The integrated PFMEA approach with interval type-2 fuzzy sets and FBWM: A case study in the automotive industry

Abstract

The change of market’s demand could be predictable to a certain degree at stable conditions but it may vary due to disruptive events. This research contributes by establishing the improvement of PFMEA (Process Failure Mode and Effect Analysis) analysis in the domain of assessment and determining severity risk factor, as well as identifying of failure priority. According to the researchers’ and practitioners’ suggestions, severity needs to be considered from the multiple aspects. The risk factor severity is considered from the aspects of product importance, quality, and cost. These aspects have different relative importance, which is determined in an exact way. The relative importance of the aspects, as well as the values of the risk factors, was described by linguistic expressions that are modeled by using the Interval type-2 trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (IT2TrFNs). IT2FBWM was used to determine weight vectors of risk factors. The priority of failures is determined according to the Action priority model which proposed by AIAG & VDA (Automotive Industry Action Group and German Association of the Automotive Industry). The proposed methodology is tested in a Case study where the real-life data originated from a company from the Republic of Serbia that operates as a part of an automotive supply chain.