faalvormen

Faalvormen is a Dutch term used in reliability engineering and quality management to describe the different ways a system, component, or process can fail. In English, the closest equivalent is failure modes. Faalvormen are used to categorize failure events to support risk assessment, root-cause analysis and the design of mitigations. By classifying what can go wrong, teams can evaluate potential effects, likelihood, and detectability, and thereby prioritize preventive actions.

Typical faalvormen include design faults, manufacturing defects, assembly errors, wear and tear, material fatigue, environmental stress, software faults, human error, maintenance neglect, and external causes such as supply chain disruptions. In practice, faalvormen are identified and analyzed in methods like Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) or root-cause analysis. The resulting action plans aim to eliminate or reduce the most serious failure types, or to detect them earlier through controls and maintenance.

Limitations include that a single incident may involve multiple faalvormen or latent system flaws. Classification can be influenced by the scope of the analysis, data quality, and organizational boundaries. Nevertheless, understanding faalvormen helps organizations design more reliable products and processes by targeting the most impactful failure types.