Purpose and Scope
The System DFMEA Report serves as the central compliance hub for DFMEA analysis per AIAG-VDA FMEA 2019 standard. It answers critical safety engineering questions:
- ❓ Coverage Question: Are all design elements analyzed for failure modes?
- Risk Question: What failure modes remain at High AP after mitigation?
- Metrics Question: What is the distribution of risk across severity levels?
- ✅ Completion Question: Is the DFMEA analysis complete and ready for design freeze?
The report queries all failureMode work items project-wide, regardless of which DFMEA document they belong to, then aggregates statistics by system element hierarchy and AP classification.
Report Architecture
Key Properties and Configuration
| Property | Type | Default | Description |
|---|
| Report Title | String | System DFMEA Report | Dashboard display name identifying this as the DFMEA summary dashboard |
| Report Location | Path | /spaces/Documentation/System DFMEA Report | Wiki page location in Polarion project structure |
| Report Access | Role | All project members | Default: visible to all; configure via Polarion page permissions if restricted to Safety Engineers only |
| Report Refresh Frequency | Interval | Real-time on page load | Velocity macros execute on-demand; no scheduled refresh needed |
| Data Source Query | Lucene | project.id:$projectId AND type:failureMode | Queries all failureMode work items project-wide, sorted by ID |
| System Element Grouping | Field | systemElement | Failure modes grouped by their systemElement link for hierarchy display |
| AP Pre-Mitigation Field | Custom Field | premitigationAP | Enumeration field storing initial Action Priority (H/M/L) per AIAG-VDA 2019 |
| AP Post-Mitigation Field | Custom Field | postmitigationAP | Enumeration field storing residual Action Priority after risk controls implemented |
| High-Risk Threshold | Integer | 100% post-mitigation H | Failure modes with postmitigationAP = H trigger red alert |
| Medium-Risk Threshold | Integer | 50-99% post-mitigation M | Failure modes with postmitigationAP = M trigger yellow alert |
| Coverage Calculation | Formula | Failure modes / design elements | Percentage of design elements with at least one failure mode identified |
Action Priority (AP) Classification Methodology
The System DFMEA Report uses AIAG-VDA FMEA 2019 Action Priority methodology to categorize design failure modes. AP is derived from three independent factors:
| Factor | Scale | Description | Integration in AP |
|---|
| Severity (S) | 1-10 | Impact severity if failure occurs (1=no effect, 10=safety hazard) | Normalized to High/Medium/Low thresholds |
| Occurrence (O) | 1-10 | Likelihood of failure occurring (1=remote, 10=certain) | Combined with S and D |
| Detection (D) | 1-10 | Ability to detect failure before customer impact (1=certain, 10=impossible) | Combined with S and O |
- Severity ≥ 8 (safety-critical) OR
- (Severity ≥ 6 AND Occurrence ≥ 7) OR
- (Severity ≥ 7 AND Detection ≥ 8)
- → Requires immediate action, risk control mandatory
Medium Priority (M):
- Severity 5-7 AND (Occurrence ≥ 5 OR Detection ≥ 6) OR
- Severity ≤ 4 AND (Occurrence ≥ 8 AND Detection ≥ 7)
- → Requires monitoring, risk control recommended
Low Priority (L):
- All other combinations
- → Acceptable risk, routine monitoring acceptable
premitigationAP represents inherent risk before any design controls implemented — reflects design vulnerability assessment from engineering perspective. postmitigationAP represents residual risk after risk controls (e.g., redundancy, self-checking logic, diagnostic coverage) are implemented — reflects actual risk to vehicle operation.
DFMEA Document Inventory
The System DFMEA Report automatically discovers and aggregates all DFMEA documents in the Risks space organized by system element hierarchy:
| System Element | Document Name | FMEA Level | Failure Modes | AP Distribution (Post) |
|---|
| AEB System | AEB System - System SFMEA | System | 36 | L:28, M:6, H:2 |
| ECU Processing Subsystem | ECU Processing - Subsystem SFMEA | Subsystem | 42 | L:35, M:5, H:2 |
| Sensor Housing Subsystem | Sensor Housing - Subsystem SFMEA | Subsystem | 36 | L:30, M:4, H:2 |
| Vehicle Interface Subsystem | Vehicle Interface - Subsystem SFMEA | Subsystem | 28 | L:24, M:3, H:1 |
| System-on-Chip (SoC) | SoC - Component DFMEA | Component | 22 | L:19, M:2, H:1 |
| Safety Co-Processor | Safety Co-Proc - Component DFMEA | Component | 7 | L:6, M:1, H:0 |
| Sensor Housing Assembly | Housing Assembly - Component DFMEA | Component | 19 | L:17, M:1, H:1 |
| Camera Module | Camera Module - Component DFMEA | Component | 24 | L:20, M:3, H:1 |
| Radar Module | Radar Module - Component DFMEA | Component | 18 | L:15, M:2, H:1 |
| CAN Transceivers | CAN TX - Component DFMEA | Component | 19 | L:16, M:2, H:1 |
| Memory (Flash/RAM) | Memory - Component DFMEA | Component | 9 | L:8, M:1, H:0 |
Documents are identified by presence of failureMode work items linked via the module field. The report auto-discovers documents without requiring manual registration — if a document has failure modes, it appears in this inventory.
High-Risk Failure Mode Alert Section
When any Design FMEA failure mode remains at High Action Priority (H) post-mitigation, the report displays a critical alert table:
| Failure Mode ID | Title | DFMEA Document | Severity | Occurrence | Detection | Post-AP | Recommended Action |
|---|
| FM-087 | Loss of signal integrity in CAN bus | CAN Transceivers DFMEA | 9 | 6 | 8 | H | Implement redundant CAN transceiver with watchdog timeout |
| FM-142 | Premature sensor saturation in extreme cold | Radar Module DFMEA | 8 | 4 | 9 | H | Redesign sensor front-end with temperature compensation circuit |
| FM-156 | ECU memory corruption from ESD | SoC DFMEA | 10 | 3 | 7 | H | Add dedicated ESD protection diodes; implement CRC check on boot |
#set($highAPItems = [])
#foreach($fm in $allFailureModes)
#if($fm.postmitigationAP == "H")
#set($void = $highAPItems.add($fm))
#end
#end
#if($highAPItems.size() > 0)
⚠️ CRITICAL: [N] failure modes remain at High priority post-mitigation.
Action required before design freeze.
#elseif($mediumAPItems.size() > 0)
🔶 WARNING: [N] failure modes at Medium priority. Monitor effectiveness
of risk control implementation.
#else
✅ SUCCESS: All Design FMEA failure modes mitigated to acceptable levels.
#end
AP Distribution Visualization
The report displays pre-mitigation and post-mitigation AP distribution side-by-side using the nxAPBuckets macro:
| AP Level | Pre-Mitigation Count | Post-Mitigation Count | Reduction |
|---|
| High (H) | 24 | 2 | -92% |
| Medium (M) | 98 | 16 | -84% |
| Low (L) | 138 | 242 | +75% |
| N/A | 0 | 2 | — |
| Total | 260 | 260 | — |
Post-mitigation H count should be zero or near-zero at design freeze. Remaining H items indicate incomplete risk controls or inadequate design mitigations. Pre-mitigation M count decrease and L count increase indicates effective risk control implementation and design robustness improvement.
Integration with Velocity Macro Library
The System DFMEA Report leverages the Nextedy Solutions Velocity macro library for consistent reporting:
| Macro | Purpose | Usage in Report |
|---|
nxDocHeaderGray | Report title and description banner | Dashboard header with dark gray background |
nxSummaryCards | KPI card grid display | Total FM count, High-AP counts, coverage percentage |
nxAPBuckets | AP classification distribution counter | Pre-mitigation and post-mitigation AP tallies |
nxDocInventoryTree | Hierarchical document listing | DFMEA document table organized by system element |
nxLinkCoverage | Traceability coverage percentage | Design requirement → failure mode coverage tracking |
nxSectionHeader | Section title formatting | ”High-Risk Items”, “Document Inventory”, etc. |
nxSpaceFooter | Report footer with metadata | Generated timestamp, Nextedy copyright notice |
#parse("nextedy_solutions.vm")
#set($projectId = $page.project.id)
Lucene Query for Failure Mode Discovery
The report queries all failureMode work items using Polarion’s Lucene query language:
project.id:$projectId AND type:failureMode
project.id: Current Polarion project ID (variable substitution)type: Filters to failureMode work item type only (not processFailureMode)- Sorting: By work item ID for consistent ordering
- Performance: O(n) where n = total failure modes (typically <1000 for automotive projects)
Advanced Filtering (Optional):
project.id:$projectId AND type:failureMode AND postmitigationAP:"H"
Relationship to Other Reports and Dashboards
| Related Page | Purpose | Relationship |
|---|
| FMEA Reports | Navigation hub for all FMEA analyses | System DFMEA Report is one of three FMEA report types (System/Design DFMEA, System PFMEA, FMEA Coverage) |
| FMEA Coverage Report | Identifies design requirements and characteristics without failure modes | Complementary: DFMEA Report shows risk distribution; Coverage Report shows gaps |
| Design Engineer Dashboard | Role-based dashboard for design team | System DFMEA Report provides detailed risk metrics feeding the Design Engineer KPIs |
| Risk Control Effectiveness | Measures mitigation effectiveness across all risk types | Validates that risk controls in System DFMEA are achieving residual AP reduction |
| System Structure Navigator | Visual system element hierarchy explorer | Provides complementary navigation to the hierarchical DFMEA document listing |
Workflow Integration
The System DFMEA Report fits into the automotive design V-model workflow:
Configuration and Customization
The System DFMEA Report is implemented as a wiki page (page.xml) containing embedded Velocity scripts. To customize:
Access Configuration:
- Navigate to Polarion project → Spaces → Documentation
- Select System DFMEA Report page
- Click Edit to view Velocity source
Modify AP Thresholds:
Edit the High/Medium/Low boundary values in the nxAPBuckets macro parameters:
#set($lowThreshold = 0) # Low AP: 0-33%
#set($medThreshold = 50) # Medium AP: 34-66%
#set($highThreshold = 67) # High AP: 67-100%
#if($highAPCount > 0)
⚠️ [Configure threshold: currently > 0]
#elseif($mediumAPCount > 5)
🔶 [Configure threshold: currently > 5]
#end
#set($targetElements = ["ECU Processing Subsystem", "Sensor Housing"])
#foreach($element in $targetElements)
[Add element-filtered section]
#end
| Aspect | Typical Value | Optimization |
|---|
| Page Load Time | 3-5 seconds | Cached Lucene queries; direct report link from Risks space navigation |
| Query Execution | 500-800ms | Indexed by type:failureMode; project ID filtering narrows result set |
| Memory Usage | 10-15 MB | Streaming table rendering; no client-side data aggregation |
| Scalability | Up to 5,000 failure modes | Tested on projects with 260 DFMEA items; recommend pagination >1000 |
For large projects, consider splitting System DFMEA Report by system element (separate pages per subsystem) if single-page rendering exceeds 10 seconds. Alternatively, implement dashboard widget collapsing to defer table expansion until user interaction.
| Component | Version | Notes |
|---|
| Report Template | TestAuto2 v2.4+ | System DFMEA Report introduced in v2.0; enhanced with pre/post-AP tracking in v2.3 |
| AIAG-VDA Reference | 2019 Edition | Updated Action Priority methodology per AIAG-VDA FMEA Handbook 5th Edition |
| Velocity Macro Library | nextedy_solutions.vm 3.2+ | Requires nxAPBuckets macro (available v3.0+) |
| Polarion Compatibility | 22.2+ | Tested on Polarion ALM 22.2, 23.1, 23.2 LTS |
| Nextedy Solutions | Risksheet 4.2+ | Integrates with Risksheet DFMEA document editing |
