A failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) is a procedure in product development, systems engineering and operations management for analysis of potential failure modes within a system for classification by the severity and likelihood of the failures. A successful FMEA activity helps a team to identify potential failure modes based on past experience with similar products or processes, enabling the team to design those failures out of the system with the minimum of effort and resource expenditure, thereby reducing development time and costs. Because it forces a review of functions and functional requirements, it also serves as a form of design review. It is widely used in manufacturing industries in various phases of the product life cycle and is now increasingly finding use in the service industry. Failure modes are any errors or defects in a process, design, or item, especially those that affect the intended function of the product and or process, and can be potential or actual. Effects analysis refers to studying the consequences of those failures.