ASSISTING FAILURE MODE AND EFFECTS ANALYSIS OF A SYSTEM COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF COMPONENTS

• US 20100262867A1
• Filed: 11/26/2008
• Published: 10/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BAE Systems Plc
• Original Assignee: BAE Systems Plc
• Inventors: Bell, John Brian, Bovey, Richard Lee
• Granted Patent: US 8,347,146 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/40
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0278 Qualitative, e.g. if-then rules; Fuzzy logic; Lookup tables; Symptomatic search; FMEA
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis

Abstract

A method of assisting failure mode and effects analysis of a system having a plurality of components includes obtaining data associated with a component, or a group of components, of the system. The component or the group is associated with component type data or group type data, respectively, that includes data relating to at least one failure feature common to all components or groups, respectively, of that type. The component/group data and the component/group type data can then be stored and/or transferred for use in a failure mode and effects analysis of the system.

Claims

1. A method of assisting failure mode and effects analysis of a system comprising a plurality of components, the method including:

obtaining data associated with a component, or a group of components, of a system;

associating the component or the group with component type data or group type data, respectively, that includes data relating to at least one failure feature common to all components or groups, respectively, of that type, and

storing and/or transferring the component/group data and the component/group type data for use in a failure mode and effects analysis of the system.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining data associated with a component of a system includes analysing a model of the system to determine if the component is already associated with a said component type data, and if the component is not already associated with a said component type data then component type data for the component is created and associated with the component.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the step of analysing the model includes detecting a shape of a graphical representation of the component in the model, and determining a master or template upon which the shape is based to determine the component type data to be associated with the component.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the failure feature data is selected from a set:

type/name/mode of the failure;

effect(s) of the failure on the system and/or other components;

symptom(s) of the failure;

a value representing a probability of the failure symptom(s) leading to the failure occurring;

a prior probability of the failure occurring;

a conditional probability of a symptom given one (and only one) said failure;

a probability of a symptom given absence of any modelled failure.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the component/group type data is stored independently of the component/group data.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the component/group type data includes, or is associated with, data relating to failure features of that specific component/group, such as data describing effect(s) of the failure of the component/group on other components and/or other groups and/or the system.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein each said component in the model is assigned a unique identifier and each said component type is assigned a unique identifier and the step of storing and/or transferring the component and component type data includes storing/transferring the component data with a reference between the unique identifier of the component and the unique identifier of the component type associated with the component.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein a graphical part of the model of the system is created using Microsoft Visio™

and the step of detecting a shape representing a said component is implemented by an add-on configured to detect an “

add shape”

event in Visio™

.

11. A method according to claim 3, wherein the failure feature data is selected from a set:

type/name/mode of the failure;

effect(s) of the failure on the system and/or other components;

symptom(s) of the failure;

a value representing a probability of the failure symptom(s) leading to the failure occurring;

a prior probability of the failure occurring;

a conditional probability of a symptom given one (and only one) said failure;

a probability of a symptom given absence of any modelled failure.

12. A method according to claim 3, wherein the component/group type data is stored independently of the component/group data.

13. A method according to claim 11, wherein the component/group type data is stored independently of the component/group data.

14. A method according to claim 3, wherein the component/group type data includes, or is associated with, data relating to failure features of that specific component/group, such as data describing effect(s) of the failure of the component/group on other components and/or other groups and/or the system.

15. A method according to claim 13, wherein the component/group type data includes, or is associated with, data relating to failure features of that specific component/group, such as data describing effect(s) of the failure of the component/group on other components and/or other groups and/or the system.

16. A method according to claim 3, wherein each said component in the model is assigned a unique identifier and each said component type is assigned a unique identifier and the step of storing and/or transferring the component and component type data includes storing/transferring the component data with a reference between the unique identifier of the component and the unique identifier of the component type associated with the component.

17. A method according to claim 15, wherein each said component in the model is assigned a unique identifier and each said component type is assigned a unique identifier and the step of storing and/or transferring the component and component type data includes storing/transferring the component data with a reference between the unique identifier of the component and the unique identifier of the component type associated with the component.

18. A method according to claim 3, wherein a graphical part of the model of the system is created using Microsoft Visio™

and the step of detecting a shape representing a said component is implemented by an add-on configured to detect an “

add shape”

event in Visio™

.

19. A method according to claim 17, wherein a graphical part of the model of the system is created using Microsoft Visio™

and the step of detecting a shape representing a said component is implemented by an add-on configured to detect an “

add shape”

event in Visio™

.

9. A computer program product comprising computer readable medium, having thereon computer program code means, when the program code is loaded, to make the computer execute a method of assisting failure mode and effects analysis of a system comprising a plurality of components, the method including:

obtaining data associated with a component, or a group of components, of a system;

associating the component or the group with component type data or group type data, respectively, that includes data relating to at least one failure feature common to all components or groups, respectively, of that type, and

storing and/or transferring the component/group data and the component/group type data for use in a failure mode and effects analysis of the system.

10. Apparatus adapted to assist failure mode and effects analysis of a system comprising a plurality of components, the apparatus including:

a device adapted to obtain data associated with a component of a system;

a device adapted to associate the component with component type data that includes data relating to at least one failure feature common to all components of that component type, and

a device for storing and/or transferring the component and component type data for use in a failure mode and effects analysis of the system.