The present study presents a data envelopment analysis (DEA) based approach to establish guidelines for the improvement of the failure modes identified by a failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA). The traditional FMEA approach is based on risk priority number (RPN), which has been target of scientific criticism. In the present study, the RPN is based on DEA and considers the concept of efficiency frontier. Based on this concept and on the risk indexes, some improvement directives for the failure modes can be established. The obtained results concerning the two practical applications demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in dealing with this kind of problem.
Failure analysis; FMEA; Data envelopment analysis; Risk priority number; Risk analysis
