FMEA-FTA Common Data Model for Consistent Risk Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current risk analysis methods, such as FMEA and FTA, are not seamlessly integrated, leading to inefficiencies and inconsistencies, particularly in safety-critical applications like healthcare systems, as they are typically performed separately and require different tools, lacking compatibility and coherence.
Innovation Solution
A computer-based method that enables seamless conversion between FMEA and FTA representations using a common data set, allowing for synchronized risk analysis by defining failure modes, causes, effects, and mitigation measures, and calculating risk metrics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If FMEA and FTA are performed separately using different tools and methods, then each method can be applied with its own advantages, but this leads to time consumption, inefficiency, and inconsistencies in risk analysis
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges FMEA and FTA into a unified risk analysis system where both methods share a common data model and can be performed within the same software environment. The system allows users to switch between FMEA and FTA representations of the same technical system without requiring separate tools or data entry, thereby eliminating time consumption and ensuring consistency across both methods.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal risk analysis platform that can perform both FMEA and FTA functions. The system uses a common data structure that supports both methodologies, allowing the same tool to serve multiple purposes - conducting failure mode analysis, fault tree analysis, and seamlessly transitioning between them without requiring specialized software for each method.
2Adaptability or versatility
If FMEA and FTA are built and maintained separately during different development phases, then each method can be optimized for its specific purpose, but this creates errors and inconsistencies between the two analyses
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines FMEA and FTA into a single integrated system where both methods draw from and contribute to the same data model. This merging ensures that data coherence is maintained automatically, as changes in one method are reflected in the other through the shared data structure, eliminating errors that arise from separate maintenance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where the system automatically updates and synchronizes data between FMEA and FTA representations. When data is modified in one method, the system provides feedback to ensure consistency in the other method, maintaining data coherence throughout the development process.
3Ease of operation
If FMEA is used because it is intuitive and easy to implement, then accessibility is improved, but it becomes time-consuming and inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the intuitive FMEA interface serve dual purposes by enabling it to perform both FMEA and FTA functions. Users can access the easy-to-use FMEA interface while simultaneously performing fault tree analysis with the same tool, thereby maintaining ease of operation while improving productivity through method consolidation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges FTA capabilities into the FMEA interface, allowing users to perform both types of analysis within the same intuitive environment. This combination eliminates the need to switch between different tools or learn separate methodologies, thereby improving analysis efficiency without sacrificing ease of operation.
4Reliability
If FTA is used because it can represent logical connections between causes and effects, then analytical capability is improved, but it becomes neither intuitive nor simple to carry out
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables the FTA functionality to serve multiple roles - it not only performs traditional fault tree analysis with logical connections but also integrates with FMEA processes. Users can leverage the logical analysis capability of FTA while accessing it through a unified interface that reduces complexity and improves intuitiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer that mediates between the complex logical structures of FTA and the user interface. This intermediary simplifies the representation of logical connections, making FTA more intuitive and easier to carry out while preserving its analytical capability for representing cause-effect relationships.
5Reliability
If FTA is used then logical representation is improved, but specialized software tools are required which are not always suited to specific industries or technical systems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal platform that combines FTA's logical representation capabilities with industry-specific adaptability. The system can represent logical connections between causes and effects while being customizable for different industries and technical systems, thereby achieving both analytical rigor and broad applicability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent allows the risk analysis system to have local quality by enabling industry-specific configurations and customizations within the unified FMEA-FTA framework. Different industries can tailor the logical connection representations and data structures to their specific needs while maintaining the core analytical capabilities of FTA.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-based method for generating one or more FTA fault trees from an FMEA table of a technical system or vice versa. The method includes defining a common data set for both the FMEA table and the one or more FTA fault tree(s) of the technical system, obtaining data of the common data set for the technical system, selecting a representation of the technical system as a FMEA table or as one or more FTA fault tree(s), and using the data of the common data for generating and displaying on a graphical user interface the FMEA table of the technical system or one or more FTA fault tree(s) of the technical system, depending on the selected representation.