Node A6 · Acronym decoder
FMEA
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
What it actually means
A bottom-up reliability analysis asking, for each component or function: how can it fail, what happens when it does, and how would we know? Its value is proportional to how early it's done and how honestly effects are traced to the system level — an FMEA done after design freeze is documentation, not analysis.
Where you'll meet it
Reliability programs, design reviews, and safety analyses across every hardware domain.