In FMEA, which term describes how bad the failure is?

• A. Severity
• B. Occurrence
• C. Detection
• D. Risk Priority Number

Answer: (A)

Severity describes how bad the effects of a potential failure would be. It measures the seriousness of the consequences if the failure occurs, such as safety risk, customer impact, downtime, or regulatory noncompliance. This is what you are evaluating when you ask how severe the impact would be. The other factors in FMEA—occurrence and detection—cover how often the failure might happen and how likely you are to detect it before it reaches the customer. The Risk Priority Number combines all three to help prioritize actions, but it does not alone describe how bad the failure is. For example, a failure could be very severe if it leads to a safety hazard, even if it’s unlikely, or mild if it’s common but cosmetic.