System and method for problem analysis

• US 20070112746A1
• Filed: 11/14/2005
• Published: 05/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allium US Holding LLC
• Original Assignee: Invention Machine Corporation (S&P Global Inc.)
• Inventors: Todhunter, James
• Granted Patent: US 7,805,455 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9032 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis

Abstract

Problem analysis system, given either half of a cause-effect relationship, automatically formulates a natural language or Boolean query that is automatically submitted via a knowledge search tool to a database of cause-effect relationships, and responses to this query from the database are automatically provided.

Claims

1. A method for problem analysis, the method comprising:

obtaining a representation of an event;

formulating a query, wherein the query is to locate one or more effect elements related to the event when the event representation provides a cause element of a cause-effect relationship or the query is to locate one or more cause elements related to the event when the event representation provides an effect element of a cause-effect relationship;

submitting the query to one or more knowledge bases; and

linking one or more responses to the query to the cause element or the effect element upon which the query is based,

whereby linking the one or more responses provides knowledge applicable to the problem analysis.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the event representation is classified as providing the cause element of the cause-effect relationship or the effect element of the cause-effect relationship prior to formulating the query.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein submitting the query to one or more knowledge bases comprises submitting the query to a knowledge search engine and the query is formatted to be compatible with the knowledge search engine.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the query is formatted as either a natural language query or a key word query.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein knowledge search engine comprises a semantic indexing and search tool and the one or more knowledge bases comprise a semantic analysis knowledge base.

6. The method according to claim 2, wherein the problem analysis comprises a root cause analysis mechanism and the event representation is classified as providing an effect element and the one or more responses comprise one or more cause elements.

7. The method according to claim 2, wherein the problem analysis comprises a failure mode effects analysis mechanism and the event representation is classified as providing a cause element and the one or more responses comprise one or more effect elements.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the knowledge bases comprise one or more knowledge bases selected from a group consisting of:

one or more locally accessible knowledge bases;

one or more knowledge bases containing corporate knowledge; and

one or more publicly accessible knowledge bases.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein a representation of an event is graphically linked to one or more cause elements or to one or more effect elements.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more knowledge bases comprise one or more cause-effect databases.

11. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the method according to claim 1.

12. A system for problem analysis comprising:

an event store comprising models having one or more event statements;

a query formulator providing a query based on either an identified cause element in at least one event statement or an identified effect element in at least one event statement, wherein the query is to locate an effect element of a cause-effect relationship related to the at least one event statement when the query is based on an identified cause element or the query is to locate a cause element of a cause-effect relationship related to the at least one event statement when the query is based on an identified effect element;

a knowledge search engine receiving the query and searching one or more databases to link responses to the query to the cause element or the effect element upon which the query is based to provide knowledge applicable to the problem analysis.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the system further comprises:

an element extractor identifying either the cause element or the effect element in the at least one event statement.

14. The system according to claim 12, wherein query formulator formats the query to be compatible with the knowledge search engine.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the query is formatted as either a natural language query or a key word query.

16. The system according to claim 12, wherein knowledge search engine comprises a semantic indexing and search tool and the one or more databases comprise one or more semantic analysis knowledge base.

17. The system according to claim 13, further comprising one or more problem analysis tools.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the problem analysis comprises root cause analysis and the element extractor identifies an effect element in at least one event statement.

19. The system according to claim 17, wherein the problem analysis comprises failure mode effects analysis and the element extractor identifies a cause element in at least one event statement.

20. The system according to claim 17, wherein a user interacts with the system via a graphical user interface.

21. The system according to claim 12, wherein the one or more databases comprise one or more databases selected from a group consisting of:

one or more locally accessible databases;

one or more databases containing corporate knowledge; and

one or more publicly accessible databases.

22. The system according to claim 12, wherein the one or more databases comprise one or more cause-effect databases.

23. The system according to claim 12, wherein the system comprises a computer program stored within a computer-readable storage medium for execution on a computer system, the computer system comprising:

one or more computer processing elements;

one or more display devices;

one or more user input devices; and

communication elements for communicating with the one or more databases.