Criticality – Mil-Std-1629 Approach

■ CRITICALITY is a measure of the frequency of

occurrence of an effect.
– May be based on qualitative judgement or
– May be based on failure rate data (most common)

http://www.fmea-fmeca-com Criticality Analysis

Slide 1
 Criticality Analysis
■ Qualitative analysis:
– Used when specific part or item failure rates are not
available.
■ Quantitative analysis:
– Used when sufficient failure rate data is available to
calculate criticality numbers.

http://www.fmea-fmeca-com Criticality Analysis

Slide 2
 Qualitative Approach
■ Because failure rate data is not available, failure mode
ratios and failure mode probability are not used.
■ The probability of occurrence of each failure is grouped
into discrete levels that establish the qualitative failure
probability level for each entry based on the judgment of
the analyst.
■ The failure mode probability levels of occurrence are:
– Level A - Frequent
– Level B - Reasonably Probable
– Level C - Occasional
– Level D - Remote
– Level E - Extremely Unlikely

http://www.fmea-fmeca-com Criticality Analysis

Slide 3
 Quantitative Approach

Failure Mode Criticality (CM) is the

portion of the criticality number for an
item, due to one of its failure modes,
which results in a particular severity
classification (e.g. results in an end
effect with severity I, II, etc...).

http://www.fmea-fmeca-com Criticality Analysis

Slide 4
 Mil-Std-1629 Severity Levels
■ Category I - Catastrophic: A failure which may cause death
or weapon system loss (i.e., aircraft, tank, missile, ship, etc...)
■ Category II - Critical: A failure which may cause severe
injury, major property damage, or major system damage which
will result in mission loss.
■ Category III - Marginal: A failure which may cause minor
injury, minor property damage, or minor system damage which
will result in delay or loss of availability or mission
degradation.
■ Category IV - Minor: A failure not serious enough to cause
injury, property damage or system damage, but which will
result in unscheduled maintenance or repair.

http://www.fmea-fmeca-com Criticality Analysis

Slide 5
 Quantitative Approach
■ The quantitative approach uses the following
formula for Failure Mode Criticality:
■ Cm = βαλpt
■ Where Cm = Failure Mode Criticality
■ β = Conditional probability of occurrence of next
higher failure effect
■ α = Failure mode ratio
■ λp = Part failure rate
■ T = Duration of applicable mission phase

http://www.fmea-fmeca-com Criticality Analysis

Slide 6
 Criticality Analysis Example
A resistor R6 with a failure rate of .01 failures per million hours is located on the
Missile Interface Board of the XYZ Missile Launch System. If the resistor fails, it fails
open 70 % of the time and short 30 % of the time. If it fails open, the system will be
unable to launch a missile 30 % of the time, the missile explodes in the tube 20 % of
the time, and there is no effect 50 % of the time. If it fails short, the performance of the
missile is degraded 50 % of the time and the missile inadvertently launches 50 % of the
time. Mission time is 1 hour.
λp = 0.01 in every case
α = 0.7 for open
β = 0.3 for unable to fire
β = 0.2 for missile explodes
β = 0.5 for no effect
α = 0.3 for short
β = 0.5 for missile performance degradation
β = 0.5 for inadvertent launch
Cm for R6 open resulting in being unable to fire is (.3)(.7)(.01)(1)=0.0021
Cm for R6 open resulting in a missile explosion is (.2)(.7)(.01)(1)=0.0014
Cm for R6 open resulting in no effect is (.5)(.7)(.01)(1)=0.0035
Cm for R6 short resulting in performance degradation is (.5)(.3)(.01)(1)=0.0015
Cm for R6 short resulting in inadvertent launch is (.5)(.3)(.01)(1)=0.0015

http://www.fmea-fmeca-com Criticality Analysis

Slide 7
 Quantitative Approach

Item Criticality (Cr) is the criticality

number associated with the item under
analysis. For a mission phase, Cr is the
sum of the item’s failure mode
criticality numbers, Cm, which result in
the same severity classification.

http://www.fmea-fmeca-com Criticality Analysis

Slide 8
 Quantitative Approach

■ The quantitative approach uses the following

formula for Item Criticality within a particular
severity level:

■ Where Cr Item Criticality

■ n = The current failure mode of the item being

analyzed
■ j = The number of failure modes for the item
being analyzed.
http://www.fmea-fmeca-com Criticality Analysis
Slide 9
 Criticality Analysis Exercise

Criticality Analysis:
Determine failure mode criticality values
and item criticality values for the R9
resistor, and create an item criticality
matrix.

http://www.fmea-fmeca-com Criticality Analysis

Slide 10
 Criticality Analysis Exercise
■ A resistor R9 with a failure rate of .04 failures per million hours
is located on the Power Supply Board of the XYZ Missile Launch
System. If the resistor fails, it fails open 70 % of the time and
short 30 % of the time. If it fails open, the system will be unable
to launch a missile 30 % of the time and there is no effect 70 %
of the time. If it fails short, the performance of the missile is
degraded 100 % of the time. Mission time is 1 hour.
■ λp = __ in every case
■ α = __ for open
■ β = __ for unable to fire
■ β = __ for no effect
■ α = __ for short
■ β = __ for missile performance degradation
■ Cm for R9 open resulting in being unable to fire is ___
■ Cm for R9 open resulting in no effect is ___
■ Cm for R9 short resulting in performance degradation is ___

http://www.fmea-fmeca-com Criticality Analysis

Slide 11
 Criticality Analysis Exercise

http://www.fmea-fmeca-com Criticality Analysis

Slide 12
 Criticality Analysis Exercise

Item Criticality

Severity Levels

http://www.fmea-fmeca-com Criticality Analysis

Slide 13
 Criticality Analysis - Answers
■ A resistor R9 with a failure rate of .04 failures per million hours
is located on the Power Supply Board of the XYZ Missile Launch
System. If the resistor fails, it fails open 70 % of the time and
short 30 % of the time. If it fails open, the system will be unable
to launch a missile 30 % of the time and there is no effect 70 %
of the time. If it fails short, the performance of the missile is
degraded 100 % of the time. Mission time is 1 hour.
■ λp = 0.04 in every case
■ α = 0.70 for open
■ β = 0.30 for unable to fire
■ β = 0.70 for no effect
■ α = 0.30 for short
■ β = 1.00 for missile performance degradation
■ Cm for R9 open resulting in being unable to fire is 0.0084
■ Cm for R9 open resulting in no effect is 0.0196
■ Cm for R9 short resulting in performance degradation is 0.012

http://www.fmea-fmeca-com Criticality Analysis

Slide 14
 Criticality Analysis - Answers

http://www.fmea-fmeca-com Criticality Analysis

Slide 15
 Criticality Analysis - Answers

R9(4)
Item Criticality

R9(3)

R9(2)

Severity Levels

http://www.fmea-fmeca-com Criticality Analysis

Slide 16