Analyses as Resources

Foreword
Analyses in Xfmea and RCM++ are now reusable object references. More specifically, the following analyses can be cast as objects:


 * FMEAs
 * Risk Discovery

Linked FMEA Illustration
To illustrate the concept/application, consider the two systems, Widget and Fidget, along with their corresponding system hierarchies, as shown below (using metasyntactic variables for names).

Then:
 * The Widget is made up by the Waldo and Foobar subsystems and their associated lower level items as shown.
 * Furthermore, assume that an FMEA analysis was done at the lower level items.
 * The Fidget system is made up of the Garply and Fubar subsystems.
 * Note that in this case both FooBar and Fubar subsystems share a common lower level item, Bar.

Since both, the Widget|Foobar|Bar (oBar)and the Fidget|Fubar|Bar (uBar) are the same item, one could (assuming no other stress/operational/interface/... differences!) use the same FMEA for both.

In this case they can be linked. This is done by linking the additional (linked items) to a source. Linked items are identical and always in sync (i.e. changes made to one are automatically reflected in the other).

Rules & Logic
When linking FMEAs or other analysis items: See also Global/Template Resources
 * 1) A source needs to be defined.
 * 2) In this case if I am linking uBar to the existing oBar, oBar becomes the source and uBar is the link.
 * 3) Changes/Edits can only be made to the source (to streamline workflow and maintain project security levels).
 * 4) Sources can be any analyses in the same project, or any analyses in a Template project.
 * 5) Template level permissions and security applies, and similar rules exist as with any other resource in Synthesis.
 * 6) If user A has edit rights in project P1 but read only rights in Template T1, user A can link to the FMEA in T1 but cannot edit the FMEA, as edits are done at the source (T1) and A does not have edit permissions for T1.

Source Project Properties Overrides Link Project Properties
When using linked Xfmea resources the source project properties are used in the linked project. In other words, if in the previous example the project containing Widget was using a 5 point occurrence scale (for the RPNs) and the project containing Fidget was set up with a 10 point occurrence scale the uBar FMEA would still be done using the 5 point scale of the source project. The rest of the FMEAs in the Fidget would be done using the project scale (10 point).