Root cause analysis with Skill FMEA Pro: improving the reliability of complex aeronautical systems

Optimize aeronautical reliability with Skill FMEA Pro: root cause analysis, risk management and standards compliance (EN9145, DO-178C).

The reliability imperative in aeronautics and the role of FMEA

The aeronautics industry operates in an environment of unparalleled complexity, where the safety of operations and passengers is an absolute priority. On-board systems are intrinsically critical, and the slightest failure can have disastrous consequences. This reality imposes a non-negotiable requirement in terms of system reliability, which calls for proactive risk management and in-depth root cause analysis.

In this demanding context, Failure Mode, Effect and Criticality Analysis (FMEA) has established itself as a fundamental method. Originating in the 1940s in the U.S. military, FMEA was quickly adopted by the aerospace industry to assess the reliability of its equipment. This historical origin gives FMEA an intrinsic relevance for aeronautics. The methodology was developed precisely to meet the unique and rigorous requirements of this field, where the need to anticipate and prevent failures was paramount. This means that FMEA is not simply a generic tool adapted to aeronautics, but an approach whose very design is shaped by the industry's safety and performance imperatives. It enables potential failures to be identified, assessed and prevented, thus making a significant contribution to the overall safety and performance of aeronautical systems.

In view of the growing complexity of aeronautical systems and the stringency of regulatory standards, the use of dedicated software such as Skill FMEA Pro has become indispensable. This advanced solution is designed to optimize and structure all FMEA processes. It offers sophisticated analysis tools for precise identification of root causes, effective prioritization of corrective actions and rigorous risk forecasting, all adapted to the specificities of the aeronautical environment.

Skill FMEA Pro: an integrated platform for root cause analysis

Skill FMEA Pro is recognized as the industry's benchmark FMEA software. Its design enables it to be deployed worldwide, guiding each user through the FMEA methodology by drawing on capitalized knowledge. The software ensures rigorous structuring and standardization of analysis processes, guaranteeing a consistent and uniform approach to risk assessment across the organization.

One of the major advantages of Skill FMEA Pro is its ability to centralize, synchronize and capitalize on data. All FMEA-related information is stored in a single location, making data management considerably easier, eliminating version errors and speeding up access to relevant information for all teams. This functionality is particularly essential in environments where multiple production or engineering sites operate, as it enables data to be standardized and capitalized across the enterprise.

Skill FMEA Pro's automatic capitalization system enables the creation of generic FMEAs. These models are continuously fed and enriched as new projects are carried out. Any new knowledge or lessons learned from a specific FMEA are automatically capitalized in the generic version. This process creates a dynamic, self-improving "knowledge bank", where the experience gained on each project contributes to a constantly evolving collective intelligence for the whole organization.

This knowledge management approach transforms individual FMEA analyses, which might otherwise remain isolated efforts, into a strategic corporate asset. In complex, fast-moving industries such as aerospace, where lessons learned from past failures or successes are invaluable, this "knowledge bank" acts as a corporate memory. It considerably reduces the time and effort required for new analyses, because engineers don't have to "start from scratch". This accelerates the learning curve for new team members, and ensures that best practices and critical information are systematically applied to all projects, directly improving overall system reliability and safety. It's no longer just a question of storing data, but of transforming individual experience into organizational intelligence.

Root cause identification: beyond the symptoms with Skill FMEA Pro

Ishikawa diagrams (Fishbones): Structuring the search for causes

The Ishikawa diagram, also known as the Cause-Effect diagram or Fishbone diagram, is a powerful visual tool for root cause analysis. It identifies and classifies the multiple potential causes of a problem or defect. This method structures potential causes around key categories, often referred to as "5M" (Manpower, Material, Method, Environment) or "6M" (with the addition of Measurement), and sometimes even "7M" (with Money or Management). The fundamental aim of this approach is to go beyond the apparent symptoms to find lasting solutions to the problems identified. The "5 Whys" technique is frequently used to deepen the investigation and get to the root of the problem.
Although Skill FMEA Pro is not a direct Ishikawa diagram drawing tool, its contribution to the effectiveness of this method is fundamental. The software excels in the structured management of failure modes, their causes and effects. This is precisely the information required to construct an Ishikawa diagram. Skill FMEA Pro allows possible causes to be listed and classified exhaustively, which is essential to avoid missing critical scenarios during analysis.

Skill FMEA Pro acts as a veritable "data engine" for Ishikawa diagrams. Skill FMEA Pro's strength lies in its ability to provide a structured, centralized database for root cause analysis. While Ishikawa diagrams are tools for structuring brainstorming, their effectiveness depends directly on the quality and completeness of the information on which the brainstorming is based. Skill FMEA Pro, as a comprehensive FMEA tool, systematically identifies "failure modes", their "effects" and their "causes". It centralizes and capitalizes on this knowledge. This means that when a team uses an Ishikawa diagram, they are not starting from scratch with anecdotal information, but can draw on a rich, structured database of past failures, known causes and documented effects. Skill FMEA Pro's ability to determine "root causes" as part of FMEA feeds directly into the Ishikawa methodology. This synergy enables a more informed and efficient brainstorming process, reducing subjectivity and increasing the completeness of identified causes, leading to more accurate root cause identification. For complex aeronautical systems, where failures can have multiple, interconnected causes, having such a rich database from Skill FMEA Pro for Ishikawa analysis enables teams to identify underlying problems more quickly and accurately, rather than just treating superficial symptoms. This translates into more effective and sustainable corrective actions, directly improving overall reliability.

Fault Tree Analysis (FTA): Deconstructing complex failure scenarios

Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) is a deductive and graphical method first developed in the 1960s by Bell Laboratories for the US Air Force, to evaluate complex systems such as intercontinental ballistic missiles. This approach starts with an undesirable event, called a "feared event", and deconstructs the logical paths (using AND, OR gates, etc.) that may lead to it, right down to the basic events. FTA is an essential tool for the detailed design and final verification of systems, enabling failures to be identified and minimized. It is particularly well suited to complex systems, such as fuel and aircraft projects, where it helps to monitor and manage safety performance.

FMEA is often a prerequisite to the construction of a fault tree. Indeed, the identification of components and their failure modes, which are key elements of FMEA, is generally used at the last level of a fault tree. Skill FMEA Pro, as a comprehensive FMEA manager (product, process, means), provides this structured and detailed database of potential failures and their causes. Information on the severity and probability of failures, managed in Skill FMEA Pro, is essential for the quantitative analysis of FTAs, enabling the probability of the feared event to be calculated.

Skill FMEA Pro's FMEA acts as a real "catalyst" for robust FTAs. The relationship between FMEA and ETS is symbiotic. ETS is a deductive method, starting from a high-level event to find its underlying causes. FMEA, on the other hand, is an inductive method, starting from component failures and analyzing their effects. The "basic events" at the lower levels of a fault tree are often the "failure modes" of individual components identified during a FMEA. If Skill FMEA Pro meticulously identifies and documents these failure modes at component and process level, it provides the precise, granular data points needed to populate the lower branches of a fault tree. Without a robust FMEA, the ETS process would have to rely on less structured data, which could result in incomplete or inaccurate fault trees. Skill FMEA Pro's ability to manage Design FMEAs (DFMEAs) and import BOMs or CAD drawings is essential for system decomposition, which is a key step in ETS. This collection of structured data by Skill FMEA Pro directly produces the detailed information on "basic events" that feeds the construction of a fault tree. This synergy enables more accurate, more complete and more efficient ETS. For the aerospace industry, where critical systems require exhaustive analysis, this relationship is paramount. Skill FMEA Pro, by providing a solid FMEA foundation, indirectly but powerfully enhances the organization's ability to perform rigorous FTAs, thus improving overall system safety and reliability.

Prioritization and risk management: optimizing corrective actions

Criticality Analysis and Risk Matrices: Quantifying and visualizing impact

Criticality analysis is a central element of the FMEA methodology. It consists of evaluating each potential failure mode according to three fundamental criteria: the Severity (S) of its effects, the Frequency (O) of its occurrence, and the Detection (D) of its ability to be identified before causing damage. These three values are then multiplied to obtain the Risk Priority Number (RPN). A high RPN indicates a more critical risk, requiring immediate attention and priority mitigation actions.

Skill FMEA Pro automates the RPN calculation, ensuring that the prioritization of potential failures is both consistent and error-free. The software helps to reduce criticality values by facilitating the implementation of actions aimed at reducing the frequency of occurrence or improving the probability of failure detection. It also facilitates the generation of clear risk matrices, which are essential visual tools for assessing and prioritizing risks. These matrices, often represented as grids (e.g. 5x5) with color codes (green, yellow, red), enable rapid visualization of high-risk areas, a crucial aspect for fast and effective decision-making in aerospace.

Skill FMEA Pro is positioned as a true "risk quantification engine". Skill FMEA Pro's ability to automate NPR calculations and minimize human error in this process is of paramount importance, especially considering the criticality of these calculations for risk prioritization in aerospace. Manual NPR calculations, especially for large, complex systems, are prone to errors, inconsistencies and are time-consuming. In the aerospace sector, where the slightest error can have catastrophic consequences (e.g., a DAL A risk level), the accuracy and reliability of risk prioritization is paramount. An error in the NPR calculation could lead to a misallocation of resources, leaving high-risk areas untreated. Automation by Skill FMEA Pro ensures consistency and accuracy, freeing engineers from time-consuming calculation tasks so they can concentrate on analysis and mitigation strategies. This automation leads to more reliable risk prioritization, resulting in more effective and efficient allocation of resources for corrective actions, directly impacting safety and compliance. This functionality transforms risk assessment from a potentially imperfect and laborious process into a streamlined and highly accurate operation. For aerospace companies, this means a vastly improved ability to identify and deal with the most critical failure modes, improving overall system reliability and ensuring rigorous regulatory compliance (such as IAQG EN9145), which is non-negotiable in this sector.

Here's an example of a simplified risk matrix, illustrating criticality quantification:
Simplified Risk Matrix for Aerospace

This table is invaluable for a Quality Method Engineer, as it provides an instant understanding of risks and their hierarchy. It translates complex data (S, O, D) into a single metric (NPR) and a clear classification (Priority), facilitating rapid decision-making and risk communication to stakeholders. The inclusion of action examples reinforces its practicality.

Action Plan and Follow-up: Transforming analysis into concrete improvement

Identifying and prioritizing risks, while crucial, are only the first steps in an effective FMEA approach. Skill FMEA Pro incorporates an FMEA action follow-up module that transforms analysis into concrete, measurable improvement. For each cause of failure identified, several corrective and preventive actions can be defined in the software, with the aim of reducing criticality values by decreasing frequency of occurrence or improving detection.
The portfolio of actions is centralized for the whole company, offering a global, real-time view of all mitigation efforts. An integrated e-mail system automatically sends reminders to those responsible for actions, ensuring that deadlines are met and measures are effectively implemented. This complete traceability of actions is essential not only for regulatory compliance, but also for continuous improvement. For example, an aeronautical maintenance company uses Skill Action Pro (an optional add-on to Skill FMEA Pro) to track preventive and corrective maintenance actions on aircraft, plan interventions, manage resources and guarantee traceability of operations.

The integration of a dedicated action plan module in Skill FMEA Pro, and its extension via Skill Action Pro, demonstrates that the software goes beyond simple analysis to provide "actionable intelligence" and a "closed loop of continuous improvement". This capability transforms FMEA from a theoretical exercise into a practical engine for sustainable reliability in aerospace. Risk identification, the primary function of FMEA, is only of value if corrective and preventive actions are effectively implemented and monitored. Without a robust action management system, even the most thorough FMEA risks becoming an inactive document. Skill FMEA Pro's action module's centralization, tracking and reminder features directly address the common challenge of ensuring accountability and timely completion of mitigation efforts. The ability to "reduce criticality values by decreasing frequency or detection" explicitly links action completion to risk reduction, closing the improvement loop.

For aerospace companies, this means that significant investment in FMEA analysis translates directly into tangible improvements in safety and performance. The software provides management with a clear, real-time view of risk mitigation efforts across the organization, ensuring that critical issues are not overlooked and compliance efforts are actively maintained. This is fundamental to maintaining certifications and operational excellence.

Risk modeling and forecasting: Anticipate the future with Skill FMEA Pro

Monte Carlo simulations: Assess uncertainty and predict failures

Monte Carlo simulation is a computerized mathematical technique for integrating risk and uncertainty into quantitative analysis and decision-making. It works by using repeated random samples of parameters to explore the behavior of a complex system, generating a probability distribution of possible outcomes. This approach enables us to visualize not only what could happen, but also the probability of each scenario occurring. In the aeronautics industry, Monte Carlo simulation is essential for modeling system reliability and predicting failures. It is used for data-driven safety analyses, such as the statistical mitigation of mid-air collision risks, and offers significant advantages over deterministic models, including the ability to perform sensitivity analyses to identify the variables with the greatest impact on results.

Although Skill FMEA Pro is not native Monte Carlo simulation software, its robust capabilities for automating criticality calculations and systematically capturing Severity, Frequency and Detection (S, O, D) data make it an essential data provider for these simulations. Criticality analyses performed in Skill FMEA Pro generate valuable data on the frequency of occurrence, severity and probability of detection of failure modes. These NPRs, together with cause and effect data, can be exported and used as probabilistic inputs for external Monte Carlo simulation tools (such as RISK). This enables engineers to go beyond static analysis to model complex failure scenarios, assess the impact of uncertainty on system reliability and optimize predictive maintenance strategies.

Skill FMEA Pro acts as a true "data orchestrator" for advanced risk forecasting. Monte Carlo simulation is a quantitative risk analysis method that requires probabilistic inputs. Skill FMEA Pro excels in generating structured data on failure modes, their occurrence, severity and detection (the components of NPR). This is precisely the kind of data a Monte Carlo simulation needs. Skill FMEA Pro's ability to systematically and accurately quantify risk parameters (S, O, D, NPR) provides the high-quality input data that enables external Monte Carlo simulation software to make robust probabilistic risk predictions. This synergy transforms qualitative FMEA data into quantitative, predictive information. For the aerospace industry, this synergy is crucial. It enables engineers to go beyond the simple identification and prioritization of current risks to predict the future reliability of systems under various conditions and uncertainties. This capability supports proactive decision-making in design, maintenance planning and resource allocation, ultimately leading to more resilient and safer aircraft systems. It enables more accurate forecasting and, ultimately, better decision-making under uncertainty, which is paramount in aviation.

Skill FMEA Pro in the aeronautics ecosystem: Compliance and excellence

Alignment with aeronautical standards

The aerospace industry is subject to extremely strict and complex safety and quality standards. Skill FMEA Pro is specifically designed to be fully compliant with major aerospace standards such as IAQG EN9145, APQP Core Tools FMEA, and EN9100. The software also helps companies comply with critical standards such as ARP4754 and ARP4761, which provide guidelines for system development and the conduct of safety assessment processes. In addition, Skill FMEA Pro facilitates adherence to the DO-178C standard, which governs the development and verification of critical embedded software, defining levels of risk (DAL A-E) with increasing objectives for higher levels of criticality.
This compliance is an essential guarantee of safety and reliability for industry. The software facilitates full traceability of changes and decisions, management of safety requirements and automatic generation of compliance reports, significantly reducing the cost of audits.

Skill FMEA Pro's explicit alignment with multiple rigorous aeronautical standards (IAQG EN9145, APQP core tools FMEA, EN9100, ARP4761, DO-178C) is a crucial strategic differentiator. This in-depth compliance reduces the compliance workload for aerospace companies, and positions Skill FMEA Pro as a trusted partner in a highly regulated industry. Aerospace companies face immense pressure to comply with a complex web of ever-changing safety and quality regulations. Manual compliance is arduous, error-prone and resource-intensive. A software solution that natively supports these various standards greatly simplifies the process, reducing the risk of non-compliance and the associated operational penalties or delays. It also means that Skill Software has invested heavily in understanding and integrating these complex regulatory frameworks into its product. Skill FMEA Pro's multi-standard compliance reduces operational risk for aerospace customers by streamlining their certification processes and ensuring robust documentation. This builds confidence and reduces the customer's total cost of quality. For Skill Software, this establishes market leadership and a strong competitive advantage over less compliant or generic solutions. It's not just about ticking boxes; it's about enabling aviation companies to focus on innovation and core operations, with the confidence that their risk management processes are robust and recognized by regulators worldwide. This positions Skill FMEA Pro as an essential tool for achieving and maintaining operational excellence in aviation.

Customer testimonials: Real impact on reliability and compliance

Leading companies in the aerospace sector have already taken advantage of Skill FMEA Pro's capabilities. SAFRAN, a major player in the aerospace industry, uses Skill FMEA Pro to meet its FMEA challenges, underlining the growing importance of comprehensive process FMEAs and the benefits of specialized tools for ensuring process reliability and compliance. The testimonial from Bernard Moret, Head of Central Methods and Digital Transformation at Safran, highlights how the tool has enabled considerable time savings thanks to pre-established templates and multilingual management, reducing FMEA work time by 80% in one hour.

AXON' MECHATRONICS, also active in the automotive and aerospace sectors, has seen significant improvements in document management, feedback and the ability to identify and share risks with customers thanks to Skill FMEA Pro. Jérôme Carval and François Seznec, Project Quality Coordinators at Axon' Mechatronics, highlighted how the software has helped to guarantee data consistency, save time through synchronized updates of key documents, and ensure greater reliability of their processes. Another testimonial highlights the software's ability to integrate different parts of the FMEA and reduce the workload by 40-50%, thus contributing to the advancement of products for the aerospace industry.

These customer testimonials collectively validate the tangible benefits of Skill FMEA Pro in complex industrial environments, including aerospace. They highlight a clear trend towards digital transformation to improve efficiency, standardization and risk management. The fact that industry leaders such as Safran and Axon' Mechatronics are adopting and praising Skill FMEA Pro for such critical functions testifies to the credibility and effectiveness of the software in demanding environments. It suggests that the software is not just compliant in theory, but delivers practical and measurable improvements, essential for navigating the complexities and competitive pressures of the aerospace industry.

Summary of Skill FMEA Pro's Benefits for Aerospace Reliability

Towards greater reliability and controlled innovation with Skill FMEA Pro

Root cause analysis is a fundamental pillar of reliability and safety in the aeronautics industry, a sector where fault tolerance is virtually non-existent. Skill FMEA Pro is an indispensable software solution, transforming risk management in a proactive and systematic way. The software enables structured identification of root causes, providing essential data for tools such as Ishikawa diagrams and fault trees. It automates criticality analyses and risk matrices, ensuring effective prioritization of corrective actions. Furthermore, by providing quantified and traceable data, Skill FMEA Pro becomes an essential "data orchestrator" for external Monte Carlo simulations, enabling probabilistic risk prediction and informed decision-making in the face of uncertainty.

Skill FMEA Pro's intrinsic alignment with the most demanding aerospace standards (IAQG EN9145, APQP, EN9100, ARP4761, DO-178C) makes it a strategic partner, reducing the compliance burden and boosting the confidence of regulators and customers alike. Testimonials from companies such as SAFRAN and AXON' MECHATRONICS confirm the software's tangible impact on operational efficiency, process standardization and risk reduction.

In short, Skill FMEA Pro is not just an analysis tool, but an integrated platform that enables quality engineers to transcend traditional approaches. It fosters a culture of continuous improvement by capitalizing on experience, automating repetitive tasks and providing real-time visibility on mitigation efforts. For the aeronautics industry, this means increased system reliability, seamless compliance and controlled innovation - essential assets for navigating an ever-changing technological future.