Fuzzy Risk Prioritization of the Failure Modes in Rolling Stocks

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is extensively used to identify and eliminate the potential failures in products, processes, designs, and services. In this approach, the detectability, occurrence and the severity of each identified failure mode need to be determined usually by a FMEA team. This paper aims to prioritize the failure modes of rolling stocks by integrating Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Risk Priority Number (RPN). To reduce the uncertainties and ambiguities, all calculations are done in the fuzzy environment instead of the crisp values. The importance degree of each failure mode is determined and then the overall fuzzy RPN is calculated. In this way, the critical failure modes are defined to make an efficient maintenance decision.