Development of the FMECA process and analysis methodology for railroad systems

FMECA (Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis) is a procedure used to identify potential failure modes, determine causes and effects of failure modes and mitigate or remove its effects on system functional performance. For the last several decades, FMECA has been widely used in industry, and specialized versions of FMEA have been developed for several industrial sectors. For instance, MIL-1629a, SAE-J1739 and IEC-60812 have been mainly used in the military, automotive and electronics industries, respectively. However, there is no specialized FMECA method for the railroad industry yet, despite a need for highly reliable systems. Thus, in this study three specifications, MIL-1629a, SAE-J1739 and IEC-60812, were analyzed and compared with one another, and characteristics and requirements of railroad systems were summarized. Then a specialized FMECA procedure for railroad systems was proposed based on the processes documented in the specifications, characteristics and requirements of railroad systems. Finally, the procedure was applied to a railroad system in order to validate its applicability.