Multi-criteria failure mode effects and criticality analysis method: a comparative case study on aircraft braking system

The Department of the USA's Army published technical manual TM 5‐698‐4 to create a new failure mode effects and criticality analysis (FMECA) method, since the formal military specifications and standards MIL‐STD‐1629A was cancelled. However, the design processes of the two‐phase product do not take the most appropriate corrective measures to eliminate the product risks in the first design phase. Thus, the risk priority number (RPN) and criticality analysis (CA) methods have serious flaws from a technical perspective which are still widely used and misleading in the related FMECA handbook and instruction manual. This paper uses the maximal entropy ordered weighted geometric averaging (ME‐OWGA) operator to obtain the optimal weighting vector, which calculates FMECA values in one‐phase and moreover circumvents the difficulties of mathematical operators. A fighter aircraft braking system is used as a case study to illustrate the proposed method, which compares the proposed approach with the RPN and CA methods. The results indicate that the proposed method can efficiently shorten the design process and more accurately calculate than MIL‐STD‐1629A, TM 5‐698‐4, FMECA handbook and other equivalent instruction manuals.