonstrate how the thresholds and colors will be applied.

You can use the Matrix Size drop-down lists to specify the size of the previewed matrix. This can be adjusted to match the size of the matrices that will appear in reports generated from the Criticality Analysis window for your analysis projects. The size of each report matrix will depend on the number of ratings in the Criticality Scales that have been assigned in the Project Properties window.

If the Severity Class and Failure Probability rating scales that have been defined for the project are both ten-point scales, then the quantitative and qualitative criticality matrices in reports generated from the Criticality Analysis window will be 10 x 10. However, if the scales contain a different number of ratings, then the matrices will be a different size. For example, if you have configured the project to use the criticality rating scales from MIL-STD-1629A (a four-point scale for Severity Class and a five-point scale for Failure Probability), then each quantitative criticality matrix report will be 10 x 4 and each qualitative criticality matrix report will be 5 x 4.

Whatever the size of the matrix, the software will assign a value to each row and column then calculate a value for each cell by multiplying the row and column values. Then:

If the value for the cell is less than the Medium Priority Threshold, the Low Priority color will be applied.
If the value for the cell is greater than or equal to the Medium Priority Threshold and less than the High Priority Threshold, the Medium Priority color will be applied.
If the value is greater than or equal to the High Priority Threshold, the High Priority color will be applied.