Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Function-Based Failure Propagation For Conceptual Design, Daniel A. Krus, Katie Grantham

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

When designing a product, the earlier the potential risks can be identified, the more costs can be saved, as it is easier to modify a design in its early stages. Several methods exist to analyze the risk in a system, but all require a mature design. However, by applying the concept of “common interfaces” to a functional model and utilizing a historical knowledge base, it is possible to analyze chains of failures during the conceptual phase of product design. This paper presents a method based on these common interfaces to be used in conjunction with other methods such as risk …