AN EXPERT ADVISOR FOR FMEA GENERATION

FAILURE MODE EFFECTS ANALYSIS (FMEA) IS USED EXTENSIVELY THROUGHOUT NASA AND THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE TO PROMOTE RELIABLE DESIGN AND TO EVALUATE RISK. WHILE FMEA IS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL, IT IS CURRENTLY PERFORMED EITHER BY HAND OR WITH SOFTWARE THAT ONLY SUPPORTS FORMATTING AND CRITICALITY PROPAGATION. THIS DOCUMENT PRESENTS A PLAN TO INVESTIGATE AN EXPERT SYSTEMS ADVISOR FOR FMEA GENERATION. THE ADVISOR WILL AID THE FMEA DEVELOPER BY SUPPLYING DOMAIN-SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE GAINED DIRECTLY FROM DESIGN EXPERTS AND BY ANALOGY WITH THE FMEAS OF PREVIOUS SIMILAR DESIGNS. WE BELIEVE THAT THE ADVISOR WILL CONTRIBUTE GREATLY TO THE FMEA'S ACCURACY AND COMPLETENESS. IN ADDITION, FASTER FMEA GENERATION WILL ENCOURAGE THE USE OF FMEA EARLY IN THE DESIGN CYCLE. MORE ACCURATE FMEA WILL LEAD TO MORE RELIABLE DESIGNS FOR SYSTEMSPROCURED BY NASA, INCLUDING COMPONENTS OF THE SPACE STATION. THE FEASIBILITY OF THE APPROACH WILL BE DEMONSTRATED BY EVALUATING A PROTOTYPE AGAINST THREE SMALL BUT REALISTIC DESIGN EXAMPLES. THE EXAMPLES WILL TEST THE REPRESENTATION AND REASONING MECHANISMS OF THE PROTOTYPE. THE DOCUMENT ALSO OUTLINES A LONG-RANGE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY (PHASE II AND BEYOND) COVERING CONVENTIONAL TOOLS FOR FMEA GENERATION, INTEGRATION OF FMEA WITH OTHER AUTOMATED DESIGN TOOLS, CRITICALITY ANALYSIS OF REDUNDANT SYSTEMS, AND AUTOMATIC DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS FROM FMEA STUDIES.