A complete FMEA template needs 12 columns: from Function and Failure Mode through Severity, Occurrence, Detection, RPN, and post-action revised scores. Below you’ll find free downloads (Excel, Word, PDF), the blank template you can copy directly into Excel or Google Sheets, a guide to what each column means, one failure mode filled in from start to finish, and a step-by-step setup guide.
Download the FMEA template
Free FMEA worksheet with all 12 columns plus revised-score tracking. The Excel version has the RPN formula (S×O×D) pre-filled, 1–10 score validation, and red/amber/green risk formatting. No signup, no email, direct download.
FMEA Template — Excel
Editable .xlsx with auto-calculating RPN, 1–10 dropdowns, and color-coded risk levels. Works in Excel, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice.
FMEA Template — PDF
Printable A4 worksheet for workshops and design reviews. Fill by hand, then transfer the scores into the spreadsheet.
FMEA Template — Word
Editable .docx (landscape) for Microsoft Word or Google Docs — best when the FMEA is part of a longer quality report.
FMEA Calculator — Online
Enter failure modes and scores; RPN calculates automatically with color-coded risk levels. No spreadsheet setup.
Choose Your Format
Online FMEA Calculator
Enter your failure modes and scores — RPN calculates automatically with color-coded risk levels (green / amber / red). No spreadsheet setup required.
Open FMEA Calculator →No signup · Works on mobile · PDF export
Excel / Google Sheets
Copy the blank template below into a spreadsheet. Add the RPN formula and conditional formatting to highlight high-risk items automatically.
Step-by-step setup guide below ↓
FMEA template, worksheet, form — the same document?
Search for any of the three and you land on the same twelve columns. They are three states of one document, and the difference decides what you hand to whom.
- Template — the blank file with the columns, the RPN formula and the score validation. That is what this page hands you.
- Worksheet — the template once a team has filled it in for one product or process: one row per failure mode, scored, with actions. This is the controlled record. It carries a revision number, and it is what an IATF 16949 or ISO 13485 auditor asks to see.
- Form — a layout someone else prescribes: the AIAG form, the AIAG-VDA form sheet, or a customer’s own supplier FMEA form. If a customer specifies a form, use theirs. Your scores and actions carry over; the column order and the risk rule may not (see RPN or Action Priority).
The fourth word people use is FMEA report, and it is the one most often got wrong. A 300-row worksheet is not a report. Whoever has to act on it — a plant manager, a program review, a customer — needs the rows that drive action: every severity 9–10 item, the highest-RPN rows, the actions that are open or overdue, and how far the revised scores have come down. Keep the worksheet as the record and write the summary on one page.
The Blank FMEA Template
Copy this structure into Excel or Google Sheets. The grey italic cells show what type of content goes in each column — replace them with your own data.
FMEA Worksheet — Blank Template
Header row: add Product/Process Name, FMEA Type (DFMEA / PFMEA), Revision, Date, Team Members.
| Item / Function | Potential Failure Mode | Potential Effect(s) | S | Potential Cause(s) | O | Current Controls | D | RPN | Recommended Action | Owner | Target Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enter function or process step | How could this fail? | What happens to the customer? | — | Why does the failure occur? | — | What controls exist today? | — | — | What action will reduce risk? | Name | MM/DD/YY |
| — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| — | — | — | — |
After completing actions, add four more columns: Revised S · Revised O · Revised D · New RPN — to document that risk has been reduced.
What Each Column Means
| Column | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Item / Function DFMEA: component or subsystem. PFMEA: process step. |
The function being analyzed, stated as a verb + noun: “Seal fluid pressure”, “Fill mold cavity”, “Authenticate user”. |
| Potential Failure Mode How the function fails to perform. |
The specific way the function could fail: “Leak at joint”, “Short shot”, “Session not invalidated on logout”. One row per failure mode. |
| Potential Effect(s) What the customer or downstream process experiences. |
Describe the worst reasonable consequence: “Reduced braking force”, “Defective part — scrap”, “Patient harm”. |
| Severity (S) Rate 1–10. 9–10 = safety or regulatory impact. |
Rate the severity of the effect on the customer. Rate the effect as if the failure actually occurred — not the probability. S never changes unless the design changes. |
| Potential Cause(s) Root cause or failure mechanism. |
The specific, correctable root cause: “Insufficient clamp pressure”, “No idempotency key on retry”. Avoid vague causes like “human error”. |
| Occurrence (O) Rate 1–10. Use historical data when available. |
Likelihood that the cause leads to the failure mode. Use failure rate data, warranty history, or process capability (Cpk) where possible. |
| Current Controls Prevention AND detection controls both go here. |
List everything that currently exists to prevent the cause or detect the failure: inspections, tests, poka-yoke, SPC, design reviews. Separate prevention from detection controls if your format allows. |
| Detection (D) Rate 1–10. Lower = better. 1 = almost certain to catch. |
Likelihood that current controls will detect the failure or cause before it reaches the customer. D = 1 means a poka-yoke or 100% automated check. D = 10 means no detection control. |
| RPN = S × O × D. Range 1–1,000. |
Calculated automatically: RPN = S × O × D. Sort descending to find the highest-risk items. Also review any row with S ≥ 9 regardless of RPN. |
| Recommended Action Specific corrective action — not “improve controls”. |
Be specific: “Add in-cavity pressure sensor with alarm at < 800 bar”, not “monitor injection pressure more carefully”. The action should reduce S, O, or D. |
| Owner + Target Date | Name one person responsible. Set a specific date. Without these, FMEA actions rarely get implemented. |
Filling in the template: one failure mode, start to finish
The columns are easier to judge when you can see them answered. The row below is an illustration written for this page — not a customer case — for one step on an assembly line, filled in the order the columns ask for. For complete worksheets from six industries, see FMEA examples.
| Column | Filled in |
|---|---|
| Item / Function | Torque the four M8 bolts that fix the seat-belt anchor bracket to the frame to 25 Nm |
| Potential Failure Mode | Bolt under-torqued, below 22 Nm |
| Potential Effect | The bracket can work loose in service; in a crash the anchor may not hold the occupant |
| Severity (S) | 10 — a safety effect without warning. Severity is rated on the effect, not on how likely it is. |
| Potential Cause | The nutrunner drifts out of calibration between weekly checks |
| Occurrence (O) | 2 — calibration records show two drifts in 18 months |
| Current Controls | Weekly torque audit on five parts; the operator paint-marks each bolt |
| Detection (D) | 6 — the paint mark shows a bolt was run down, not to what torque, and the audit can find a drift a week late |
| RPN | 120 (10 × 2 × 6) — amber in the Excel file |
| Recommended Action | Replace the nutrunner with a transducer tool that verifies every bolt and blocks the next cycle below 22 Nm |
| Owner + Target Date | Process engineering, 15 November |
| Revised S / O / D → New RPN | 10 / 2 / 2 → 40. Severity stays at 10: only a design change lowers it. The action improved detection. |
Why the template makes you do a second pass
Further down the same worksheet sits a cosmetic failure: the part label goes on skewed, and a customer may reject the lot at incoming inspection. Scored honestly, it lands on the same number.
| Failure mode | S | O | D | RPN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seat-belt bracket bolt under-torqued | 10 | 2 | 6 | 120 |
| Part label skewed by more than 5° | 4 | 6 | 5 | 120 |
Sorted by RPN, the two rows tie. A team working down the list will often fix the label first — it is cheaper, and it shows up in the reject data every week. That is why the template asks for a second pass that filters severity 9–10 regardless of RPN, and why the AIAG-VDA handbook replaced the RPN threshold with Action Priority, which weighs severity before occurrence and detection. RPN ranks rows inside one worksheet; it does not tell you that a seat belt and a label are the same risk.
How to Set Up the FMEA Template in Excel
- Create the header block. In rows 1–4, add: Product/Process Name, FMEA Type (DFMEA or PFMEA), Revision number, Date prepared, and Team members. This becomes the document header for printing and version control.
- Add the column headers in row 5. The 12 columns in order: Item/Function — Failure Mode — Effect — S — Cause — O — Controls — D — RPN — Recommended Action — Owner — Target Date. Bold the header row and freeze it (View → Freeze Top Row).
- Set column widths. Item/Function: 160px. Failure Mode, Effect, Cause, Controls, Action: 180px each. S, O, D, RPN: 50px each. Owner: 100px. Target Date: 90px. Freeze column A so the function stays visible when scrolling right.
- Add the RPN formula. If S is in column D, O in column F, D in column H, enter in column I (row 6):
=D6*F6*H6. Drag down for all rows. Format column I as a number with no decimal places. - Add conditional formatting to RPN. Select the RPN column → Conditional Formatting → New Rule. Add three rules: RPN ≥ 200 = red fill; RPN 100–199 = amber fill; RPN < 100 = green fill. This gives instant visual risk triage.
- Add a data validation dropdown for S, O, D columns. Select the S column cells → Data → Data Validation → List → enter
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Repeat for O and D. This prevents typos and speeds up scoring. - Sort and filter. Add AutoFilter to row 5 (Data → Filter). After filling in all rows, sort by column I (RPN) descending to instantly see your top priorities. Use the filter to view only high-severity or high-RPN items.
DFMEA Template vs PFMEA Template
The column structure is identical. What changes is who fills it in, and what they enter in the first two columns:
| DFMEA | PFMEA | |
|---|---|---|
| Filled in by | Design / engineering team | Manufacturing / process engineering |
| “Item / Function” column | Product component or subsystem and its design function | Manufacturing process step and its intended output |
| “Failure Mode” column | Design weakness: wrong material, insufficient clearance, missing feature | Process deviation: under-torque, wrong dimension, contamination |
| “Controls” column | Design reviews, FEA, prototype tests, design standards | SPC, go/no-go gauges, poka-yoke, operator instructions |
| Typical actions | Design change, tolerance revision, material upgrade | Process parameter change, new inspection step, mistake-proofing device |
| When to run | During concept and detail design phases | Before process validation and production launch |
RPN template or AIAG-VDA Action Priority?
This template scores risk with RPN (S × O × D), the layout of the AIAG FMEA reference manual, 4th edition. It is still widely used outside automotive — in medical devices, food safety, software and in-house FMEAs. In 2019 the automotive industry’s joint AIAG-VDA FMEA Handbook changed three things. If your customer works to it, adapt the file before the first session:
- Controls split in two. “Current Controls” becomes Prevention Controls, which set the Occurrence score, and Detection Controls, which set the Detection score. Insert a column before O and rename the existing one.
- RPN gives way to Action Priority. Each row gets High, Medium or Low from a table in the handbook that weighs Severity first, then Occurrence, then Detection. Replace the RPN formula column with an AP column filled from that table. We don’t reproduce the table here; it is part of the published handbook.
- Two analysis steps come before failure analysis. The handbook’s seven steps put structure analysis and function analysis ahead of failure modes, so the worksheet gains columns for the next higher level, the focus element and the next lower level.
Pick one rule before scoring starts and keep it for the whole worksheet. A team that triggers actions on RPN for some rows and on Action Priority for others has no rule at all. For running the scoring session itself, see how to facilitate an FMEA.
5 Tips for a More Useful FMEA Template
- One failure mode per row. Never combine two failure modes in a single row. If a function has three possible failure modes, it gets three rows — each with its own S, O, D, and RPN.
- Be specific in the Cause column. “Operator error” is not a useful cause — it tells you nothing to fix. “Torque wrench not calibrated — reads 10% low” is actionable.
- Rate S, O, D independently. Teams often anchor on RPN and then work backwards to justify it. Rate each dimension independently before calculating RPN.
- Review S ≥ 9 items in a separate pass. After sorting by RPN, do a second pass that filters for S ≥ 9 regardless of RPN. These are your safety and compliance items — they require action even if O and D scores keep the RPN low.
- Set a document revision schedule. Add a “Next review date” cell to your header block. FMEA is a living document — it should be reviewed whenever the design or process changes, and at minimum annually.
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Frequently asked questions
What columns does an FMEA template need?
A standard FMEA template needs: Item/Function, Potential Failure Mode, Potential Effect(s), Severity (S, 1–10), Potential Cause(s), Occurrence (O, 1–10), Current Controls, Detection (D, 1–10), RPN (S×O×D), Recommended Action, Owner, and Target Date. A complete template also includes post-action revised S, O, D, and New RPN columns to track risk reduction after corrective actions are implemented.
What is the difference between a DFMEA and PFMEA template?
Both use the same column structure. The difference is who fills it in and what goes in the first two columns. A DFMEA template is filled in by the design engineering team and lists product components and design functions. A PFMEA template is filled in by the manufacturing/process engineering team and lists process steps and their intended outputs. The RPN scoring methodology is identical for both.
How do I calculate RPN in Excel?
Place your Severity score in one column (e.g., D), Occurrence in the next (F), and Detection after that (H). In the RPN column (I), enter the formula =D6*F6*H6 and drag it down. Then apply conditional formatting: red for RPN ≥ 200, amber for 100–199, green for < 100. Sort column I descending to see highest-risk items first. Add a data validation dropdown (1–10) on the S, O, and D columns to prevent scoring errors.
Is there a free FMEA template I can use right now?
Yes — copy the blank template on this page directly into Excel or Google Sheets, or download the Excel, Word or PDF version. The columns follow the classic AIAG layout with RPN, still the most widely used format outside automotive; if your customer requires AIAG-VDA Action Priority, the three changes are above. Or use our free online FMEA Calculator, which fills in the worksheet and calculates RPN automatically with color-coded risk levels, no spreadsheet setup required. CSV download and PNG export included.
Has Action Priority replaced RPN?
In automotive, largely yes: the AIAG-VDA FMEA Handbook (2019) replaced the RPN threshold with Action Priority (High, Medium, Low), and many automotive customers now expect it. Outside automotive, RPN is still widely used — in medical devices, food safety, software and in-house FMEAs. Use whichever your customer or quality system requires, and do not mix the two within one worksheet.
What is the difference between an FMEA worksheet and an FMEA form?
The worksheet is the filled-in FMEA for one product or process — the controlled, revision-numbered record an auditor reviews. A form is a prescribed layout: the AIAG form, the AIAG-VDA form sheet, or a customer’s own supplier FMEA form. The template is the blank starting point for either. If a customer specifies a form, use theirs; your scores and actions carry over.
What RPN is considered high?
There is no universal cutoff. RPN ranks failure modes within one worksheet; it is not comparable across projects. Our Excel file colours 200 and above red and 100–199 amber as a triage aid, not a rule. Any row with severity 9 or 10 needs action whatever its RPN — two rows with the same RPN can carry very different risk, as the worked example above shows.
From FMEA to the shop floor
The analysis only changes anything once the controls it promises appear in a document somebody executes every shift. That document is the control plan — free template, eleven columns explained, including the reaction plan that decides whether it works.
Related resources
- FMEA: The Complete Guide — RPN formula, rating scales, 7-step process, DFMEA vs PFMEA
- PPAP checklist — where the DFMEA and PFMEA go when a customer asks for approval
- FMEA Examples: 6 Real-World Cases Across Industries — full worksheets from manufacturing, healthcare, software, and aerospace
- RCA Tools Compared: 5 Whys, Fishbone, FTA, FMEA & Pareto
- Free 5 Whys Tool — investigate failures that your FMEA did not prevent