How do you calculate a capital request risk score?

Multiply the three ratings: severity x occurrence x detection. With severity 6, occurrence 4, and detection 3 on the calculator's scale, the resulting risk score is about 4.55 on the normalized output.

What scale should I use for each rating?

Use a consistent scale — commonly 1-10 — across every request you compare. Mixing a 1-5 scale on one request and 1-10 on another makes the scores meaningless.

What is a good or bad capital request score?

There is no universal threshold; the score is relative. Rank all requests, then set an action line — for example, anything in the top quartile gets funded or mitigated regardless of payback.

Why use FMEA logic for capex instead of payback?

Payback rewards cheap, fast-return projects but ignores risk. A safety or obsolescence request may have weak payback yet a severity and occurrence high enough that not funding it is the real exposure.

Why does low detection raise the score?

If a failure mode is hard to catch before it causes damage, you can't act in time, so the risk is higher. A high detection rating means the problem is easy to spot early, which raises the multiplied score and your priority to address it.

Can two requests with the same score have different risk?

Yes. Severity 9 x occurrence 2 x detection 2 equals severity 2 x occurrence 6 x detection 6, but a high-severity event deserves more attention. Always inspect the individual ratings.

Manufacturing Project Portfolio & Capex calculator

Capital Request Score Calculator

The capital request score adapts the FMEA risk priority number to capital planning, turning a fuzzy 'we really need this' into a defensible number that ranks unfunded requests by risk. It multiplies how bad the consequence is if you don't fund the request (severity), how likely that consequence is (occurrence), and how easily you'd catch the problem before it bites (detection). Reliability engineers, EHS managers, and operations leaders use it so a $200k furnace rebuild and a $20k guarding upgrade can be compared on risk rather than on who lobbies hardest. It keeps the capital committee honest by exposing high-risk, under-the-radar requests that a payback number alone would bury.

What this calculator does

Estimate capital request for manufacturing project portfolio and capex using production-ready inputs so teams can rank risks and decide which issue needs containment, controls, or escalation first.
Use it when capital request in manufacturing project portfolio and capex needs a defensible ranking against other manufacturing project portfolio and capex risks for the next review.
It produces a single risk priority score by multiplying the severity, occurrence, and detection ratings of an unfunded capital request.

Formula used

Capital request risk score = capital request severity score × capital request occurrence score × capital request detection score
Use the same scoring scale across comparable capital request risks.

Inputs explained

Severity if the capital need is unmet:
Likelihood the risk occurs:
Detectability before impact:

How to use the result

Use it to triage and rank competing capital requests by risk when budget can't fund everything in the queue.
Multiplicative scores are coarse — very different risk profiles can yield the same number, and a low detection rating can mask a catastrophic severity, so always read the three ratings, not just the product.

Common questions

How do you calculate a capital request risk score? Multiply the three ratings: severity x occurrence x detection. With severity 6, occurrence 4, and detection 3 on the calculator's scale, the resulting risk score is about 4.55 on the normalized output.
What scale should I use for each rating? Use a consistent scale — commonly 1-10 — across every request you compare. Mixing a 1-5 scale on one request and 1-10 on another makes the scores meaningless.
What is a good or bad capital request score? There is no universal threshold; the score is relative. Rank all requests, then set an action line — for example, anything in the top quartile gets funded or mitigated regardless of payback.
Why use FMEA logic for capex instead of payback? Payback rewards cheap, fast-return projects but ignores risk. A safety or obsolescence request may have weak payback yet a severity and occurrence high enough that not funding it is the real exposure.
Why does low detection raise the score? If a failure mode is hard to catch before it causes damage, you can't act in time, so the risk is higher. A high detection rating means the problem is easy to spot early, which raises the multiplied score and your priority to address it.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.