Current Edition Checked October 24, 2026
It replaced the AIAG FMEA 4th edition and the VDA Volume 4 FMEA chapter with a single harmonized method.
What It Covers
A seven-step method for analyzing how a design or a process can fail, what the effects would be, and what to do about it before the failure reaches a customer.
Who It Applies To
Automotive design and manufacturing organizations, and others that adopt the method, for design FMEA, process FMEA, and monitoring and system response (FMEA-MSR).
Key Requirements
- Seven steps: planning and preparation, structure analysis, function analysis, failure analysis, risk analysis, optimization, and results documentation.
- Action Priority (high, medium, low) in place of the Risk Priority Number for deciding what to act on.
- Severity, occurrence and detection rated on the handbook’s tables, with actions assigned to named owners and dates.
- A supplemental FMEA-MSR for diagnostics and system responses in use.
What an Auditor Asks to See
- The PFMEA for a chosen process, read against the process flow and control plan.
- High Action Priority items and the status of their actions.
- How field and customer complaints feed back into the FMEA.
Where Systems Fall Short
- FMEAs written once for the launch and never revisited.
- Detection ratings that credit inspections the control plan does not contain.
How QES Helps
FMEA workshops facilitated to the seven-step method, and existing FMEAs migrated from RPN to Action Priority.
Related Standards
Sources. AIAG — Automotive Industry Action Group publications (opens in a new tab); VDA QMC — Quality Management Center publications (opens in a new tab). Status checked October 24, 2026. This page summarizes AIAG-VDA FMEA; it does not reproduce or replace it. Buy the standard from its publisher, or read the regulation in its official text, before relying on a detail. Not legal advice.