Function-based failure propagation method and application to design

When planning a new design, potential failures in the design may force changes to be made. The cost of making such a change to a design increases as time passes; thus to save costs on a design, these potential failures should be found as early as possible. Methods like Fault and Event Tree Analysis look at sequences of failures, but require a mature design to use. Methods such as the Function Failure Design Method or Risk in Early Design are able to locate these failures during the conceptual design phase, requiring only knowledge of the design\u27s function...By applying the concept of common interfaces to a functional model and using a historical knowledge database, it becomes possible to analyze chains of failures during the conceptual state of design --Abstract, page iv